The Big Picture: Broken Biz

[Azuaron]

Let me tell you the story about a little movie called "Hardwired" that most of you have probably seen.

What? Never heard of it? Of course you have. It starred Will Smith, and Alan Tudyk played all the robots.

You say that movie's called I, Robot? You're wrong. An I, Robot movie has never been made. In I, Robot, Earth has a ban on robots, and only the Spacers have robots, so there aren't in robots in mid-21st century Chicago. You watched the movie Hardwired that was reskinned with superficial Asimov trappings, just like how Super Mario Bros. 2 is actually Doki Doki Panic.

(You can read about how this happened at Screenwriter's Utopia.) [http://www.screenwritersutopia.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=2713]

 

[brazuca]

What I like about this show is that sometimes I have no idea what the next episode will be about. Can't wait for next episode.

 

[Bluecho]

So the reason Hollywood has such a tough time making movies that don't suck is because they're mired in archiac business and accounting practices? In addition to just not understanding how to make a good film? What a beuracratic nightmare. The government would be proud.

My view is that we're going to see a lot more legitimate "independent" films and serialized programming, owing to the advent of digital distribution. Sites like Blip.tv have made it easy for a low budgit production to gain a wide audience. Not necessarily a huge audience, but one that hopefully can cover their production costs. Which in the end is the real mark of success. If one guy produced an expensive blockbuster that topped the charts on opening, but didn't begin to cover his costs, he did worse than the guy with a low budgit who managed to reach a great enough audience as to be in the black.

 

[Sabrestar]

It makes a sad amount of sense that a movie consistently sitting at #2 for months would be considered a failure. After all, Hollywood is in the country in which the most successful NFL team of the early 90s is regarded as a failure and a joke because "they lost four straight championship games". Ignored in that is the fact that they went to four straight championship games, against several different opponents. But no, because they weren't #1, they suck. Just like NASCAR changed its rules after a driver won the championship without ever winning a race, just finishing near the top in all of them.

Sadly, the culture in the USA is all about finishing first, or else you're nothing. No wonder we have the cinematic disasters that we do.

 

[daxterx2005]

I'd take a twinky movie over a kandy land movie any day.

 

[Akio91]

I went into this episode expecting Bob to damn the movie-going community for dissing Scott Pilgrim again. I was sadly disappointed, but it was a good episode nontheless.


Also, this episode gave me all the justification I needed for hating Tim Burton. That creepy hack.

 

[C.S.Strowbridge]

I work for a site that's trying to make judging how profitable a movie is easier. It's a huge undertaking.

 

[Axolotl]

You know reading this thread makes me wonder if I've entered an alternate universe where good films aren't made. I mean yes Candy Land and Battleships are being made, and that's an awful idea but I don't see how you can really complain when this year we're getting Prometheus, The Avengers, A Dark Knight sequel, The Hobbit, another Tarantino movie, a new Pixar film, John Carter and I'm sure some surprise hits as well.

Yesn Hollywood is being run badly by a group of people who have only a vague understanding of the real world and it's true that we could probably be getting much more great films but also we could easily be getting much less becuase there is a steady stream of brilliant films coming out each year. Also we live in an age of DVDs, Netflix and LoveFilm, if you're really that desperate for great films it's never been easier to get ones from past nine decades of cinema.

 

[ewhac]

So the reason Hollywood has such a tough time making movies that don't suck is because they're mired in archiac [sic] business and accounting practices?

It's not archaic business and accounting practices, it's [em][strong]fraudulent[/strong][/em] business and accounting practices. Where the studios aren't actually keeping three or more copies of the books, they play an elaborate shell game where revenues are siphoned off from the production company, leaving it with nothing but liabilities. Surprise! The film made no profits; no profit-sharing for you, loser.

The comparatively well-known example of Peter Jackson being screwed over LoTR is just the tip of one of many icebergs. Have a look at the lawsuit Buchwald v. Paramount [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buchwald_v._Paramount].

What a beuracratic nightmare. The government would be proud.

The government shouldn't be proud; the government should be [em]investigating[/em].

 

[MovieBob]

I love that you put that Stand and Deliver image at the end. Hilarious.

 

[RJ Dalton]

As far as I'm concerned, Hollywood can't get enough shit for how exploitative and corrupt it is in its business practices. Good on you, Bob.

 

[ch0pstixZ]

Twinky movie? Im down!

 

[CrazyGirl17]

*Sigh* Stupid Hollywood. When will they learn that basing a movie on something that already exists is not the way to go? ...And yet, some people will still go to see a movie based on "Battleship"... *Double Sigh*

 

[newwiseman]

I'm waiting for a serious consideration of the buddy cop movie Chutes and Ladders starring ownen wilson and ben stiller, or a Hungry Hungry Hippo movie.

*I really do love Robot Chicken

 

[team star pug]

I just laughed at the idea of over 2 billion people going to see "Twinky the kid: The movie" And being horribly scarred for life. But even if they all saw it (all two seventh of the population of the planet), wouldn't that mean it would be a success?

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Coupon!!!! The movie


//this is very applicable to the video. Trust me.

You watch the film and get to watch another movie for free.

 

[Jorias]

This discussion is pretty interchangeable with just about every product of humanity out there. When i was working at Apple, numbers mattered when it came promoting those "Genius's". I didn't work as a Genius mind you, i worked for Apple as a contractor for a different company, it's actually not the point. Anyway, i would listen in on some management meetings every Tuesday and all i would hear about is numbers this, and numbers that, logically this should work. Now these Numbers would pertain to customer satisfaction surveys people would "randomly" get. The Genius's performance was 90% based on this, hence their promotion. You know, it didn't matter that half those geniuses there were complete fucking morons, and half the time they would pass off their issues to more knowledgeable Apple Tier 2 techs on the phone, as long as they were kissing the asses of the masses so to speak...makes me sick even thinking about it.

 

[300lb. Samoan]

"Next week we'll talk about... whatever I want to. Tune in to find out what that is."

Bob may be the most interesting man on the internet!

 

[Nurb]

All this crap about big studios makes me wonder why I should care if their movies are pirated and/or bootleged. They're obviously not worth supporting and any possibility they go bankrupt would be a good possibility.