What do you think was Hollywood's best decade creatively? The first 1,000 people to use the link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare skl.sh/captainmidnight07234

I agree 100% with you. I miss the mid-range mid-budget movies. Now you go to a multiplex and see only two or three options because all big movies have three or four screenings at once. Matt Damon explained why this happens on a podcast and it's basically due the fact they don't have the income from DVDs anymore, just streaming and that doesn''t pay the bills.

I love how the studio execs are whining about how "unreasonable" the demands are. Big talk from people who make more in a day than the average writer makes in a year

When Endgame was released, almost everyone was hyped for it, but plenty of people were talking openly about how they might like a break from superhero movies, how it seemed like a fitting ending and they just didn't see how anything could top it, how they weren't as interested in what was planned for the next phase, etc. Disney really should have listened and had a plan to pivot to lower budgets or a less dense release schedule or at least some fresher ideas if demand started to dry up. Because they didn't, they're now having to make it up as they go along while panicking.

You're SO RIGHT about them abandoning the older audiences. I know for sure my parents and in-laws would love to back to the movies regularly again, but they barely find stuff that interest them enough to go, like good legal dramas, war movies, etc. They end up sticking to watching European movies and series on streaming. And it shows how stupid studios are, because people older than 45 or so like going to the movies bc it was literally the only way they had to watch movies in the past; they're used to it, and it's a nice, fuss-free way to have a night out; it's guaranteed tickets!

Of course studio executives will say it’s a “bad time” for a strike. That’s what execs in any industry will say, which is why it’s always a good time for a strike.

When I saw Asteroid City, it was a full theater. When I saw Indiana Jones, just 10 people in the theater. People are definitely starved for the mid-budget movie.

Tighter budgets would invite more discipline. They would have to think about having a script nailed down before filming. Keep action scenes focused instead of overlong and sprawling. It can't be said enough that the films in Marvel's Phase One were modest in budget and scope.

I work as an editor and mainly do trailer stuff and commercial work, but have worked as an assistant editor on 2 netflix originals. I never met anyone other than the editing team and the main thing I learned was how soulless it felt. The lead editor told us of a magical time (10-20yrs ago) where writers and directors would pop in and collaborate and give pointers/ preferences. I do hope that comes back because I’d love to keep working but yea..

Not sharing honest viewership numbers is absolutely insane. I'm shocked that such ridiculous behavior was/is tolerated

When Hollywood started thinking of their productions as franchises rather than individual movies the writing was on the wall. It was the start of spectacle over story being the primary driver. And the story and the budget were the casualties.

The problem with Hollywood is quantity over quality.

While walking my dogs with my mom, I told her about everything that was happening in Hollywood recently, like the writers' strike and new movies bombing every time. I even asked her what she thought about streaming movies and series, she told me that they feel lifeless commercials. Sigh... How I miss Blockbuster.

Remember, Jurassic Park and each individual LOTR film cost just above 90 million to produce. Take into account, both of these had huge production scales, big sets and state of the art effects for their era (and they both honestly still look beter than much of the crap that comes out in 2023). I just don't get why so many movies today need such inflated budgets.

The entertainment industry is built on a foundation of taking risks, which goes against the grain of what any corporation wants to do, which is to minimize risk. The strikes are just those ideals coming to a head. Corporations don't seem to realize that they are pushing ppl towards to their breaking point/desperation. What did they expect to happen?

We just need quality, heartfelt movies, that does not mean this can not be done in an action film, or a big blockbuster, but we need there to be original heart felt stories and moments.

I feel like movie quality is starting to matter more than ever. Inflation is really cutting into peoples budgets and with cinema ticket prices wildly rising people will put more thought into what they're gonna watch. Spiderverse being a big hit and The Flash being a historic flop shows me that it's not just the superhero genre, but especially the movie quality that determines success.

