The 150 Year Decline of The Movie Business

[@andreweaston1779]

all are right, all are wrong. Some movies today are truly amazing. Most movies today are terrible.

[@kellychuang8373]

In these times and with the above that isn't too surprising and also good video on the above along with sad of our times being as they are now.

[@taln0reich]

sturgons law: "ninety percent of everything is crap"

[@Lonovavir]

This is why I mostly watch foreign/older/independent media. You can a decade or so without watching anything new with all the films and series made between the 1940s and 2000s.

[@kellychuang8373]

That's also something to really think and maybe have a look into.

[@JustMe-no8el]

Facts

[@kellychuang8373]

@@JustMe-no8el Also can say good response and also another thing that is a red flag if some show or movie is too good for it's own good like in the work 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene.

[@markatonc]

The main reason that movies and games are Money motivated instead of art, is that people NEED money to live, and you need to pay your staff before the movie is out and making that money, so you need the sponsors and investors to be able to really make it, and when those people give you mine for something, they want to have a say in what you are doing. Unless we can go post-scarcity it will never change

[@doujinflip]

We’re already post-scarcity in production, it’s the distribution part that’s still lopsided.

[@Iamwolf134]

​@@doujinflip True, although unfortunately, the distribution side of things is all on a case-by-case basis.

[@Sportsvee]

One factor to include is, as we get older, we get more picky about what we want to spend our time and money on. Or even what we enjoy. When I was young, I'd go and see alot of movies, now, its not a priority and I'm happy to wait a year or two to even watch it, if I watch it at all.

[@tomlxyz]

While there's truth to that the increasing reluctance for major producers to create new original content instead of just milking out an already established universe shows a lack of willingness to be creative

[@mikitz]

Also, the more movies you watch over the years, the less tolerance you will have for crap. This is why there I have a list of some two dozen films I watch at least annually.

[@doujinflip]

I fly regularly enough that I just wait til I’m in the air with an entertainment system that’s already included with the seat to watch most movies nowadays 💺🍿 Even then it’s a surprisingly often flight that I still don’t find anything interesting to watch 😕

[@Sportsvee]

@@mikitz can't be disappointed if you already know its a good film 👍

[@Sportsvee]

@@tomlxyz you are absolutely correct.

[@TheVincentKyle]

"Don't you want more of what you previously liked, are you still watching, are you still watching, press enter if you're still watching, remakes!" Damn you, Netflix.

[@mattcollins4550]

You neglected to mention that the largest consumer of cinema is now China. Not to mention the amount of Chinese investment into Hollywood. So not only does the Chinese government require the films fit certain narratives and themes, but that the audiences in China require more simple plots to understand.

[@dinglshingle]

china doin their very best to run it down for the rest of the world. but if their economy recedes that will end surely

[@Code7Unltd]

Mainland China has a weirdly terrible taste. It's so strange that even Hong Kong filmmakers doesn't know what China wants in films.

[@CMVBrielman]

I love that TLJ is your stand-in for what’s wrong with Hollywood.

[@noone1929]

I have to say we seem overdue for a renaissance. Hollywood, Streaming Services, and even Satellite TV all feel like teetering monoliths. Unstable and Unwilling to change. We need risk takers again, people who want to create artistic messages and sets not be a cheap sounding board for social media. Heck I’d even take a good ol’ rollicking adventure if it didn’t feel canned. Worst of all some of these bad habits have been leaking into my favorite media. Books. If you want to be Published it feels like you either have to be a celebrity (working with a ghost writer no doubt) or write another sequel/reboot to a established series or include all the right token characters to basic RPG plot.

[@uravgaymer]

I love how history works videos bc the intros arent 2 tiktoks long and the ads are formatted making them easily skippable

[@drivenbyrage5710]

There's only so many ways you can tell the same seven plot lines.

[@muskreality]

It's not just movies even the music keeps getting worse 😢

[@aliali-ce3yf]

just watch non blockbusters , plenty of smaller budget movies are artistic

[@makb_the_striker]

It's easier to say, than do, most independent movies are political, and especially centered around american politics. Movies about growing up (American graffiti) or about challenges of living in the country side (Of mice and man) - topics understandable worldwide - aren't filming no more. Instead they transitioned to the videogames (Life is strange and RDR2 respectively) or tv/streamings. So I just quit watching movies - in my country slavery was banned in 1529 - I don't need to redeem american collective psychotrauma.

