"As with most great detective movies, there doesn’t seem to be a happy ending in store for the future of this genre. Both Strick and Franklin point to pitch meetings and other acid-tests as an indication that the detective, alive and well on television, may be doomed at the cinema. 'When I got out to Hollywood, in the mid '80s,' says Strick, 'I kept referencing Chinatown, for a film I’d like to get made. … After a while, a smart, pleasant female exec suggested I not mention that movie again when I went to pitch. People still consider Chinatown to be nothing more than a succès d'estime. Translation: flop. … If a Chinatown can’t make big grosses, what chance does a similar movie have?' Franklin concurs: 'Look at L.A. Confidential,' he says, of the brilliant 1997 detective flick directed by Curtis Hanson. 'It got amazing reviews and won two Oscars. But it was only after the Academy Awards and the re-release of the movie, did it make a small profit.'"
Peter Gerstenzang in The New Republic asks the question.
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