False Idols...

One of the things that drives me crazy is that in our society and in the business world we are moving away from the product we sell or the services we are offering to a misplaced belief that the product we are selling is us. This has given rise to an unhealthy rise in self-aggrandizement and egoism. More people are aware of the Kardashians than they are of Mark Twain or Jonah Salk (the inventor of the polio vaccine). It is a bizarre situation that is exceedingly unhealthy and corrosive in terms of building our society.

Social media has become the playground of egotists and narcissists. They attempt to make the value proposition, not their movies, not the story, but themselves. During the Reagan administration, we saw a movement away from traditional value-based icons, people who, through their actions bettered the world to icons who managed to make a ton of money. John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Dorothy Day, Albert Schweitzer, and Helen Keller ceased to hold a place of respect within our society.? Now Larry Ellison, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and those Armenian purveyors of crassness, the Kardashians took over the icon mantle. They did not have merit but control of base messaging and barraging social media with images of Kim Kardashian’s overexposed tuckus.? None of this is based on merit, none of this is based on excellence…it is simply based on greed and on base behaviors.

?I personally think all of this started once Hugh Hefner managed to commoditize women and sexuality, twist it around as something that was marketable and force it into the mainstream of our culture.? He claimed he was at the forefront of the sexual revolution but in reality he targeted men’s misconception of women and presented a false self-gratified version of the female of the species. He presented women as a plaything and stymied maturation by holding on to a 13 year old version of sexuality. It was not healthy at all. The sexual revolution was a movement towards female accessibility, not liberation. In short Hugh Hefner was full of shit.

?As people in the movie business, we should understand that this is the trend that has eroded society's concept of what a star is. One by one, the icons of Hollywood have fallen. The Me Too movement has shone a light on serial bad behavior and actors who we once admired have collapsed as a result of their own entitled and bad behavior. This has created a crisis for the movies, a crisis that is hard to address and hard to conceptualize.

?For the movies, this trend has been more than problematic. There is a revulsion for the entitlement exhibited by the studios and Hollywood Culture in general. Add to this the general distaste for the political lecturing done by the participants of the movies. I am socially liberal, and fiscally conservative, and I have a lot of opinions that are neither black or white but gray. I have worked in Hollywood and painfully discovered that most people in this part of the world are primarily concerned about appearing to do the right thing….but very few are actually interested in doing the right thing. It is a sea of $150 dollar haircuts and self-importance…..and America has ceased to trust it.?

The disconnection between Hollywood and its audience has made it increasingly difficult to market movies in any satisfactory fashion. I went and looked back at posters of past hits. The “Cool Hand Luke” posters exudes the name of Paul Newman. The Stanley Kubrick classic “Spartacus” had a poster which screamed its cast in lead position, Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, and Charles Laughton names were all placed before the title. In 2022, the focus was firmly away from the cast and skewed to either the filmmaker or the concept. Kirk Douglas is a much easier sale than trying to sell a storyline. The movie “Secrets Of Dumbledore” in most of its campaigns, did not mention what is a very strong cast.

There are further marketing issues. A loss of identity and a monumental lack of confidence sank the Disney picture “ John Carter” ten years ago.? The movie was? based on Burroughs’ “A Princess of Mars” first published in 1912.? In many ways its plot points were the inspiration for two of the biggest Sci-Fi movies, “Star Wars” and “Avatar”. This inspiration was something that Disney ignored and in fact they, in their wisdom, decided to change the name from “John Carter of Mars” to John Carter. At least with the inclusion of the word MARS, the audience could grasp an inkling of what the movie was about.

?A newbie Disney marketing executive, by the name of MT Carney, decided in his eminent wisdom that there had been too many recent movies with Mars in the title that had flopped so he made the call to retitle the movie “John Carter”. Huge mistake. Strike One.

?At one time Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts were attached to the movies.Andrew Stanton, a veteran with Pixar decided that he did not want Tom Cruise for the lead but opted instead for an unknown, Tylor Kitsch to play the lead. Strike Two.

?When the trailer came out, there was no mention of Stanton’s previous success with Pixar, no great action sequences were shown and no comic relief was shared. The trailer was a dud. Strike Three.

The movie itself was not bad. It was fast paced, had acceptable acting and a storyline that screamed sequel, but every possible decision in the marketing of the movie that was made managed to alienate the natural audience, the tried and true Sci-fi fan . The marketing spoke to no one, appealed to no one and ignored everyone. It was in plain terms, a colossal failure.

It should have sent off warning bells within Hollywood, but instead it made Hollywood retreat further into the world of tentpoles and well known comic books movies. What was a chance to re-right the ship launched a call that places Hollywood fully into retreat mode.

?It is evident that the movie industry has become lost. It is unable and sometimes increasingly unwilling to connect with the American public. Increasingly it has become evident that like its movies Hollywood is living in their own little worlds, far away from their audiences.

?The demise of this relationship is creating lower ticket sales, an increasingly vulnerable box office and a growing lack of interest in what is coming out of Hollywood. This detachment coupled with the rise of streaming is creating a perfect storm. Hollywood is quickly eroding whatever value it once had.