[@tomlxyz]

​@@makb_the_strikerhow about... Not watching American movies then?

[@bullydungeon9631]

This

[@mikitz]

@@tomlxyz The problem is that it is hard to find monetization for even small budget films in e.g. Europe, therefore most of these films are made in the US.

[@makb_the_striker]

@@tomlxyz still easier to say, than do, I don't like translated movies, and know only three languages on the level that allows me to watch movies freely. So I just switched to media, which had more free standards - videogames.

[@pickles4412]

We live in a very odd time where nerds and loosers watch and fawn over multi million dollar block busters but jocks read obscure ancient literature

[@sodakk17]

Where is this happening?

[@Signupking]

i see it like that: big companies are now making bad movies because the risk for them is to high to make something really new but new small studios like these that started on youtube now make some really great things.

[@TheRelaxingRide]

keep an eye on A24

[@gerarddip]

Nope was one of the few recent movies I truly loved

[@peterfmodel]

Many aspects covering in this video is accurate, but it generally applies to Hollywood and the English speaking world. It did not need to be like this. Japan has successfully converted the manga-anime into a content generating machine. This really started in the 1980’s when Japan suffered a significant downturn, which devastated the anime and to a lesser extend the manga medium. The Japanese created a multi-medium machine which obtains stories from the public, as well as successfully professional writers. They had a huge amount of material, which a lot was not very good. However then then pumped this huge volume of stories into a vicious Darwinian machine which filtered out all the garbage and out came what people wanted to see. A good example is Yōjo Senki, first serialised on an online novel publishing web site, which proved successful so it became a light novel. It was even more successful so became an anime and finally a manga. Coupled with this was a huge amount of merchandise. Yōjo Senki is a classic and deals with deep concepts concerning faith, god and the realities of existence. In the west the master of the un9iverse creates a story arc and then brings in writers to create what they feel the public wants. In Japan the funnels entry is huge, in the west the funnel at the top is almost the same size as the exit.

[@UncleJoeLITE]

That was a fantastic story, thanks. I barely go to the cinema any more myself.

[@MrMont804]

How dare you kill my faith in the future of movies with this video

[@venod3134]

I've been saying "Social Media killed the mystique of the celebrity, for good".

[@jonny_gage]

I need to start making movies 🍿. It looks like an interesting adventure!

[@TaylerALong]

It's so fun. So so so much work but rewarding and engaging!

[@mikitz]

What we need now more than ever is a generation of young indie filmmakers. F*ck the studios and f*ck DEI.

[@cloudsofsunset7323]

if you watch holliwood movies... yeah films suck... if films as an art, it have sooo many good things

[@diegolikescode]

"could be fatal - or worst - lost a lot of money"

[@susza89]

In the good old days: "wow. This movie got an oscar! Wr must watch it!" Nowadays: "wow. This movie got an oscar. Lets never ever watch it cause it must be gay" True story

[@MikeHunt-fx9rg]

Social media exposed celeb culture I especially notice this whenever I see a celeb on a podcast they’re too focused on what they have to say and end up saying nothing at all it comes off as very fake and boring

[@astronot1578]

Hollywood is dying, the medium of moving pictures is not.

[@geetasewak5381]

Tribalism in movies is there too Oppenheimer: Male, Conservative Barbie: Female, Leftist 😅😅 people were so obsessed with them that everyone wanted to declare that they watched OPPENHEIMER and not BARBIE! As for me, I haven't watched a movie in years, I work all day

[@squirrel9760]

Sad

[@garrettrinquest1605]

Not a single reference to the lack of good story and script writing? I'm disappointed in you

[@MustbeTheBassest]

Exactly

[@mikitz]

Especially today as screen writers can't compete with the AI's creativity. Note: by default, AI has zero creativity.

[@MustbeTheBassest]

@@mikitz not their creativity, their costs

[@doujinflip]

Potentially good scripts are dismissed by conservative movie producers who aren’t so willing to experiment outside the few plotlines they know get returns.

[@jaend6924]

Plenty good spec scripts either collecting dust or it's development stuck in limbo because the studio only wants remakes - IPs that are more certain to sell. To be able to film original movie you have to be Nolan or Tarantino to get a green light.

