I agree, but this exists to a significant extent already (though more would be great) - it's a really, really good time to be into low-budget indie flicks.
The problem is that your local multiplex is not going to be showing independent films, nor are they going to be blasting marketing cranked up to 11 on all channels, so it's much harder to hear about them, and in some cases, much harder to see them period.
But the scene is alive and well - I've gotten a lot more into over the past year or so, and have really enjoyed it. The accessibility is poor in some places (in the middle of Manhattan is pretty great), but absolutely worth it.
I find IMDB and Metacritic to give pretty solid coverage of these films, so that alleviates some of the discoverability problems.
If you have small theaters near you, please patronize them - better yet, convince a group to go regularly. They need the business, and I think you'll find a lot of worthy films.
Things like Fathom Events are already managing to run more niche content a few showings a week. (Example: there's a Studio Ghibli film doing 1 showing an evening at 3 theaters around town for two nights next week.)
It's not inconceivable that we'll eventually see a similar platform for (more) indie movies, using a screen or two a couple evenings a week. Movie theaters are hard up for money, and I suspect would happily take a full theater for any film they can do small batches of.
It's also interesting to me how some of the stigma associated with VOD and straight to video releases has gone away. It's a pretty great time for film and television.
The problem is that your local multiplex is not going to be showing independent films, nor are they going to be blasting marketing cranked up to 11 on all channels, so it's much harder to hear about them, and in some cases, much harder to see them period.
But the scene is alive and well - I've gotten a lot more into over the past year or so, and have really enjoyed it. The accessibility is poor in some places (in the middle of Manhattan is pretty great), but absolutely worth it.
I find IMDB and Metacritic to give pretty solid coverage of these films, so that alleviates some of the discoverability problems.
If you have small theaters near you, please patronize them - better yet, convince a group to go regularly. They need the business, and I think you'll find a lot of worthy films.