8 Movies That Sacrificed Their Integrity By Pandering To The Masses

By T.J. Barnard /

The point of any Hollywood movie, despite how sad and depressing it is to actually think about, is to make money. That's pretty much the only reason that any movie will ever go into production, despite how the director or the actors associated feel about it - it's getting made, ultimately, because somebody thinks that it's going to make them a profit. It doesn't matter that Steven Spielberg is doing it for the sake of artistic integrity, or that Nicholas Winding Refn has something to say about violent cinema... nothing is getting made unless we're talking about the big bucks. Which is why, of course, movies are usually marketed in the broadest terms possible - the more people you offer a movie to, the bigger profit you'll make. It's not rocket science: it's about as basic a marketing strategy as there is. Still, offering your film to a mass audience works from a profit perspective, it doesn't always work from an artistic perspective. That's to say, some movies need to contain violence, sex and scenes of strong language to be true to themselves. Leaving all that stuff in is usually a big risk, though, and it doesn't always pay off to be brave (ask Dredd). Still, is there anything worse than a movie aimed at everybody, which (as Roger Ebert once stated) means "nobody in particular." I sincerely doubt it. So here are 8 movies that sold their integrity and pandered to the masses for the sake of making some extra cash - the studios might be happy about the added financial gain, but audiences sure the heck weren't.