First time in history that companies hate their fans?

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

We were talking today about movies and everyone was saying how bizarre it was that companies, Disney/Lucasfilm for one, are actively blaming fans for their movies bombing. I had never hear any Lucasfilm employee say anything bad the whole time from the late 90s until the sale. The Prequels got all kinds of hate, but you never heard Lucasfilm say the fans were bigots or too stupid to understand them, and now it's the norm. It's like they decided to stop making movies for the fans and make movies for some imaginary audience they think they have. It makes no sense. We're seeing this across the board with comic books, movies/tv, videogames, and even books now. I don't know if they stopped liking to make art, make money, or what.

 

[Master Boda]

Speaking from a psychologic point of view,we are experiencing a cultural revolution over the last decade.Social media has been weaponized and we are seeing the results of that.Creativity and imagination are being drained from youth/adult a like.Studios are afraid of losing money with something new hence the reboot era we are experiencing.Studios found a perfect scapegoat in this new era,they make crap media to those who scream the loudest and blame those who do not obey and consume with the rest of the heard.My thoughts again from a psychological point of view.Great thread by the way!

 

[Treadwell]

It's kinda like the artist who throws his own exhibition (well, most are self-thrown except posthumous ones) and when it doesn't do well, it's because the great unwashed are too unsophisticated to appreciate his genius.

Well, sometimes, it's just because your art is crap!

 

[Ron]

It's not about art or even making money anymore. It's about spreading THE MESSAGE. These people think they are on some kind of 'social justice' crusade. I'm sure some here will dismiss that as youtube driven conspiracy nonsense. Hey, don't take it from me. Take it from Bob Iger himself and all the other Disney execs that have talked about this through internal communications. There are zoom calls you can watch online where they discuss this very thing.

So, if you believe you're fighting injustice through art, critics are no longer just critics. They're political opponents.

(Let me say I don't like to bring politics into the forum but I don't see how it's possible not to and discuss topics like this.)

 

[Master Boda]

I thought it was great when Elon Musk told Bob Iger to go F himself for trying to blackmail him.I take it as a good sign that studios with a non artistic message are losing money as it shows that those who support the message are not as numerous as they want you to believe.The irony is the companies that hate the fans have been bought by those who hate the message. Topics like this can this be discussed, one just needs to be aware how thin the ice is.I try to bring psychology into the forum.

 

[VanPersie]

Great, let's all get on this roundabout again. Can't wait to see the same comments for the millionth time....

 

[Too Much Garlic]

Whenever a company uses this tactic I refuse to watch anything they do. They do not deserve my money and if all did the same, these companies will die.

 

[joberg]

Great, let's all get on this roundabout again. Can't wait to see the same comments for the millionth time....

Sure, we can bitch...but what's the solution? Voting with your wallet? Writing/showing to the "Men in charge" a detailed plan to "save" the "Franchise-du-jour"? Getting back to "The good old days" of writing and movie making (without trying to re-invent the wheel?).
Removing the political wokeness from the present zeitgeist and having fun again?

 

[Cephus]

Great, let's all get on this roundabout again. Can't wait to see the same comments for the millionth time....

If you don't like it, then don't read it. I never get people who complain about the free speech of others because they don't want to see it. Then don't click on this thread. It's honestly not that hard.

 

[pengbuzz]

It's not about art or even making money anymore. It's about spreading THE MESSAGE. These people think they are on some kind of 'social justice' crusade. I'm sure some here will dismiss that as youtube driven conspiracy nonsense. Hey, don't take it from me. Take it from Bob Iger himself and all the other Disney execs that have talked about this through internal communications. There are zoom calls you can watch online where they discuss this very thing.

So, if you believe you're fighting injustice through art, critics are no longer just critics. They're political opponents.

(Let me say I don't like to bring politics into the forum but I don't see how it's possible not to and discuss topics like this.)

People raised in comfortable lives who want to "fight evil", so they imagine others being "that evil" they and end up "SW Don Quixote's".

I don't want to get into "politics" either" (really like not being banned!), but in this case, it's pretty intertwined now with the movies (due to the current crop of clowns in Hollyweird ).

Great, let's all get on this roundabout again. Can't wait to see the same comments for the millionth time....

Psssst:

Spoiler

If you don't like this "roundabout", no one's keeping you on it but you.

If you don't like it, then don't read it. I never get people who complain about the free speech of others because they don't want to see it. Then don't click on this thread. It's honestly not that hard.

I suspect it's because the comments they see "autorepeat" in their heads and they can't stand it.

 

[VanPersie]

Sure, we can bitch...but what's the solution? Voting with your wallet? Writing/showing to the "Men in charge" a detailed plan to "save" the "Franchise-du-jour"? Getting back to "The good old days" of writing and movie making (without trying to re-invent the wheel?).
Removing the political wokeness from the present zeitgeist and having fun again?

It’ll never catch on.

If you don't like it, then don't read it. I never get people who complain about the free speech of others because they don't want to see it. Then don't click on this thread. It's honestly not that hard.

My irony meter just popped….

People raised in comfortable lives who want to "fight evil", so they imagine others being "that evil" they and end up "SW Don Quixote's".

I don't want to get into "politics" either" (really like not being banned!), but in this case, it's pretty intertwined now with the movies (due to the current crop of clowns in Hollyweird ).


