10 Movies That Hated Their Own Audience
Cinematic contempt at its most thinly-veiled.
The primary function of cinema is, believe it or not, to make money, and it's obviously in the interest of filmmakers and studios to make films that entertain and intrigue viewers above all else.
And it's fair to say that most filmmakers are absolutely grateful of their audience no matter who they are.
However, this isn't always true, and there are rare cases where directors can't hide their utter disapproval of the people watching, even making this fact abundantly clear within the movie itself.
These films, from absurdly expensive blockbusters with surprisingly subversive elements, to smaller films that managed to trick the mainstream, each attempted to take money from viewers while also directly criticising them.
It's a bold move and one that audiences rarely respond to, hence why a number of these films were either critical or commercial duds (or both).
But some of them nevertheless managed to veil their hatred just enough to get by, keeping audiences swept up in the spectacle while effectively mocking them in plain sight...
10. Jurassic World
Ahead of its release, Jurassic World was touted as a course-correcting entry into the oddly beleaguered franchise, which has consistently failed to live up to the brilliance of Steven Spielberg's 1993 original.
And yet, once this fourth film hit screens, it proved itself to be decidedly more self-aware than just about anybody expected. And damn catty about it, too.
Several scenes during the film are devoted to explaining how humanity has become bored with genetically engineered dinosaurs, and so in the quest to battle dwindling park attendance, they've resorted to creating increasingly bigger, weirder, riskier and supposedly "better" attractions.
And it's tough to watch the film without viewing this as a commentary on both the Jurassic Park franchise itself and also Hollywood blockbusters as a whole.
If that's not enough, Jurassic World even presents an avatar for this commentary through Jake Johnson's Jurassic Park fanboy Lowery Cruthers, who can't stop bigging-up the original park while snidely looking down on the new park's over-designed excess.
It's an extremely bizarre tack for a $150 million blockbuster to take, suggesting a certain disdain for popcorn-munching audiences insatiably obsessed with bigger spectacle at all costs.
Given that co-writer and director Colin Trevorrow cut his teeth as an indie filmmaker, it's quite probable this was an attempt by him to retain a little of his low-fi directorial sensibilities amid the Hollywood tentpole machine.
You can certainly argue the hypocrisy of a film decrying excess spectacle while actually dishing it up - and the same can be said of Jurassic World's tone-deaf stance on product placement - but the frequent meta-narrative commentary suggests that Trevorrow would've preferred to deliver a simpler, back-to-basics sequel.
But with its weaponised raptors and invisible giant dinosaurs, Jurassic World went on to gross $1.672 billion worldwide, basically proving his point. Trevorrow then returned for last year's sequel, Fallen Kingdom, a film so spectacularly stupid it almost feels like he was trying to see what depths of dumb he could get away with.
And once again, audiences showed up to the tune of $1.309 billion.