[@cory8080]

Candy wrappers are far worse than popcorn noise at the movie theater. 😛

[@tahahammadia9380]

12:19 Lumière means light in French

[@ManoOne-Music-Production]

(JarJar) “… is patient zero” 😂👏👏👏

[@SlugSage]

That Nickelodeon bit was mind blowing for me 😂

[@louisbeaumesnil8133]

they hate him for he speak the true

[@tomlxyz]

Who hates him for it

[@ClarenceMemePlanet]

Underrated channel tbh

[@battled68]

Another reason to hate Jar Jar Binks...

[@anthonyruby2668]

No matter how bad Disney Star Wars gets, some of the sets look like a REAL place! Unlike the CGI fever dream world of the Prequels

[@michaelchen2718]

0:22 what? XD

[@GummiSammi]

I don't think Oppenheimer is a good example for hard to understand lines. Nolan is known to do that intentionally to force audience to focus more on the feel of the scene rather than what's being said. To intentionally draw more attention to the visuals or color and music by depriving of our ability to understand the spoke words.

[@thomasrdiehl]

If you want to convey how bad movies have gotten, maybe do not use examples that are actually incredible and awe-inspiring visuals due to the sheer amount of visual imagination on display like the Spider-Man/Strange fight. It makes you sound like somebody going "everything was better in the past" because of nostalgia alone.

[@amandimation]

i think we are over all on the verge of a renaissance! with the slow painful death of the super hero genre, i think we'll see increased demand for stand alone works, comedies and dramas and romantic comedies. Streaming platforms, while they seem to be following the pump and dump method of producing as much content as they can to fill their libraries, it seems like the tech companies are leading the return to format. probably because they have other revenue streams to count on, not just the media side. but Challengers and Killers of the Flower Moon were both excellent, and i hope the other platforms and studios follow suit

[@jdesert5036]

Movies by committee are a big part of the issue…with too much input the movie aims to please everyone, and then means it doesn’t really “wow” anyone. I like directors/writers that try to hit a home run. Some scenes are amazing, and some are terrible. But at least they aren’t sanded down to dullness.

[@ooluta7578]

2024 - 150 = 1874....not 1888 🤔

[@kaneworsnop1007]

Id say that youre wrong when you stated 'thats why its not hard to find somthing on a streaming platform.' For a good 6 months now ive often struggled as it seems all the platforms are slashing their budgets and either offering less, or lower quality. Amazon Prime is now full of B movies, when it used to be great for new releases and popular films. Whats worse is the B movies are their own, when they used to produce high quality films. Disney plus was always hit or miss, but now its mostly miss. They have barely any films from other studios now and are constantly trying to ram LGBTQ+, BLM, or radical feminist content down your throat, they literally have sections which appear above continue watching for these genres. To me it looks like streaming is going to kill off decent films as its no longer cost effective to make expensive films when you cant sell DVD's and streaming platforms are making their own films for less so wont oay the extortionate prices the film studios ask for. Also the fact that they all decided to make their own streaming platforms only compounded the problem, as now they are competing with everyone else and need to produce their own low budget crap to fill out their platform so there arent only a few new films a year added.

[@HowHistoryWorks]

Thay’s fair… Yeah it definitely feels like Netflix is throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks

[@aliali-ce3yf]

oh no! providing content for people who haven't had it before , while white guys have nothing /s how ever will you survive? oh yeah, the countless other movies made by white guys for white guys, starring white guys its like you guys start crying unless you're not catered to 99.99% of the time. if it goes to 98%, oh boy, the whining starts. keep crying i guess, everyone wants their fair share.

[@mrrd4444]

​@@HowHistoryWorks I don't think you gotta hand it to the guy who thinks what's wrong with streaming is LGBTQ+ people, Black people, and women.

[@mikitz]

@@HowHistoryWorks That is not exactly anything new, to be honest. Even back in the 80's and the 90's, only something like one per cent of pilot episodes lead up to the first season to being produced. Only the difference being that the

[@RenBen10]

We’re about to get the best films of all time in 10 years. The mid budget films will return to prominence. The bad executives and filmmakers will be thrown out of power.

[@Vanced-ii3bj]

Lowkey cope

[@MustbeTheBassest]

How?

[@richjageman3976]

Special isn't as special when thousands and thousands have the same exact thing. Today far too many use special effects to mask bad or lazy writing and actors not emoting as well as they needed to do decades ago.

[@digi_dream]

There are plenty of good movies now, just as there were plenty of bad movies back then.

[@DanLyndon]

Yes but there is an undeniable lowering of standards/ dumbing down that has occurred over the decades.