I think this year has also shown that the "safe" options really aren't as safe as execs thought they would be. Superhero movies and sequels can still bring in the big bucks (Like GOTG3 and ATSV) but there needs to be quality behind it. They can't just churn out blockbusters like they have the past decade.

Dune was also a passion project. Denis really put a lot of love into Dune. You can see the quality in the scenes and score as opposed to balls to the wall CG visuals like a Marvel movie

I'm optimistic. I think pre-pandemic we were seeing a lot of really interesting movies with crossover appeal between critics and audiences - Jojo Rabbit, Knives Out, Parasite were all great movies that had wide audiences too. Not sure if it was the pandemic or something else that put that on hold, but I think we're seeing it come back with movies like Everything, Everywhere All at Once and The Menu. The success of those kinds of movies (relative to their budgets) plus the relative failure of the big budget safe films bodes well for the industry long term I think.

This is why Everything Everywhere All At Once was a hit. It took so many chances yet was expertly directed and with heart

It's a great analysis of the situation. I think the main driver of all this nonsense was Netflix starting to make feature films and entering the Academy. When the movie studios saw their livelihoods in danger with this new "hot tech company with rising stocks" entering their territory (a company they were licensing their own media libraries, even worse) they thought they could "pulled it off" on their own and go attack Netflix back in it's own territory: internet streaming. Now they are like a math equation and are cancelling each other on both spaces: online streaming as a service does sucks now and is severly fragmented, and offline entertainment movies and shows are also very bad as well. In the middle are the actual writers and actors, the "content creators", that are been hammered on both sides online and offline to "produce content quick and cheap" to lure investors to pump up the stock eventhough the audiences won't respond. That game is coming to an end. Again, great analysis and just straight on point with that observation of the studios trying to "out-Netflix Netflix" and derailing their whole business in the process

I've worked in this industry behind the camera for a decade now and it's absolutely bloodthirsty in the ways that studios try to get away with paying people as little as possible. There are jobs I've worked (can't say names) where I have been paid very little and put in long hard hours, but in one of those cases it's because I was working on a war movie and I really believed in the subject matter. And it's important to remember that those of us who work as crew on a production don't get anywhere near what the actors make and for us job security is even less assured We are seeing so many institutions both in and out of the entertainment industry being ripped apart by corporate greed and it has to stop. Please support this strike in any way that you can. These are the people who work themselves ragged to bring to life all the stories that entertain us and they deserve fair treatment. Thank you.

I recently saw No Hard Feelings and oh my god I realised how much we need these kind of mid budget smaller films. Fun films to break up all the Marvel and Star Wars kinda stuff

Your point on Studio's ignoring older audiences I think is quite key. As older audiences are more likely to see a movie in person rather than stream it, they have the most disposable income, and the baby boomers are a huge generation in terms of population. They are probably missing out on a large underserved customer base.

As a writer, I thank you for such a well-researched and informative video. This perfectly explains what’s wrong with the industry and why it’s found itself in its current situation. We’re definitely witnessing a watershed moment, not just for entertainment, but for labor relations across the board. It’s going to be very interesting to see where this will lead. I’m hoping for the best. 🙏🏾 Thanks again for sharing your thoughts on this.

Billionaires really think they can just squeeze every drop of productivity and creativity out of writers and actors and then move on the second these people ask for fair compensation and treatment. Absolutely disgusting.

Bad sequels have always existed. But in the past they sucked because the studio's would often put less money and effort into them for each entry. Think of Son of Kong, the Superman sequels, the Jaws sequels and the direct to video Disney sequels. That's probably because the studio's just treated those projects as quick cash grabs. It's remarkable how the budgets for these films have skyrocketed recently. It just shows how dependent the studio's have become on them. What are essentially B-movies have become our main entertainment.

