A few years back I asked a simple question: What happened to Hollywood? At the time, box office numbers were way down and people were looking for answers as to why. Today you can’t say that’s the case. People are going to movies but the movies they are seeing are nothing more than mindless chatter garbage. So now, nearly four years since I first asked the question, I again want to know What happened to Hollywood?
Over the last decade or so the overall quality of product that Hollywood has been producing has reduced significantly. We’ve been given such a heavy dose of sequels, rebrands and cookie-cutter comedies that we as movie-going patrons have forgotten what a good movie actually is. Hollywood has force-fed us what they want us to have, and we’ve devoured it. Look at these upcoming releases: an X-Men sequel, Star Trek rebrand, Da Vinci Code prequel, Night at the Museum sequel and Terminator sequel — and that’s just this May. I kid you not!
So if everything that Hollywood is throwing at us is a rehashing of something we’ve already seen, why are we going to see it? It’s actually really simple: boobs, blood, booms and brainlessness. Everything Hollywood creates has copious amounts of these four things which translate into cold, hard cash. It’s no coincidence that all of the movies mentioned above are rated PG-13 or below (Terminator Salvation is not yet rated, but unconfirmed reports suggest a PG-13 rating). The highest sought demographic in any market, but especially Hollywood, are teenagers. So production companies figure out just how many boobs, blood, booms and brainlessness they can fit in while maintaining that coveted PG-13 rating so as to effectively rope in that sought demographic’ money. Want to know why there are fifteen versions of Saw, nine Step Up’s, a new Superbad copycat every summer and people like Megan Fox and Shia LaBeouf have careers? Because teenagers spend $70 million on Fast and Furious on opening weekend.
It’s a vicious cycle. Hollywood creates the same few movies year after year, makes sure there is a good balance of boobs, blood, booms and brainlessness and teenagers go out and spend millions of their parents dollars seeing them. There’s no incentive to actually tell an original story because you can make much more money by remaking Friday the 13th for the tenth time.
So what’s wrong with Hollywood? We are. We’re the problem. We’re not demanding originality and creativity by actually going to see the few unique films that make the screen. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button opened to a measly $26 million. How can that even compare to Fast and Furious? We’re to blame.
So let’s fix it. Let’s start championing originality and start loathing useless boobs, blood, booms and brainlessness. Next Friday instead of seeing Beyonce in Obsessed (which I’ll put money on today to win the weekend) go see The Soloist instead. Let’s take Hollywood back and maybe, just maybe, I won’t have to ask “what’s wrong with Hollywood” in another four years.
4/22/09
Drew
I actually agree with you. I was looking over my parents movie collection (stuff from the 90s) and realized that these movies we more original. These were actually focused on telling a story, great or not. Movies nowadays are more focused on selling tickets rather than tell a story. That’s why we have countless remakes, sequels, blantant copys and ripoffs. Why can’t we have L.A. Confidential, Pretty Women, New Jack City. And for kids movies like The Sandlot. We don’t constantly need big budget spectacles specifically made to just sell tickets. We should support a movie that tells a good original story acted out by good actors.
to Drew