What’s Wrong in Hollywood

The marketer’s voice at the studio table is now pivotal from the day a studio decides whether to make a movie — and usually what that voice expresses is trepidation. Their first question is not “Will the movie be good?” but “Can it be sold?” Blaming the studios for everything lets another culprit off too easily: us. We can complain until we’re hoarse that Hollywood abandoned us by ceasing to make the kinds of movies we want to see, but it’s just as true that we abandoned Hollywood. Studios make movies for people who go to the movies, and the fact is, we don’t go anymore.