The real loss to theaters is great comedies. One of the best experiences of my life was going to the local theater when I was in college and seeing "The Naked Gun: From The Files Of Police Squad" with a packed audience of college kids. Every laugh was boosted by being in a roaring audience. Airplane, Animal House, Caddyshack, etc. all benefitted from the audience experience. Sometimes laughs would even make me aware of a joke I was missing. (To be honest, I *still* don't get the joke about Jane's anklet slipping down and why that's funny.) If it were to debut today and come out on Netflix, you'd never have that experience. It's still going to be very funny, but there was a reason TV used to have a laugh track as an attempt to make up for what you're missing by watching it in your home.

"To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time." -Leonard Bernstein

Man I've been saying the same thing for ages. I sorely lament the loss of the mid-budget film.

it’s ridiculous that studios can’t figure out that it doesn’t matter how much money you throw at a project if it isn’t even well written. these execs just don’t care about quality or the people behind that quality.

I saw an interview with a Matt Damon and he said that because of the rise of streaming, and sheer plummeting of DVD sales, movies now have to make all their money in theaters, which means massive blockbusters only. But then those require massive budgets, which requires an ever bigger return, and a larger gamble *every* time. I would like to see streaming invest more in quality movies, not necessarily blockbuster level graphics and production, just well made movies. Gone are the days of the low budget romcom, but those are some of the most rewatched movies of all time. I think we need less MASSIVE action blockbuster and more just well told stories.

I think part of the reason behind Hollywood playing it safe with movies is also due to the collapse of physical media sales. Before streaming, when the only way to watch the movies you want at home was by buying DVD's, movies could afford to take more risks with decent sized budgets, because even if they didn't make their money back at the box office they could still get their money back via DVD sales. Streaming isn't as simple when it comes to making money, since they earn revenue based on advertisements and subscriptions. I think the streaming bubble is going to burst, if it hasn't already started to. When it was just a handful of streamers, they were able to attract subscribers with the sheer breadth of content for a small subscription fee, which made it more economical to pay that fee then pay for DVD's. But now that content has been divided between so many streaming services, most services don't actually have enough in-demand content to draw in all the subscribers they would need. Now DVD's are unbelievably cheap in comparison, and streaming is basically a glut of content no one wants to watch, with the few desirable shows and films spread across several increasingly expensive services. It's basically just satellite TV at this point, and it's not sustainable for the industry in the long run. There is still a Redbox in my town, and only a few months after Spider Man: No Way Home reased in theaters I was able to buy No Way Home for less than $4.

Don't know why but I lost all the excitement for Marvel movies. Didn't feel anything even when they announced Avengers secret wars

At your prediction/explanation as to what happened back in the 70's around 12:40 I would say that it only makes sense that Hollywood would steer more towards writers/directors who are more unique and can attract/excite the audiences. Netflix is NOT a sustainable business model, and the fact that they are cracking down/showing ads is proof of that. Additionally, the movies these days are so stale - I call it the Marvel Quip Syndrome. You notice that a lot more movies have a writing-style closer to that of Marvel's with quippy one liners, and this just makes movies feel formulaic and inauthentic. Even horror movies these days have those quippy one liners, it's annoying! And finally of course, let's not forget that movies are getting MORE expensive and movie TICKETS are getting more expensive. So stale expensive movies dominating the theatres is definitely not enticing enough to attract people's attention to go to movies. Oh and let's not forget the stupidest idea of releasing movies simultaneously on both theatres and streaming services (though that stopped happening now, still I feel like the window of releasing to streaming services is too short). That isn't to say people don't go to movies. No Way Home , Avatar and Top Gun are proof that there is still a desire for people to experience movies in theatres. Heck, let's not forget that TENET (released during covid) was the highest grossing original movie since Dunkirk!! So even covid is not a valid enough excuse by itself in my opinion, although I do get it. Additionally, when general audiences can pick out glaringly OBVIOUS plotholes, piss-poor writing, and in a lot of cases somewhat bad acting (due to directors not knowing how to.. direct) then we have a big problem. Personally, I predict that the most successful directors/studios will be the ones who find innovative ways to maintain the quality of the movies (in terms of how it looks) while reducing the cost of production. That movie not only needs to be considerably cheaper, but will also need to have a unique vision and bring something new to the table. Why are people flooding in masses for some movies but not others? The answer is that those movies have pretty much one thing in common: a fresh and authentic experience. Those who can bring that, advertise it by letting everyone know, and can bring production down will be the successful ones. I think naturally big studios will gravitate towards that. I also think there is an aspect of Hollywood pretentiousness, since a lot of movies these days are more about the message through direct preaching instead of the experience itself/providing the audiences with unique feelings. Then it gets worse when there is a big disconnect with people not liking a certain movie/show whereas the pompous journalists/critics praise an obviously dog-shit project just to suck the teet of big corporations. That also needs to stop because it is insulting to the audiences. Rant over.

