End of an era: Hollywood’s Version

Welcome to 2024! A time when companies seem to become more and more dystopian than their years prior, making bland and boring movies to meet self-made quotas. Making intolerable nonsense at its worst. Every day a new movie comes out or is announced: whether it’s Disney, Warner Brothers, 20th Century, or Columbia it’s difficult to resist the urge to roll my eyes. It’s gotten to the point where kids like my brother or cousins view Disney and its merchandise as trashy or for old people. With Hollywood losing its audience, it’s hard not to wonder why when just a few years ago people were lining up for theaters to see their favorite cinema.

The problem originated in Marvel’s “Avengers,” the franchise being so incredibly successful and popular that every company wanted to create their own cinematic universe. From Mattel’s “Barbie” to Godzilla’s “monsterverse”, what has remained true in every action is that executives have always pushed for this without letting producers follow their own vision. 

What let “Avengers” take off was the choice in giving time and trusting producers, while not announcing every movie years ahead of time. This idea seems smart in order to drum up anticipation, but it doesn’t take into account production errors and if the audience actually wants these films.

Isn’t the whole point of the movie industry to make cinema that people want to see? Wouldn’t it be almost dystopian if movies that should be catered to us are used as a way to attack the audience and if the audience didn’t like it, in what world would it be okay to shame your audience for not watching? Except this dystopian landscape is the one we have right now, with brands like Disney attacking their audiences, labeling them into anti-woke mobs or trolls.

Although some people certainly attack Disney for fun, many of the people pushed into these groups simply have valid criticisms and are being attacked by both the media and Disney’s social media, alienating audiences.

Companies have also been treating their employees poorly, during the writer’s strike executives were more than willing to make the writers “bleed out” and allow them to lose their homes. Or how about the constant tales of VFX artists being overworked and underpaid. Superhero movies especially force them to make unrealistic deadlines at the cost of their physical and mental health. Disney’s recent firing of Gina Carano also calls into question whether companies even remotely care about their actors. While Corano did share a post that was anti-semetic and inappropriate, there was no situation that called for Disney to attack her character online.

As for the movie quality itself, it has gone down the drain which can be seen in the most prominent example: “Wish,” The movie, which was marketed as the centennial anniversary of Disney, claimed it would be a movie that would remind you of everything you loved in the 2d era of animation, except it’s not 2d animated. Instead of having any kind of memorable character, or good songs, they try to resemble previous movies while fitting an agenda.

Agendas are a part of every company, at its core it’s a business. However when a company focuses on pushing a political agenda over making a story for people to enjoy, it’s the people’s wallets that decide the power these organizations hold.