No One Else to Blame

First take a good look at the picture on the right, then come back and finish reading.

From now on if you’re one of those people who likes to figure out where to point the blame:

• at the screenwriter for not writing roles for [insert whatever demographic suits you];
• at the director or producer for not hiring [insert whatever demographic suits you];
• at the tv stations for not developing shows about [insert whatever demographic suits you];
• etc.

Remember, at its core Hollywood isn’t about creating art or great films or spreading political messages or taking up various causes (they can, of course, do any of these, it’s just not there core drive). Hollywood is driven by one thing and one thing only. Money. So there is no one to blame – not even Adam Sandler – but each individual who goes to a movie and pays for it. Because that is the loudest voice Hollywood hears. So until [insert whatever demographic suits you] makes money don’t expect it to see equality on the big screen. Think about it, in the last 10 years what is the largest demographic growth for movies? Teenagers. And now we’re seeing a rash of Young Adult novels turned into films. And they make a heck of a lot of money. One interesting side effect of this is to see what happens with women’s roles over the next decade. Because most of the truly successful YA films have lead females I’m willing to bet this is going to effect the number of female leads carrying films.

The people that jump on a cause and want to claim that Hollywood must change its time to diversity or whatever are trying to cure the problem where it doesn’t exist. Hollywood doesn’t care. It doesn’t have an agenda for equality or ANYTHING except as a business to make money. If you want to see more movies in other arenas (i.e. demographics) than either stick to indie films (which are often much better anyway) or convince the public to want something else. That is the only way Hollywood will listen, because as a smart business they work on the idea of supply and demand. If the public isn’t demanding they aren’t going to supply it. Tyler Perry is a great showcase for this. How many of his films have a caucasian actor playing the main character? Why? Is it because he hates white people? Of course not, it’s because he understands his market and he markets his films to them. So why does everybody want to tell Hollywood how to choose their markets?

I am not a fan of Adam Sandler films. I don’t find them funny and I find them often painful to sit through. That statistic above blew my mind. I honestly didn’t understand how he keeps making movies because I hear a lot of people say they don’t like Adam Sandler films. In one line, that photo answered my question.