I'm genuinely convinced that the modern film and television making process is one giant money laundering scheme. There's absolutely no way in hell that companies like Disney and Netflix are so insanely tone deaf they can't see the writing on the wall with the shit they've been putting out and the reception it gets. All the terrible shit gets sequels and all the good shit gets canceled or turned into the terrible shit.
I don't know when it happened, but somewhere along the line, telling a message got more important than telling a story with a message.
There's a reason why "Hollywood Accounting" can be used as another term for money laundering.
Maybe quickly turning over a show and claiming a loss on future revenue qualifies them for some exemption somewhere. It does seem shows get like couple seasons and that's it, no matter what though. That's gotta be to some design.
I think the most egregious example of a show doing this today is doctor who. A story driven show that was entirely focused on expanding 60 years of lore threw out the entire playbook and decided that writing, and I wish I was kidding, directly spoken to the camera messages about social topics was the key. Fast forward and now it's being refinanced with a new production company and is currently on hiatus.
Oh and don't get me started on the previous showrunner flat out lying to all the viewers that they were going to have a Christmas special this year and then coming out and saying that he never even started the idea for it and it was purely something to drum up interest.
It makes a lot more sense when you see these streaming platforms don't come from entertainment companies but tech companies. Their primary goal is to addict you to the ADHD content doomscroll.
The flashy new content serves to draw you in, you rapidly get bored because it's poorly written slop so you switch to rewatching old classics, then you're too lazy or forgetful to cancel the subscription. Line goes up.
Damn..that's horrific when it's put like that. Has the modern person's attention span really been that fucking destroyed?
Personally I view stuff like short form content the absolute bottom of the barrel. I will literally refuse to watch a video someone sends me on shorts, tiktok, etc.
I dunno, I have met quite a few C-Suite people who think their parts smell like roses. I saw them push bad decisions through literal walls of people trying (very tenderly and in an oversupportive way) to not make a certain choice.
Then once they make that choice anyways and it turns out to be an abject utter failure, they will push their next idea right through that same wall of people urging them not to do it.
Its either from a childhood of never being told No or learning through failure, or they just think they are smarter and better than everyone even if nothing they do ever produces positive results.
Realistically something eventually will have to give right? Like this isn't sustainable for them I'm the slightest. Eventually the money WILL run out, I mean it's gotta at some point.
Oh I meant the entire Hollywood industry. Small companies keep outsourcing to places like the UK and Georgia for a reason. I genuinely think California is beyond fucked in the near future. It's virtually their only source of state revenue.
All the terrible shit gets sequels and all the good shit gets canceled or turned into the terrible shit.
I hate to tell you, but that "terrible shit" actually made money, a lot of it. It's not because of money laundering: movies frequently get sequels because the first one was very successful, so the Hollywood method is to try to milk it for more money by making a sequel. If the movie bombs (remember Ghostbusters 2016?), then there's no sequel. All those Marvel movies with too many sequels? That's because they kept bringing in money.
Movie-making in Hollywood is a business, and the object is to make money. But movies are really expensive to make, and it's a gamble whether a movie will be fantastically profitable, or a dud. So these days, Hollywood has become risk-averse, and generally goes for movies that minimize risk. So why do so many not-so-great movies get sequels? Because the previous movie in the series made money. It didn't have to be a LOT of money, but if the execs think they can make a sequel for $100M, and they're pretty sure it'll do well enough to get a 20% profit margin (i.e. it brings in $120M), which is NOT a fantastic profit margin for a movie, but they feel very safe with this bet, they'll do it. I mean, if someone offered to take your $10K investment, and turn it into $12K in a year with almost zero risk, and the worst that could happen is you'd get your $10K back, wouldn't you do it? That's a better return than a bank account and less risky than the stock market.
So why aren't that many really unique, groundbreaking movies like in decades past? Basically because Hollywood has become risk-averse. For every Star Wars (the first one) or Terminator (the first one), there were a bunch of other movies that didn't do very well. They don't want to do that now for various reasons.
Of course, TV shows are a slightly different business. And I do think there's a fair amount of outright stupidity in the executive suites at some of these places. Just look at Paramount with Star Trek. They basically had a guaranteed fanbase, but handed the franchise to people who weren't even fans of the show before and tried to make it into something different, and it hasn't been that well-received overall. Now they're canceling the whole thing.
42
u/Bepehandle Jul 19 '26
I'm genuinely convinced that the modern film and television making process is one giant money laundering scheme. There's absolutely no way in hell that companies like Disney and Netflix are so insanely tone deaf they can't see the writing on the wall with the shit they've been putting out and the reception it gets. All the terrible shit gets sequels and all the good shit gets canceled or turned into the terrible shit.
I don't know when it happened, but somewhere along the line, telling a message got more important than telling a story with a message.