5:12 I wholly agree with that sentiment. Budgets do not make a movie good. A good vision and a good director to carry out that vision is much more vital. More money can be helpful, but money is just a tool. It's not the tools that make the art, but the artist.

Great video! That's been one of my own surprising discoveries as I started reviewing films from the 2000's and 2010's, how insanely resourceful microbudget productions like 2010's "The Dark Lurking" and 2015's "Turbo Kid" were: neither film was made on a budget higher than $200,000, and it _really_ makes you question the necessity of blowing *hundreds* of millions of dollars on these films.

Top Gun and Avatar 2 made around 2 billion dollars each. I think people will show up to theaters if you give them something thats exciting or visually mind blowing. I think Audiences can see through movies that are slapped together with rushed VFX to make a profit and please shareholders. You gotta put in the work to make a movie feel special.

Hollywood is learning that pouring copious amounts of money into a movie doesn’t matter at all if the movie sucks. And audiences are getting a lot better at sniffing out movies that suck.

Never lose your style man, it feels so vintage and dope.

One big thing that needs to happen is, production companies cannot own streaming services. For the same reason that production companies can't own movie theaters. Streaming is a nightmare right now, there are so many different platforms, which is why so many people are just going to piracy. If there were one or two streaming services, that had basically everything, it would seem much more reasonable to subscribe to them, but these production bosses are so scroogy and stingy and just don't want to share anything, and it's making everything so much worse than it's ever been.

As someone who wants to be in the film industry, this is an excellent video. You did a really great job highlighting a lot of the changes and dangers in the industry, both past and present.

I've been worried about whether Hollywood is going to fade out at some point and people won't be entertained like they used to, but with all the chaos that's been going, I'm hoping it's a wake up call for studios and executives to get the message that it's time to actually give some effort again, I feel like they've been too dependent on safe predictable stories for too long now and they need to make original, entertaining stories that aren't sequels or established brands

I still can't believe some morons try to blame the writers for all the bad movies coming out. Do you think it was a writer's decision to make another Indiana Jones movie? Do you think the Writers decided to put all the shitty pandering in the Flash movie? 95% of the time when a movie has bad writing, it's not even the writer's fault. It's because higher ups kept laying out mandates on how things have to go or what movies even get funding in the first place, and then the writers are forced to work within their limits. It's like asking a painter to do a good job while handcuffing them to a tiger. The people the writers are striking against are the reason why we get so much low effort overly expensive trash

Honestly? Let Hollywood die. It wont be missed. Id be interested to see a paradigm of smaller movie hubs around the continent and give some foreign cinema some more room to muscle in a bit.

It's funny how I felt the same way about No Hard Feelings. I went to see it with my wife and it brought back to times of seeing something other than your typical superhero movie.

