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The new literalism plaguing today’s movies

(www.newyorker.com)
231 points frogulis | 3 comments | 15 Jul 25 03:52 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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wnevets ◴[15 Jul 25 04:21 UTC] No.44567793[source]▶
I'm convinced it has to do with the increased importance of the overseas markets, these movies now must make it past Chinese censors and make sense for people that don't natively speak English or understands its nuances. Showing a flashback scene and swapping in the government approved voice over is a better business decision than not releasing the movie in insert country here.

Unrelated movie trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRqxyqjpOHs

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burnt-resistor ◴[15 Jul 25 07:10 UTC] No.44568706[source]▶
The bean counters ruin everything with product placement, taking out bits that "offend" certain censors, and explaining jokes. Let them have their own edited versions that suck.
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mvieira38 ◴[15 Jul 25 13:22 UTC] No.44570877[source]▶
Hard agree. In what other art forms are people expected to produce for "global appeal"? A lot of my enjoyment of books and music IS the fact that I "don't get it", and slowly learning the cultural references is fun and good for personal development
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1. BobaFloutist ◴[15 Jul 25 17:39 UTC] No.44573791[source]▶
Part of it is that modern mainstream movies are so expensive to make. They need to be global to recoup their expenses.

Much like videogames, the answer seems to be to look for indie and foreign works with less pressure on them to be easily consumable.

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2. lupire ◴[15 Jul 25 21:06 UTC] No.44575819[source]▶
If they were good they wouldn't have to be so expensive.
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3. burnt-resistor ◴[17 Jul 25 06:06 UTC] No.44590196[source]▶
Like wine, and investing generally, it's the argumentum ad crumenam, problem.

The problem with movies is they're worse bets than startups and so big productions are the primary ones that get distribution and marketing. Kind of a self-reinforcing power law distribution that leads to a few getting most of the money.

The tiny ones need to find cleverer ways to get free marketing Richard Branson-style and try to include at least one celebrity.

Examples of shoestring budget success stories:

- Napoleon Dynamite 400k USD (2004) (680k USD today)

- Mad Max $200k AUD (1979) (760k USD today)

- Fruitvale Station 900k USD (2013) (1.24M USD today)

- Monty Python and the Holy Grail £ 175k (1975) (2.5M USD today)

- Easy Rider 400k USD (1969) (3.5M USD today)

- Mean Streets 500k USD (1973) (3.6M USD today)