Jerry Seinfeld says ‘movie business is over’ and has been ‘replaced’

Jerry Seinfeld has said the movie business is over, suggesting films do not occupy the same social and cultural significance they once did.

The 69-year-old American actor, who achieved record-breaking success with his eponymous sitcom Seinfield, suggested that “depression”, “malaise”, “confusion” and “disorientation” had replaced the movies.

Speaking about his experience making Unfrosted, a comedy about a competition between two rival breakfast companies, he told GQ that the film’s makers appeared to have “no idea” that the industry was dead.

“They’re so dead serious! They don’t have any idea that the movie business is over. They have no idea,” he said.

“But film doesn’t occupy the pinnacle in the social, cultural hierarchy that it did for most of our lives.”

The New Yorker went on to share his experience of the industry at its peak. “When a movie came out, if it was good, we all went to see it. We all discussed it,” he continued.

“We quoted lines and scenes we liked. Now we’re walking through a fire hose of water, just trying to see.”

When asked what he thought had replaced films, Seinfeld went on to describe a series of dissatisfied and distracted emotions.

“Depression? Malaise? I would say confusion. Disorientation replaced the movie business. Everyone I know in show business, every day, is going, ‘What’s going on? How do you do this? What are we supposed to do now?’”

Later in the interview, the actor went on to reveal his favourite TV show ending, after the final episode of the stand-up comedian’s sitcom Seinfeld received mixed reviews when it concluded with the show’s main characters sitting in a prison cell together.

The episode aired on 14 May 1998 and drew a record television audience estimated at around 73 million viewers.

However, Seinfeld went on to reveal that his favourite ever ending to a television show was the concluding episode of Mad Men, which aired on 17 May 2015.

“I feel Mad Men was the greatest,” said Seinfeld. “A lot of people like the Bob Newhart one. Mary Tyler Moore was okay. I think Mad Men was the greatest final moment of a series I’ve ever seen. So satisfying. So funny.”