[@davianoinglesias5030]

There are so many film makers and so Margins are small, everyone is playing safe

[@JustMe-no8el]

I would have hoped more new stories would be coming out

[@armorbearer9702]

(11:15)I can understand movies that go straight to streaming to not care about small details. If the movie hits the big screen, isn't there a different expectation? There will be negative press if the movie is not cinematic.

[@gendalfgray7889]

Efficient managers too scary to experiment, they only making same thing, remakes or worse some mary sue bad writing.

[@yurydmorales]

00:00 🎥 Movies have declined over 150 years, sparking debates on the reasons behind this downfall. 01:09 🎨 Special effects evolved from risky craftsmanship to cheaper CGI, impacting the authenticity and immersion of movie experiences. 05:38 🎭 Shifts in acting styles, influenced by method acting and social media, have altered the authenticity and depth of performances. 08:28 🎟 Audience preferences and the rise of home video have driven studios to prioritize profit over artistic innovation, leading to formulaic content. 11:44 🍿 Throughout history, movies have been driven by profit motives, shaping the industry's direction and creative decisions. 14:46 🏛 Political influences in cinema have grown, impacting storytelling and marketing strategies, sometimes overshadowing artistic expression.

[@phobosmoon4643]

AI is going to create infinite content and content will cease to have value and only then will content start to get good again - once people are doing it for the sake of it, again.

[@MedicinalSquishing]

I am not entirely certain what it is you are expressing. Is it that we as consumers will be required to a greater extent than any previous point in time to assign value to the content we intake, or is it that there will be such a surplus of media generated by artificial intelligence that productions primarily or even solely the result of human labor will gain a high degree of novelty and thus be valuable?

[@phobosmoon4643]

@@MedicinalSquishing both. there will be infinite content and infinite individual 'opinions' about content -- all novelty will be lost except for actual human beings in-person playing-live and the humans they are playing to (where a video of that event would be indistinguishable from a 'fake' event; and worthless to anyone that wasn't actually present (until one of those humans decides to, for example, pass on that experience as oral knowledge/conversation/taste) making real-humans the real-tastemakers).

[@MedicinalSquishing]

@@phobosmoon4643 Thank you for the clarification.

[@DanLyndon]

Except the editing in these videos is the height of bland slop designed to please the algorithm. Anyways, the statement that filmmakers can't sell out because it eas never about art to begin with is silly. Yes, the studios have never cared for art, but there have always been real artists who make great films for reasons other than money, especially indie filmmakers. This dude lumping in Spielberg and Lucas with Scorsese and Coppola as artists shows tone deafness. The first 2 are not artists at all, Coppola is an artist when he can afford to be and Scorsese actually is an artist.

[@dathorndike4908]

You read my mind dude

[@jupreindeer]

"Are movies going to get worse or are they on the verge of a renaissance?" I think it may be best phrased... classically. _It will be the best of times. It will be the worst of times._ We are on the verge of a new type of story telling... AI based. - What is good about it is that it will bring the cost of making movies and shows WAY DOWN. _The bad being that when a triple A movie cost a thousand dollars to make and brings in 250 million in return, then what chance does a hundred million movie even stand? Everybody... actors/directors/writers... all the way down to the caterers... stand against a soulless machine that virtually does it all?_ - What is good about it is that the process is vastly simplified. The writer's true words stand a better chance of coming though in the final product, when the filters used in movie making are no longer in place. And that many more people may get the chance to make a big movie, now that the stuff can go directly to the devices of the audience. _The bad being that many of these literary creations may have never been good to begin with. Without filtering, our little screens may get thousands of options to watch... that aren't worth watching._ - What is good about it is that these very expensive movies have a new tool that can be used beforehand for test audiences to watch. If the very inexpensive preview 'movie' bombs, they never need lay down a single frame of film before working out all the bugs. _The bad being that if the preview CG movie works, why bother filming it at all? Just touch up the rough edges and sell the finished CG movie, instead._ - What is good about it is that more viewing contents across all ranges of interest will become more available than ever before. _The bad being that when the people start realizing that their favorite CG soap opera can just keep on generating that virtual world 24/7 and keep going past the point of their own demise, we might just burn out most people on the notion of watching virtual life completely and realize a Star Trek notion... life without television._ - The good... people may just start living an actual life, once devoid of becoming whatever a future version of the couch potato actually is. _The bad??? We'll probably need actors once more that appear on stages to clarify their voices to live audiences that want nothing to do with CG distractions? Thus, starting the cycle all over, again? Is that so bad???_ I'm sure a lot more bullet points belong in this comment. But... that is just off the top of my head.

