An Open Letter to Hollywood Executives

Dear Hollywood executives,

Since early last century you have had a stranglehold on the film industry, and often for good reason. You were always creepy hucksters and many of you are rightfully in prison, but at least you were good at what you did and you knew what people wanted. You had your fingers on the pulse, an ear to the cultural ground, a real feel for the zeitgeist. But now you have started spinning your wheels in the mud, and it’s no one’s fault but yours. The last year or so of films has indicated that your entire industry may be in the progress of collapsing in on itself like a dying star. 

It’s the year of independent films. Iron Lung did great, hell, Obsession is on track to be the biggest film of the year and you had nothing to do with its creation. You should see it, you might learn a thing or two about what makes a movie memorable.

The creators of Obsession had the simple goal of telling a compelling story. That’s it. They did what they could to make every detail of that movie as good as they could, and it paid off massively. The audience isn’t stupid, putting effort into your creation will pay off as long as you understand that money is not the same as effort. You can’t just up the budget and expect something good. If those involved in the project don’t care about the story they’re telling then the audience will sense that.

You’ve seen the writing on the wall for a long time now. The success of all the Marvel slop of the last two decades was an omen of a time long passed. Mediocre time-wasters made to sell licensing deals to merch companies are no foundation for a thriving film industry. The Marvelisation of other movies is also getting old. We don’t need an A-list actor spitting out snappy one-liners every three minutes. Just make a movie that’s actually good and people will be drawn to it.

We both know all of this is just symptoms of a larger issue, which is neo-liberal capitalism. To you, movies can’t just be movies. They have to be merch. They have to be a boost in streaming service subscriptions. They have to be multi-billion dollar franchises because the line must always go up. Nothing can exist for its own sake anymore, and that’s why you’re failing. And I shouldn’t have to watch several movies and TV shows just to understand what’s going on, it’s disrespectful of people’s time.

Another glaring problem is your tendency to coast on name recognition. You know a lot of the movies you produce are garbage and would never survive on their own merit, so you attach known actors or directors to them to make them marketable. It often works because some people will just eat whatever slop you put in front of them, but we both know that even the piggies are getting sick of this shit. If I see another mediocre action movie with Dwayne Johnson or Ryan Reynolds I swear I will burst into one of your many aimless meetings and self-immolate. I know where you work, John.

With the popularity of streaming services movies have never been more accessible, but that popularity may not be as long-lasting as you seem to be relying on. While it’s true that Netflix once put a sizeable dent in the piracy industry, the hodgepodge of subscriptions that the average person currently needs just to watch their shows is becoming untenable. That has a very good chance of being a gravy train will eventually run out of steam, and seems to be already doing so with people moving en masse to self-hosted servers via Plex or Jellyfin or just paying someone for access to theirs. All because you decided to invent a more annoying version of cable.

The stone-cold reality is that people flock to whatever is convenient in the moment, and streaming services are losing their convenience.

Netflix pays well for their movies, but that money could soon dry up if viewership declines. Where will you turn? You once had VHS sales, then you had DVD sales, but both of those are long gone. What remains is streaming, but for how long? Netflix cracking down on their password sharing to increase revenue should be viewed as a sailor’s warning.

What people want are good movies, and you seem incapable of delivering. Sure, many of your recent offerings are financial successes, but looking at that as the only important metric is exactly why you’re in this mess. None of them have caused a cultural stir. If all your creations are quickly forgotten, how long do you think it will take for people to catch on to the fact that everything you produce is utterly forgettable? Your entire brand will become associated with low-quality trash, and that’s a label that can be hard to shed.

I have not heard anyone I know talk about the highest grossing films of the last year. The movies that have actually stuck with people are smaller projects that gained popularity via word of mouth. I don’t know a single person who has seen the Michael Jackson biopic, because who the fuck cares? Abusive dad, weird childhood which allegedly lead him to be weird around kids, some decent music and showmanship, death by tranquillisers, there’s your movie. Now give me a hundred million dollars.

I know you feel the independent filmmakers nipping at your heels. And before you even consider it, AI is not going to save you. Much like climate change, this is a hole you can’t spend your way out of.

There is however one larger, overarching reason why I believe your industry will collapse within the next decade, and it has very little to do with the actual content it produces but more so who produces it: the decay and imminent collapse of the American hegemony. 

There is already a growing sentiment globally that the United States are a destructive force that uses its film industry to launder its reputation on the global stage. That is a propaganda machine that you play a core part in. We all know about your long-lived affair with the Department of War, previously known as the “Department of Defence”. How you work with the military to get access to equipment like tanks and helicopters in exchange for a positive portrayal.

The world is moving on from the US, as it should, and considering how your main exports for the last century or so have been cultural, you may be in for a rough ride when that reality comes knocking.

At the end of the day, the core concept you exist within is probably flawed. Maybe the entire idea of a “film industry” is just a relic of a bygone era that we should be moving on from. The same applies to you, and no amount of expensive cigars or secret mistresses will save you from your ultimate fate: film history footnotes.

The winds are out of your sails. Better start paddling.

Best regards,

Everyone who has ever enjoyed a movie