Jerry Seinfeld Says 'Movie Business Is Over' and Has Been Replaced by 'Disorientation'

Jerry Seinfeld, whose feature directorial debut Unfrosted arrives next month, says the movie business has been replaced by constant "disorientation."

Indeed, in a recent interview with Brett Martin for GQ, the decades-strong comedian reflected on the experience of helming his first-ever feature while praising the "dead serious" hard work of the entire team behind the Netflix film. Per Seinfeld, who last went the film route by starring in and co-writing 2007’s Bee Movie, these individuals "don’t have any idea that the movie business is over."

Elaborating further, Seinfeld gave his assessment of film’s current moment, arguing that movies don’t "occupy the pinnacle in the social, cultural hierarchy" as they did before. But Seinfeld does have some theories on what may have taken film's place.

"Depression? Malaise? I would say confusion," he said in the interview, available here. "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?"

Unfrosted, also starring Melissa McCarthy and Jim Gaffigan, takes viewers back to 1963 Michigan, where a battle for what ultimately becomes Pop-Tarts takes center stage. As Seinfeld himself recently explained, while the battle between Kellogg’s and Post did indeed transpire, the rest of his film "is complete lunacy." The cast also counts Hugh Grant, Amy Schumer, Bill Burr, Adrian Martinez, Fred Armisen, Christian Slater, and more.

This month, Seinfeld popped in on Curb Your Enthusiasm for the beloved HBO comedy's series finale, which brilliantly brought the shared worlds of Curb and Seinfeld to a close by repeating the latter's finale 1998 finale. It was a move fans had been theorizing about since Curb's final season began, and one would have a hard time imagining any better or more befitting a sendoff for Larry David's undeniable classic.

Meanwhile, Seinfeld is set to be on the road through at least October, starting with back-to-back shows at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa later this week. Seinfeld is also set to hit Louisville, Nashville, New Orleans, Perth Sydney, and more in the coming weeks.