It seemed unlikely that a filmmaker as daring as David Lynch would ever find himself at the center of popular culture, but there he was. Not so today. Movies now are tiny or tentpole, and that sweet spot in the middle that gave us Blue Velvet is all but gone. An exchange about the new math from Marlow Stern’s Daily Beast interview with the director:

“Question:

Speaking of the ‘tough sell’ aspect, what’s your take on the state of Hollywood? The sweet spot for independent films, the $4 million to $20 million area where most of your films lie, seems to be disappearing, and now there are just microbudgeted flicks and tentpoles.

David Lynch:

Exactly. And it’s harder to get the big screens. It’s a strange time. There’s not a whole lot that any of us can do about it. You’ve seen waves of things go up and down, but maybe the arthouse will be back in vogue, and they’ll reappear all over the place again. I don’t know. It would be beautiful. Cable television is the new arthouse, so it’s there, but it’s not the big screen. If people have a big screen at home, great sound, and they turn the lights down and turn their phones off, they can get into the world and have an experience. But most people don’t watch films that way anymore.”