One thing I think contributed to the streaming service bubble was 2020. Quarantine kept people cooped up at home more than ever, so with nothing else to do, they binged. That inflated viewership couldn't last forever, but shortsighted executives and investors didn't care as much as they should've. It's only a matter of time until most streaming services close, leaving only a handful left. Some will be free with ads, some will be free with an internet or phone service upgrade, I hear Walmart's delivery service offers Paramount+ with a subscription. Regardless, the big media companies may have to rely on third parties to stream their content more and more. Where does that leave the entertainment industry? God knows. As someone looking at the gaming industry, I'm seeing very similar trends, and you know where the most promising ideas are? The independent scene. I'd take a look at independent movies not from the major studios for the future. Whatever happens there defines what happens next.

I am hopeful. Since the 2000s we haven't such a good year as this year. For 2023 we have Oppenheimer, Napoleon, Dune 2, Killers of the flower moon, The Killer and Ferrari. All these movies are directed from hall of fame directors.

They really could have appealed to audiences, especially the over 40s, with an awesome adventure flic with Indiana Jones if they kept him and Marion together using their age/life knowledge to their advantage.

On tiktok there was a writer, he wrote for King of the Hill and other sitcoms and he used to open up residuals on camera and total it, and since the writers strike was an idea his channel has been awfully quiet. Comparing his residuals that are shows that rerun on network TV is really telling compared to seeing some of the residuals from Netflix. that writer got more than $1000 in a month all together. One actor from Orange is the New Black got $27 in a month.

There's literally no reason streaming shows can't be like the old shows, which is why I'm rooting for the strike

The majority of people that are on strike aren't famous nor rich, on top of that they no longer get residuals or any royalties for re-runs. Not only can they not pay rent much less a mortage, they get little to no experience from movies or TV shows, how do you expect people to grow professionally if they are not exposed to the production of movies/TV shows?

It's not just Hollywood. ALL industries need to change but Hollywood is one of the few places with strong unions for the working class. We've had this issue of billionaires getting richer while the working class struggle. There is no place for people like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, etc hoarding all the wealth.

You know it’s a serious video when the cap doesn’t feature any tv channel cutaways

so happy to see you standing with workers!!! Video like this help break the studio propaganda that this is just a rich whiny actors problem, the system itself it broken and has been for a long time leading up to this

I agree with you 100% because Hollywood really needs a reality check and stop focusing on streaming 24/7.

Creativity is going into the internet. Not traditional media like TV and theatrical releases.

The two things that are killing streaming are the binge model and the lack of regularity to releases. Everything dropping all at once causes a spike in interest that drops off quickly. Shows are not allowed to be given the room to grow an audience. This is then hurt by my second point. TV shows have always come out every year roughly at the same point. Now we get 1.5 years, 2 years or more between seasons. By that point interest is lost, you have to be a massive show to get the same audience back. Littler niche shows don't stand a chance, which they are then cancelled due to low ratings which then fuels the feeling of why bother a new show that you know is going to be cancelled.

4:56 See, this is where I think _Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3_ can really be a turning point to the MCU. The film has been met with nearly universal praise by being an emotional story with very personal stakes for the characters as opposed of fighting waves of faceless minions on a CGI greenscreen. It sure went back to the heart of the MCU from early phases.

This seems like the same issue video game industry is facing now. Games are just ballooning in price and scope and waiting to implode on itself. So, there needs to be smaller scale AA games in between the big releases to add some stability and variety to the industry.

I think the best example of how awful Hollywood can be is Dan Schneider. He preyed upon children and young teens for years, worse than what Disney puts their child/teen actors through.

I wouldn't be suprised if studios like A24 try to fill the void that a lot of these big companies are making right now. Everything Everywhere All At Once had a tiny budget, and they did amazing.

I really hope that it doesn’t take too long for the execs to come to their senses and give the writers and actors what they’re asking for. Once that happens (or maybe even before), they’re gonna have to find and implement a new model of distributing media. The current system is not the answer. In any case, more mid-budget films would be nice.

Streamers and residuals are really wild. I saw a Tweet from Steven S. DeKnight that said; “So speaking of Daredevil, as showrunner of S1, part of my deal includes a little sliver of the backend. Never expected to see any on Netflix. But then Marvel/Disney pulled it and it ended up on Disney +. Now I’m part of an audit to try to get the money they owe me and others.” This strike is so important.

