if they cared about money, current star wars wouldn't exist.
current marvel wouldn't be where it is
those two prove Nick D. right. matrix 4 proves Nick D. right
star wars had problems even before COVID happened and they won't fix them. keep losing fans, keep losing money, keep pushing their weird ideas.
no they don't only care about profits. why does matrix 4 exist then?
They absolutely do care about money. And only money.
Star wars
-Disney bought the property. Tried to distill down star wars to its essence. Even George Lucas couldn't recapture the magic of his own trilogy in the prequels. They end up being wildly financially and critically successful with the force awakens. The biggest complaint was that it was too safe and too much of a retread of the original. They tried to correct things and give the audience what they wanted with the sequel, and brought in a director known for being subversive. The last jedi came out and was not as financially successful as they hoped - and there was piles of blowback from the fanbase. Disney then pivoted again to give the audience what they thought they wanted, and reverted back to being insanely safe, trying to undo everything the last jedi started- and it bombed even harder not appealing to anyone. Every step of that trilogy was an attempt to give the fanbase what it wanted, it being criticized, and the studio having no creative backbone and trying to just give the audience what it wanted. All they cared about was money- as they should. These studios and streamers for the most part dont actually care if they make "good" content. They only care if audiences like them and watch them. Thats why most netflix originals feel made in a lab by AI. They dont care if they make "good" content, they care if they can make content similar to other movies you liked so you will watch the new one they just made.
Artistic merit is something the creators care about, the writers, the directors etc. The studio may bend and give rope to the artists and let them do things they aren't crazy about, because they care most about putting that directors name in the marketing. This business is wildly cutthroat and all that matters is do you put asses in seats.
-Star wars since then has had ups and downs with its shows in terms of financial return. If what you're talking about is "wokeness" or something- the reason the studios, or any other company, leaned into that is because they thought there was money there. Also they were trying to appease the artists who make the all the content. For a long time companies couldn't grasp the difference between twitter outcry and actual reality. They thought everyone wanted things to be more "woke" due to social media metrics and so forth. As we are seeing now, companies are starting to pullback on the "woke" stuff because they're realizing its hurting their bottom line. Disney has come out as well as many other entertainment companies saying we are going to lean away from any perceived "messaging" in our content and get back to "entertaining"- aka were going to remove the "wokeness" from our future content. These things take a while to go into effect because the development process takes years so you wont see the changes immediately. They didn't lean into wokeness then lean away from it due to some moral inclination, they are just trying to follow the tide of where they think they can make a few more nickels. It's always the creators who are pushing the political narratives not the studio. The studios need to try to appease the creators, because they want big names attached to their projects to sell them. So if Joaquin Phoenix says I'm not going to be in your movie unless it has 'X' message, or Jordan Peele says I'm not going to make this movie unless it has "X" message, or Todd Phillips says I'm not going to make a joker sequel unless i can make it with "X" message- the studios will tend to bend a little because what they actually care about is the money those guys bring in the door.
Marvel- The same issues apply here. They are also the biggest success story in the history of movies. Their current issues are much more tied to losing focus after thanos and superhero fatigue, black panther is one of the most politically socially conscious marvel movies ever and also one of their most financially successful ones. Whatever "wokeness' you have percieved in their recent output will be going away soon.
Matrix 4 exists because the studio pinned its hopes that bringing back the original writer directors, and cast would lead to making money. The creators are the ones who chose to take it in a bizarre direction- and werent going to return unless they made the movie on their terms. At the end of the day studios ,and really no one, actually knows if any project is going to be successful. Everyone is just kind of guessing. Many people hated joker and thought it was awful, the studios didnt know it was going to be a hit. Thats why it had a small budget compared to other super hero movies- they were willing to take a calculated risk in financing an offbeat piece of content- and it should be said, it was incredibly difficult to get that movie funded. The studios are just always trying to limit their risk. So if the studio watched the first joker and said I dont know if this is going to be successful, but then its a huge hit, they are going to trust that the creators that made the first one knew what they were doing. You gave me 55 million for the first one and I made you a billion dollars. Trust that I know what the **** I am doing. The studios didnt know the first would be a hit or a bomb, so they also dont know if the second would be a hit or a bomb- all they know is that the team that made the first one made a billion dollars. We can invest more money there- and even if the second one bombs, atleast we can fallback on being able to market that the same team who made the first one is returning for the sequel, that will put asses in seats. It costs more money today to market a movie than actually make the movie. That's where we are at. The content is much less important than the ability to market it. Thats why everything is legacy sequels with the original cast and prequels. It has nothing to do with artist integrity, its about money. The artists are the ones with any sort of artistic integrity.
You need to recalibrate how you assume these things are produced.
