Onward to 2025 – FirstShowing Remains a Fully Independent Film Site
by Alex Billington
January 3, 2025
“No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.” Heading into the year 2025, this marks the 19th year of FirstShowing.net – we originally launched this website way back in 2006. It’s a miracle that it’s still running all these years later – almost two decades. There’ve been so many times when I’ve wanted to throw in the towel, shut things down, and move on. But I still love movies. I still love cinema. I’m still happy (for the most part) being able to participate in this world and stay excited about watching new movies (and old movies) and talk about movies and keep everyone informed & updated about movies. It’s harder than ever to remain an independent website in this day-and-age. So many other movie sites have shut down or been sold off recently. It’s too hard and too costly, there’s too many risks, and the internet has changed in so many bad ways (see: enshittification). I want to continue to keep “Hollywood connected with its audience” and will do my best to keep FS running for as long as I can. Even if I don’t make much money.
It was my original intent to write a sort of state-of-the-industry editorial about where things are with movie websites right now. But that felt a bit too depressing. Instead I want to set the record straight and reiterate a few of our important policies and core tenants. FirstShowing is an entirely independent movie blog owned & operated by me (Alex). We will never hide the website behind a paywall or login, we make all of our money entirely from advertising & affiliate links & memberships, we still believe in an internet where websites are free & open & accessible to everyone. Yes the site design is old school and not fully modernized, but at least it’s functional and not too annoying (hopefully). Always want to improve but only if it won’t end up looking worse. I am an anti-AI and reject implementing any Artificial Intelligence on the website – whether that be artwork, advertising, or anything else (most of it sucks anyway). The goal with FirstShowing has been and will continue to be to keep movie lovers of all ages excited & informed about upcoming releases. While I do post trailers for TV series nowadays, our primary focus is still film and the big screen theatrical experience.
I was quite shocked by the recent news that my friend’s website Film School Rejects has stopped running. Apparently FSR has run into financial troubles, too, and has ceased publishing. When I first started FS back in 2006, I quickly became good friends with three other webmasters: Peter who created SlashFilm (which he sold a few years ago), Steve who created Collider (which he still runs), and Neil who created Film School Rejects. We spent years working together side-by-side, crashing events & festivals & screenings together – we were confidants and creators, with mutual respect for each other’s sites while trying to grow each site in our own ways. One aspect that I’ve always admired about FSR is the way Neil brought in and nurtured some of the most talented writers, helping them publish so many amazing articles about cinema while also honing their writing skills. Many of his writers have gone on to have illustrious careers in the movie world at other sites or elsewhere in the industry. The photo below is of a group of us just after dinner at Sundance 2009 – featuring (from L): Peter, me, Marcy, Neil, Marco Cerritos, and Erik Davis (who works for Fandango now).
Back in this early era of movie blogs, we were driven by pure passion above all. We didn’t really care about making sure the website was perfectly crafted with extensive SEO or whatever, we just went out and wrote endlessly about our experiences in the world of cinema. We tried to be honest and enthusiastic, representing a more authentic and wholesome ideology by trying not to be like the stuffy “trades” that rule the industry – we’re just a bunch of geeks doing things our way, expressing our geeky movie thoughts. Now that many of these distinct sites have shut down, the few that remain are either run by corporations churning out SEO-driven articles robotically, or indies struggling to stay afloat & pay writers. This is happening due to massive changes in how the web works – mainly related to Google and how their search results work. My colleague Josh Tyler (who created Cinema Blend) has been covering this extensively on his current blog Giant Freakin Robot. There’s also a very good article about how Google is killing off independent movie websites on the site filmstories.co.uk. Nonetheless, we must carry on and do the best we can to survive. This is why it really does matter when we say every click counts – clicking on the site and on any post is integral to our success.
In all honesty, I couldn’t have predicted that FirstShowing would last 19 years (so far). I am certainly glad it has and I am proud it keeps running as a useful site. I am happy that I remain enthusiastic and passionate about cinema – even though it’s pretty clear my tastes have changed across these last two decades. But that’s normal, this is what watching films all the time does to you, it offers a chance to explore an incredible realm of art with so much empathy and understanding and visions and experiences to engage with. What really hits me hard with losing sites like FSR is it means we also lose the cultivation and growth that a site like that provided – encouraging more & more film writers, and many cinema geeks in general, to grow and flourish. It’s not just a tough loss for the movie site world, it’s a loss for cinema in general. Another vital site called Cinephilia & Beyond is also struggling & still trying to drum up more financial support at the start of this year. Maybe it’s stubborn to believe that a website can keep running indefinitely, to keep that server going even if fewer & fewer people are clicking on it. But maybe it isn’t about the clicks, really. It’s still all about film and celebrating the glory of cinema. There’s always more to fall in love with every year. Keep watching.
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