Psssst:

Spoiler

If you don't like this "roundabout", no one's keeping you on it but you.

I suspect it's because the comments they see "autorepeat" in their heads and they can't stand it.

Not at all. Take a look at a great many threads in the entertainment section and see the same comments repeated in all of them. For people whinging about a lack of creativity, they sure like to break out the same old comments very often.

 

[batguy]

People keep repeating the same comments because they are really, really frustrated. After 30+ years some of these franchises are effectively part of the cultural heritage.

For the biggest fans it functions like a religion. Their "donations" to these studios might as well be tax-deductible. That might sound crazy, but so does any other religion to the non-believer.

 

[Tan Djarka]

The studios are only defending their products like fans complain about their beloved franchises.

"You put out a film that didn't fulfill my fanboy desires. You destroyed my childhood!"

"Oh yeah? Well... You're stupid!"

I'm not saying either one is right, but that's where we are.

 

[VanPersie]

People keep repeating the same comments because they are really, really frustrated. After 30+ years some of these franchises are effectively part of the cultural heritage.

For the biggest fans it functions like a religion. Their "donations" to these studios might as well be tax-deductible. That might sound crazy, but so does any other religion to the non-believer.

I 100% understand that, and share many of their frustrations.

As I said, if anyone genuinely takes a good long look at the state and quality of threads in the entertainment section of this site, can they honestly say that almost every major thread doesn’t devolve into the same old tired comments all the time? I can’t be the only one that sees it.

 

[Moviefreak]

I 100% understand that, and share many of their frustrations.

As I said, if anyone genuinely takes a good long look at the state and quality of threads in the entertainment section of this site, can they honestly say that almost every major thread doesn’t devolve into the same old tired comments all the time? I can’t be the only one that sees it.

You’re not. It’s the same four or five people who continue to come into threads and repeat the same tired rhetoric. Especially when it is an opportunity to take a jab at Disney. I agree with you that it gets old fast.

 

[jts1031]

To get the thread back on topic, I don't think it's that the companies hate their fans, but they've discovered that they now have the crutch to fall back on. It's easier to say a movie failed because of this group or that, rather than admit maybe it was just a crappy movie. We see it more and more as people, government, and many other groups find it easier to blame something for their failures because it's easier than actually addressing the real issue. It's laziness and avoidance.

 

[Cephus]

To get the thread back on topic, I don't think it's that the companies hate their fans, but they've discovered that they now have the crutch to fall back on. It's easier to say a movie failed because of this group or that, rather than admit maybe it was just a crappy movie. We see it more and more as people, government, and many other groups find it easier to blame something for their failures because it's easier than actually addressing the real issue. It's laziness and avoidance.

A lot of companies these days have to justify their failures, both to themselves and to their stockholders, so they make up excuses because they can't admit that they made a bad movie or TV show. Their job, their ONLY job, is to make something that consumers are willing to part with their hard-earned money to consume. That's it. If a project fails to make money, it's not on the consumers, it's on the company who badly misread the interest of the buying public. They made a product that people didn't want to see, for whatever reason. Sometimes, it's not the fault of the company, they couldn't foresee. Sony couldn't have imagined 9/11 when a ton of their marketing involved Spider-Man hanging between the twin towers. They had to scramble to change things, otherwise it would have driven off a lot of potentially paying customers. They can't control their actors, although they really ought to be trying harder. Disney couldn't have foreseen Jonathan Majors beating on his girlfriend. Now that he's been convicted, they have to jettison him and everything that he's touched, which to their credit, they're doing.

However, the one thing that is always true: the customers are ALWAYS blameless. The studios don't own the customers. They don't "deserve" their money. They have to earn it and in the modern era, a lot of them just aren't. When those customers are telling the studios "here's why we're not seeing your movies" and the studios keep doing it over and over and over, I don't know what to tell you. That's the very definition of insanity, trying to do the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. The paying customers have soundly rejected the ideological nonsense in Hollywood these days, yet Hollywood keeps doing it. Then, they have to make excuses to the people holding the purse-strings and they're sure not going to hold up their hand and say "it was my fault!"

Honestly, who in their right mind doesn't understand this?

 

[batguy]

Yeah, the fan-bashing is a PR tactic.

The studios don't say "The entire public failed to do their Constitutional duty and see our new movie."

They basically say, "A group of incel neckbeard terrorists launched a coordinated cyber-attack to sabotage the word-of-mouth. They convinced everybody else not to see it. It wasn't OUR fault, stockholders, we swear."

 

[Funky]

Do I live in a cave? I’ve never heard this. Seriously. I’ve heard of fan bashing (but that’s been going on forever) but I’ve never heard of a (major) company OPENLY express hate and disgust with its fans for this projects not being successful. Can someone provide some links or articles where they do this…collectively? Now, individuals, yes. For example, does anybody remember when Elizabeth Banks version of Charlie’s Angels was released and NOBODY wheat to see it? It was so bad. After the first weekend’s numbers came back she was SO angry that she publicly bashed the public for “intentionally trying to tank her career”.

 

[Kylash]

Corporations are not your friends, they dont owe you anything, nor you them. I'll never understand this mindset that brands/companies should be catering to a "loyal" base.