How is film industry changing due to digital technology?

What is the future for CGI technology?

When unreality bites can we turn to 'real films'?

The above article is from the film and tv section of the Independant website. It explores the debate that 'cinema is fast moving into a new, digital era' in which actors are being 'replaced altogether by computer-generated simulacra.'
According to official box office figures, the top three grossing films of 2007 were Spiderman 3, Shrek 3 and Transformers. Also amongst the top ten were I am Legend, 300 and Ratatouille. None of these films grossed less than £200million. This illustrates just how reliant films are nowadays on soecial effects and 'raises the question whether they can be called live-action movies.'
The Sony Pictures special-effects coordinator, Yair Landau, believes that the reason for this is that 'animators borrow more and more freely from live action movies as they attempt to give their cartoons an air of verisimilitude.'
The advantage for the audience is that they build a greater enotional relationship with the main character. For example, Landau states that for Spiderman 3, he felt it was important that 'audiences don't distinguish between the scenes that are done using computer-generated imagery (CGI) and those using old-fashioned live action.'
Landaurs vision of the future is one in which CGI technology is used just as much, if not more than live-action. He believes that this is because the audience in a cinema must feel as close to the characters on screen as possible. Another example is the new 3D U2 film in which 'the film-makers are using state-of-the-art technology to allow you to get far closer to the band than any real-life concert-goer.'
This is the view of Landau, however, if you look at theis years nominations for film awards, it is clear that the audience still prefer good old-fashioned live-movies. Amongst those nominated are Atonement, No Country for Old Men and Juno, all three of which are nominated for best picture. However, their Box-office income is almost half that of CGI driven films such as Transformers and 300.