10 Times Hollywood Learned The Wrong Lesson From Movies
Brace yourselves for the Mattel Cinematic Universe.
What is Hollywood if not a series of calculated risks, with studios rolling the dice and then learning from the outcome to plot their next move?
And while smart producers and executives will learn the right lessons from an industry success or failure, often it's quite the opposite, with the bigwigs instead making a rash call or rushing to cash-in on a hit trend in the making.
Inspired by this recent Reddit thread on the subject, Hollywood blatantly took the entirely wrong lesson way from the following ten movies, which whether mega-hits or crushing flops, all clearly had something to tell the industry.
But filmmakers evidently didn't quite agree on what that was exactly, because while the artistic lesson seemed more obvious to audiences and critics, that isn't necessarily the way that those in charge of making movies think. They're all about the moolah - of course they are - and so made reactionary decisions based on a movie's performance rather than stepping back and considering what audiences actually truly liked or disliked.
It's a problem which has existed as long as films have, and sadly always will. For every movie that comes out, there will be powerful people who have the wrong takeaway about it...
10. Make Everything Dark & Gritty - The Dark Knight
Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight was a true watershed moment for blockbuster cinema - blistering, groundbreaking proof of how, in the hands of a skilled filmmaker, tentpole fare could fuse its mega-budget thrills with complex storytelling and deep-dish characterisation.
Between its wide critical acclaim and box office dominance, it was clear that The Dark Knight connected with just about everybody, from die-hard comic book fans to the most casual of audiences and, yes, even Oscar voters (though apparently not enough to nominate it for Best Picture, in a decision that's aged like milk).
All the same, it prompted Hollywood to do what they end up doing oh-so-often when faced with a stratospheric hit and pop-culture phenomenon - imitate its style until we're just about fed up of it.
And so, the years following The Dark Knight's release saw a bevy of movies attempt to imitate its gritty, operatic style. Some semi-successfully, some not, and way too many whose narratives were totally inappropriate for such a treatment.
Some of the more egregious examples include Snow White and the Huntsman, The Amazing Spider-Man, Power Rangers, and of course Man of Steel, which saw Zack Snyder ill-advisedly attempt to transplant a dour style and tone onto the most hopeful of all superheroes with wildly mixed results.
Within five years of The Dark Knight's release, the "grimdark" style had become a parody of itself, with audiences desperately longing for something a little lighter and more colourful - as the Marvel Cinematic Universe was firmly ready to deliver.