Will people look back on today's film composers like we do on Mozart and Beethov

Those two -especially Moricone- maybe a little...otherwise, no.

(and I love me some Hans Zimmer)

Air and Simple Gifts was an instant classic, so yes.


ETA: Danny Elfman will go down as the GOAT composer.

Williams and Morricone will.
Others that have come before from the 50s & 60s that did movie scores already are well known classical composers. (Bernard Herrmann / Elmer Bernstein / Sergei Prokofiev)

Bach / Mozart / Beethoven just have a head start.

In a larger sense, over time, only the best works will be remembered. Will Williams & Morricone be remembered?
Without question. Salieri, not so much.....

Papa Roach will be renowned for generations to come

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Bill Conti

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An interesting question.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold was perhaps the most important film composer in the history of Hollywood. Almost all modern film composers are standing on his shoulders in some way (particularly John Williams). His Violin Concerto in D gets performed because it requires a virtuoso to play and audiences like it; but most violinists I've spoken to can't stand the piece (for the record, I think they're wrong to despise it so). He also wrote some brilliant chamber works for strings, but those are not well known, unfortunately. Korngold's detractors like to savor the criticism that his music is "more corn than gold," and my honest opinion is that they're being pedantic ninnies by saying that. Korngold was an innovator in his own right, and there's plenty of genius to enjoy in both his film works and his classical repertoire. But my opinion is in the minority.

Aaron Copland, who is regarded as America's foremost native-born composer, gained some notoriety for his film scores, most notably Of Mice and Men. But he had a much larger body of classical work outside the film industry, and is credited with creating a uniquely American sounding style of composition.

I think highly of John Williams, and believe that his gifts as an orchestrator (not a composer) are equal to those of the likes of Ravel or Rimsky-Korsakov, but I doubt he'll be ever have the high regard Mozart or Beethoven do, since they were both vitally important to the evolution of Western music.

I'm a little less familiar with Morricone's work. I read that he has written over 100 classical works apart from his film score repertoire -- I'll have to give them a listen.