Sfdebris.net

I'm reading tons of articles, and I think it's finally putting to words how I feel. Here it is.

https://thecollegevoice.org/2017/10/28/the-hollywood-bubble-time-to-pop/

It's just so much wasteful spending, if the aggressive marketing campaign doubles the budget... and we're only going to see movies FIVE TIMES A YEAR. That's Americans. They get most of their profits from overseas... and the movies themselves are tailored as one big giant ad, just a huge one. It's so... OMG...

I guess it's really hard for me, as an American, to see why people outside our country like these movies. I mean... I saw Toy Story 4 recently. The animation was good, but... it was just, shocking, in terms of how rushed it was. There was no time to fucking breathe! And I didn't necessarily dislike what they did to Bo, in a vaccum. If she's on her own, then maybe she'd get tougher. And it conforms to Disney's pro-Feminist agenda. Okay then. But... that doesn't work in a movie that's so fast-paced, you can't even really fucking process what they are SAYING! It's just, BAM! Hit you with this image, slap you with that plot point, rush to next scene, spam a bunch of stuff over and over, insert dialogue here, rinse, wash, repeat over and over. It's just... have ALL movies become this way? I haven't checked out a modern movie since 2011... and I had looked forward to Toy Story 4. TOY STORY 4 let me down... shit, I'd been wondering if I should go check out Green Lantern Corps, but now I don't want to... and it's why I take severe issue with what they're doing to these franchises. The greed is so out of control, it is appalling...

See... it seems like back in the 1970s, or in the 1980s, or 1990s, they didn't need such aggressive ad-marketing campaigns because... Americans would inevitably head to the movies. You'd get a trailer for a commercial, maybe a few, and that's all. Now it's just... whew. It seems more than ever like their AGGRESSIVE ad-marketing campaign is an attempt to pull back the audiences that have all gone away.

Back in the 70s, there were fewer options available for entertainment. You had TV but only 13 channels. VCRs weren't introduced until the late 70s. Cable TV didn't really come around until the 90s. There was no internet until the mid 90s and it took several years before it could compete with movies. Video Games were niche until the start of this century. People still read books, could afford to go on vacation, went outside, etc.

Part of the problem, as many have remarked, is that there are far fewer mid-tier movies being released. Everything is either some super cheap horror movie or a mega blockbuster. Studios are putting fewer eggs in fewer baskets which increases the risk and the fallout of failure. So, they go all out to squeeze as much money as they can; ad campaigns, cheap licensed games, adds all over the place, merchandising, etc. Part of that is investing in marketing so more and more people know about this movie, increasing the odds more people will see it and it will turn a big profit.

I'm also starting to think that perhaps audiences ARE smarter than I gave them credit for. Chuck has harped on how much ROTF made, so have I, but... I think if you adjust it for inflation, it actually shows a trend. That people were slowly turning away because the movies were getting dumber and dumber. I think that contributed to it.

I guess with something like, say, Star Wars, the reason I dislike it now more than ever it is that it is being used for audience manipulation to sustain themselves to try and head off the inevitable Hollywood bubble bursting. It seems, though, that like with Solo, less people are falling for it. And I think it will gross a billion dollars, but when adjusted for inflation, OMG... it's going to end up making only like... near what Revenge of the Fallen did, I can see it coming... and that's near Batman & Robin levels! REALLY! That's why they released an older Legends comic. To pander. I won't feel any hope for this story world until they have collapsed. Star Wars literally seems to be the only reason Hollywood is still feebly holding on like a zombie hooked up to a heart monitor.

Aggressive marketing is important in capitalism so it shouldn't be surprise that film studios do it as well with they big budget movies. After all just like all businesses they also want to direct as many as possible to what they offer. Each of them wants that people go to watch they movie instead of what ever other studios offer. So it does make sense for them to do that.

As far as merchandising goes well it wasn't really thing before ANH when Lucas started that when he sold merchandising rights including rights to toy company Kenner to make action figures, vehicles and playsets based on movie. Now everyone does it. There is reason why Spaceballs had that "Merchandising, merchandising. Were really money from movie is made"-line.

Because people did begin walking away ten years ago. Remember the bullshit we had then. That would explain why it feels like movies have only gotten worse so that Revenge of the Fallen, yes, Revenge of the Fallen feels well put-together (it certainly builds more suspense, or apes the attempt, than something like Toy Story 4 does). I think it wasn't just to draw jaded Star Wars fans back. but the larger moviegoing audience in general. But most Americans prefer to just stay inside and go streaming these days. I mean, movie attendance is at an all-time low. We only go see movies five times a year when the bulk of their profits come from overseas. I guess that's what pisses me off more than anything. Legends was sacrificed so that Star Wars could be used as the desperate final gasp of a dying system. Unless the paradigm shifts, it is never going to get better after it keeps getting worse.

Well, yeah. That's why they're launching their own streaming platform. Pure vertical integration.

And that's gonna pop the damned bubble... maybe not for ten years, but it will happen...