This writers/actors strike is getting scary. I've seen arguments like "well serves them right the movies that have come out the last few years have sucked" or for the actors "they have millions of dollars they don't need to get involved" Chris stuckmann recently spoke out about this and I couldn't agree more with the guy. Not only do actors and writers deserve the pay they deserve, if we go down the road of having mostly everything Be AI generated then 1000s of passionate filmmakers will be out of a job. For context it doesn't just apply to the big names you see in the movies themselves guys, we're talkin background extras, small time writers, people you wouldn't give a second thought to. What worse if this technology would have come out in the 80s and they could replicate background actors faces or whoever they needed, and if those specific actors sign there likeness away that means constant profit for the studios but not the actual talent. You ever seen Black mirror it's basically that but real life now. (Didn't know how relevant that show could possibly become till now) All those billionaires that are afraid of losing 2% of their income can back off. They have enough. Pray to God that this crisis has a happy ending.

Fantastic exploration and analysis - you’ve put into words, perfectly, how I’ve been feeling for quite awhile about Hollywood and why I’ve pretty much only gone out of my way to watch low budget and indie films for some time.

In the 2010s I realised that the whole superhero genre film would one day finish. I enjoyed it, to be sure. But as soon as I finished "Avengers: Endgame" (which I enjoyed), I said to myself "Welp. No more superhero movies. That's it for me." I'm sure there were plenty of people like me who did the same thing. I did the same with Rogue One. Great film. Brilliant. I saw the original 1977 Star Wars when I was 8. And after seeing R1 I said to myself "It's never going to be better than this" and I made the decision to not watch any of the Star Wars films coming out after R1. I'm glad I did.

You know it’s getting serious when Noel McNeal is getting disappointed in Hollywood. (He was Bear in the Big Blue House)

With the talk about the actors and writers strike I also always think about the artists that these studio are so dependent on but lack a strong union and don’t receive residuals, it’s pretty common for films that break box office records, bring in unfathomable amounts of money off the backs of these artists and VFX studios, to go under shortly after production wraps, after getting tons of awards they’re still underpaid and seriously overworked on insane deadlines but have no industry wide protection.

Love the Patrick Willems / Night of the Coconut clips snuck in there at the end!

Great essay with some nice observations and I feel you’ll be proved right in your future predictions.

Movies like The Firm(1993) and Michael Clayton(2007) are what we need. Love those movies

On point with all of this thank you from a broken hearted SAG-AFTRA member trying to make it after all.

I would add that the residuals also allows a writer to get through the times where they are either not working (e.g. their show has just concluded production) or gives them the financial flexibility to work on new things (that may or may not be picked up).

Completely agree with you. Ridley scott’s the last duel was one of the few movies that attracted a lot of older people to the cinemas. I remember seeing so many elderly people in the theaters for the last duel but no young people possibly due to the subject matter. I think its one of scott’s best films that dont get made anymore

I hope the screenwriters and actors get what they're striking for. Solidarity ✊✊✊

Those big budgets definitely makes their movies not look better. Talent and passion makes movies look better. Artisanship.

Great video as always. As a indie filmmaker this video is so true. Our film Four Amigos has international distribution, our 3rd indie Pizza Boy Rick will release later this year and we’re in the middle of production on our 4th indie Always Smile. The only way to excel independently is with original stories.

📌This is a great and informative video. One factor you forgot to mention is the biggest corporations are consolidating their power by buying up all the other studios. That means there's less studios to try something more innovative because everything is owned by one or two corporations. They basically all fall under a handful of executives who make the decisions for all of them.

Imagine if the biggest films of the 80s were "franchises" that made endless sequels and reboots of shit from the 30s and 40s. That's what Hollywood is now.

