For the last few years franchise movies like star wars, marvel, etc. made money regardless of quality. However now it seems like audiences are being choosier when it comes to these kinds of tentpole releases. I’ve seen some people online say that the movie/theater industry is losing people in general but I don’t think that’s the case.
Super Mario and spiderverse made a lot of money. And Oppenheimer, Barbie, and Dune seem to be tracking well. I think the problem is that people are getting sick of the same old stuff and need more than just a brand name to go to the theater. What do you you think?
Fair point about DC and Indy but Disney has had a few flops recently as well. Pixar isn’t a franchise but it was definitely a brand that normally would bring people to the theaters with just the name alone. Now they are struggling to get people to come to the theaters.
Oh, definitely. In my mind Pixar hasn’t had a really good movie since Coco.
Yeah Pixar was absolute magic until around then. Hey, it had to end sometime.
This phenomenon is due to many different issues, but in my opinion they can all be boiled down to: making a great movie is not the priority anymore. Sometimes it’s selling the product, sometimes it’s playing to special political interests (lookin at you, Eternals), etc. for better or worse; but when a film is made for the purpose first and foremost to make a great film, it usually succeeds. Maybe not the flamboyant numbers that some do, but then again for every one that a studio makes a killing on, they also take a bath on a handful of others.
They’re looking at the industry and just seeing a sponge with dollar signs and just want to squeeze as hard as they can.
Do yourself a favor watch more independent films. They’re not always amazing but they are made with heart.