[@Myko349]

One false move could be fatal, or worse, cost a lot of money, how you mean to say costing more is worse than losing a life😂😂

[@ranterraver5959]

Succint and low bias. Great video.

[@KolaNutKing]

11:50 your assuming I’ve had a date before.

[@antipode_ghost]

There is a parallel universe of non-Hollywood movies that has not been in decline. Bergman, Bunuel, Tarkovsky, Von Trier, Zvyagintsev all have been innovating and making timeless films. Watch Dogville if you think that acting is a lost trade.

[@stifledvoice]

I think "either/or" questions about history are leading and restrictive to careful analysis, also, I reject your overall thesis that the movie biz is in decline.

[@meilinchan7314]

AI is going to make the graphics and theatrics of movies even worse.

[@redseagaming7832]

Do you know there were more practical effects in Star Wars episode one Then the original trilogy. And you're wrong Jar jar Was a good character

[@ib2893]

i dont watch any new movies i collect old dvds and blue rays

[@s_a_share]

I really liked the female reboot of Ghostbusters. It was funny and had less creep characters with consent problems. Misogynists just went through gender panic on it. How dare women enjoy their favorite movie.

[@TheHomeman]

Hollywood is also using a bunch of British actors and if you have ever watched a British movie you will know that they are terrible. Stiff like they've been starched.

[@jimmyyu2184]

All good things come to an end(?!!?)

[@ThinkTwice2222]

1 word: Quibi

[@Kaszkieciorz_TG]

New Hope destroyed cinema

[@Wafflelover344]

Old films were more expensive because of special effects? True enough there are outliers in your video. But didn't Godzilla at the Oscars show what could be done with practical effects? Wasn't it like a tenth of Godzilla X Kong's budget? Maybe it's the trend that movies have to be bigger than the last like in video games? Sorry, I love your vids. But for once I question the premise itself and not just the evidence

[@sourabhmayekar3354]

Nice

[@gigalipufpokemon1799]

nice

[@luismiguel69able]

huh am I the ONLY one that prefers blockbusters over artsy shit?

[@kabir3510]

Bro just called Cillian Murphy oscar winner in his seminal performance, a bad actor.

[@deohenge1865]

While I agree with a couple of the points in this video, this feels less like anything to do with "How History Works" and more "Finance guy pines for the days when things felt more novel." IMO, what's declining in cinema today isn't acting ability or showmanship, it's new ideas and new IP. The big names in cinema realized they can continue comfortably raking in money making sequel after sequel, reboot after reboot, milking the same characters and plotlines because people are drawn in by the nostalgia. There's no incentive to innovate. --A guy who also misses the days when things felt more novel

[@davidplowman6149]

Hey, hey, hey, no dunkin on my boy Jar Jar! He’s so bad he’s good. Quoting him in regular life has provided a sense joy unmatched by any other character from any other movie ever. He’s like Dr. Zoidberg and Harold Zoid in that Futurama episode except the Futurama writers were aware of what they were doing.

[@dougparsley9022]

The rise of infotainment might be a good subject for you to cover. Is that part of a decline? Ha!

[@kkcuzz]

Nothing about Sora? Ai?

[@justinshankle]

These are still relatively new technologies

[@BrickEffect]

The end although very well spoken has some fallacy in it, not all actors winning awards are trying to talk about a cause i think media too a few examples and put in your face but honestly some of them are just trying to pass on knowledge and wisdom something they kinda owe the young people following in their foot steps.

[@Yakov1157]

From my perspective, looking for political correctness in movies is a problem. For example, I used to listen to a podcast where they review films based on their political messaging. They called good movies as bad because of the political messaging in that movie is against the political ideology they believe in. Now because of that I see movies with a lense which scrutinize the political messaging in that specific film.

[@liamhodgson]

NOPE, both spider verse movies, and Avatar Way of Water have been standouts the last few years.

[@doujinflip]

The Spiderverse style has been artistically influential, but Avatar is just Dances With Wolves in space.

[@DanLyndon]

Avatar is the height of dumbed down slop, and even the Spider verse films were written to appease marketing committees, although they are better than average. The cinematography and animation makes them stand out. Nope is "artsy" but fairly mediocre.