What Spider-man No Way Home did was make Hollywood realize audiences love nostalgia, but now nostalgia in Hollywood is cliche.

Nolan was the only mainstream director that used to make big budget original movies but now 2/3 of the last movies he made are based on a real story instead of making something completely original. Hollywood has become very sad and pathetic

I quite enjoy going to see films from a variety of genres and I'm finding more and more that I will resort to seeing films at my local theatre's cinema that tend to be smaller budget films and/or foreign language films (or on the flip side, more locally produced projects). It's a shame Hollywood is so narrow in its focus but I'm optimistic that great stuff is still getting produced.

Your TV economic breakdown was super well researched and accurate! Residuals is a huge issue but perceived as "in the weeds" to those on the outside so thank you for explaining this in such clear terms.

I miss when flops were something of a rarity and not the norm. So many movies released post-2019 that I feel like would’ve made a profit had they been released before.

This definitely highlights for me a question I've been asking for years. How do streaming shows actually make money for the service beyond what the subscription model already brings in

You make a very good point there’s no diversity in the film slates anymore at all. We need a balance of all types of films but even so I’m tired of spending all this money in theaters ! And the runtimes are INSANE.

I thought about the same topic recently. If most big budget films flop, what will happen? While I also have no answer, I was thinking about a really big downfall of the big studios. The CEOs and other powerful people will not learn new ways, I guess, so they gonna run the companys into the ground. I truly hope that smaller studios can pick up on that momentum and bring quality films back into the cinema and become big but hopefully smarter themselves. I really liked your video, since it is more positive with the whole 60s repeating itself approch and you made some good points here.

Things are definitely shifting. Big blockbusters are bombing and a little raunchy comedy like No Hard Feelings is successful. It was nice seeing that and Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City in a packed theater.

Yeah, here’s thing; Marvel is NOT trying to appeal to a broad general audience. They’re trying to appeal to an audience that doesn’t exist.

The bulk of the video has me feeling pretty worried and depressed, but I hope you're right about the chance for new blood to get into the industry and make some amazing movies! Things are bleak, I hope some good comes of this, even if it takes awhile

I’ve been to the movies three times recently and every time, the theater barely had anyone there. I remember when I was younger these places used to be packed with people. Great analysis on what’s been going on with Hollywood and the lack of risk taking in these movies they’re putting out these days. They want to play it safe and streaming has gotten more of the spotlight now.

Been watching Captain midnight for 8 years and this is his best content yet. So many good points made here 👏

One of the problems is the fundamental change of what a blockbuster is defined as now, movies dont become blockbusters anymore, they are made to be blockbusters

Thank you very much for addressing this situation. I also miss getting more different movies and comedies that aren’t related to already established characters. I think you make a lot of good points. However unfortunately the main problem is that the rich people are still the ones in charge mostly. Their power and control has gone to their heads. The Strike situation is terrible but it is also a very solid and good cause. We certainly need a good mediator for the future of Hollywood. Anybody got a good recommendation? By the way thanks for bringing up Drake and Josh as well, it’s a wonderful childhood memory that’s easy to latch on to right now. I love rewatching classic Nickelodeon shows like that. It’s a terrific way to take my mind off the insanity of the modern world!

I would love to see more original stories! As well as young & upcoming directors

There are still people in Hollywood like those behind Arcane, Invincible and so on that care and want to do good work. Unfortunately greatness is now the exception and not the norm. Edit: The people in the replies who say Arcane is a bad show are hilarious. lol.

Decentralization my friends. I worked very briefly in entertainment design and could smell it immediately. My heart goes out to all the creatives that’ve built their life in the industry.

The migration of the mid tier of cinema to TV was both a blessing and a curse. Yes, longer running time allowed for better storytelling than trying to cram in to 90-180 minutes, giving us things like breaking bad etc. But now cinema is only big massive blockbusters or small indie projects. The loss of the mid tier has removed the avenue for new ip and more risky ventures