Hollywood major mistakes thread - In which we discuss the many foibles of visual media production companies past and present

[Vyse Inglebard]

iger is a ginormous, greedy asshole who never understood Disney and still doesn't.

Michael Eisner, for all of his mistakes that he made (and he made quite a few), actually understood what Disney was, and genuinely loved and embraced it, in his own idiosyncratic way. He knew when to sit back and let the people who made his company run do their thing, for the most part. Bob Iger, OTOH, claims that his movies are suffering because of not enough executive control.

…there wasn’t as much supervision on the set … where we have executives there really looking over what’s being done.

While Bob Iger and his friends were taking vacations for months at a time (not working or doing anything of value) and talking about how the industry needs more executives, he was losing his shareholders money by putting shit in his movies that no one fucking likes. Bob Iger’s own ego meant he couldn’t even do his actual job of making shareholder value go up, much less his ostensible job of running Disney. This is a man who isn’t just not valuable to Disney; this is a man who actively harms its value.

 

[cactus]

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Michael Eisner, for all of his mistakes that he made (and he made quite a few), actually understood what Disney was, and genuinely loved and embraced it, in his own idiosyncratic way. He knew when to sit back and let the people who made his company run do their thing, for the most part. Bob Iger, OTOH, claims that his movies are suffering because of not enough executive control.

While Bob Iger and his friends were taking vacations for months at a time (not working or doing anything of value) and talking about how the industry needs more executives, he was losing his shareholders money by putting shit in his movies that no one fucking likes. Bob Iger’s own ego meant he couldn’t even do his actual job of making shareholder value go up, much less his ostensible job of running Disney. This is a man who isn’t just not valuable to Disney; this is a man who actively harms its value.

Even the Disney hotels suffer under him, recent hotel renovations have seen cut corners and the character removed from themed spaces. The new hotel at Disney World looks like a random mid-tier hotel.

And then Epcot's renovation of the main area looks like a business park now. But this is all off topic.

I don't understand why this man was picked to run a creative company.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

Michael Eisner, for all of his mistakes that he made (and he made quite a few), actually understood what Disney was, and genuinely loved and embraced it, in his own idiosyncratic way. He knew when to sit back and let the people who made his company run do their thing, for the most part. Bob Iger, OTOH, claims that his movies are suffering because of not enough executive control.

Even the Disney hotels suffer under him, recent hotel renovations have seen cut corners and the character removed from themed spaces. The new hotel at Disney World looks like a random mid-tier hotel.

And then Epcot's renovation of the main area looks like a business park now. But this is all off topic.

I don't understand why this man was picked to run a creative company.

shit getting so bad Eisner is the GOOD option is def a "hollywood major mistake"
but yeah, dude had his share of problems and short-sighted in some ways, a little too long-term with what should have been short-term like buses, and there's a decent argument while he isn't the cancer of today but he's the 3am run to the corner store for one more pack, then I'll quit next week. I swear.

but yeah dude def got the Disney vibe even if at times it was understanding that he wasn't it and wasn't going to be it, like how he leaned into the role of "sort of out-of-place Hollywood guy who has to fill in for Uncle Walt"

like that or introing Magical World Of Disney and stuff

 

[Kari Kamiya]

I don't understand why this man was picked to run a creative company.

Not sure how the hierarchy works, I'm just 90% convinced Iger got power-hungry when he saw Marvel was turning a profit and wanted the whole company to go down that path. Notice the slew of Disney live-action remakes didn't go full steam ahead until after the 2D department was shut down for good and by then The Avengers was coming out.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

Not sure how the hierarchy works, I'm just 90% convinced Iger got power-hungry when he saw Marvel was turning a profit and wanted the whole company to go down that path. Notice the slew of Disney live-action remakes didn't go full steam ahead until after the 2D department was shut down for good and by then The Avengers was coming out.

iirc Iger was head of Parks under Eisner after around 00 or so?
but yeah had some bona fides within the company such as they were I think

 

[Get the rope Macaulay!]

Michael Eisner, for all of his mistakes that he made (and he made quite a few), actually understood what Disney was, and genuinely loved and embraced it, in his own idiosyncratic way.

i think when people look back at western civilization, they'll admit everyone in the 90s let "perfect be the enemy of good" and overcorrected hard. people were so pissed at solo Eisner rule despite him doing his best after wells and fucking with ortiz that we kicked him and put this Iger in. the save disney campaign destroyed disney.

the same way atheism accidently paved the way for muzzies to enter western society (especially the UK) without anyone putting up a fight. the same way people's complaints about the "colorblind" 90s led to our current CRT/DEI universe

like how he leaned into the role of "sort of out-of-place Hollywood guy who has to fill in for Uncle Walt"

ironically enough it was sort of the opposite. he was an artsy guy who was out of place when it came to miserly hollywood. he never said no to big risks. whether its the muppets or star trek films or america or euro or california theme parks or having Disney move beyond kiddie stuff, like with the night clubs and arcades and Alien ride and the world class food and miramax and touchstone and all sorts of other shit so disney wasn't just a place for kids, but a place for all ages. He was a like Mrs.doubtfire, he wasn't good at his role, but he fucking tried

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

ironically enough it was sort of the opposite. he was an artsy guy who was out of place when it came to miserly hollywood. he never said no to big risks. whether its the muppets or star trek films or america or euro or california theme parks or having Disney move beyond kiddie stuff, like with the night clubs and arcades and Alien ride and the world class food and miramax and touchstone and all sorts of other shit so disney wasn't just a place for kids, but a place for all ages. He was a like Mrs.doubtfire, he wasn't good at his role, but he fucking tried

fair enough, but yeah, his persona was def the Hollywood Exec guy, and like I said, he was good at leaning into it
and he only got a ride that was part Alien

how anybody could imagine that Alien Encounter featuring X-S might have been initially planned about encountering the monster from Alien (featuring W-Y) is just lunatic talk

 

[Dixieland Buckaroo]

Disney live action remakes. Enough said.

Right up there with those are the cheapquels from the 90s. Remember Lion King 1.5? Remember Belle's Christmas with the Beast? I sure wish I didn't. I think the 2nd Aladdin sequel was ok (when they brought back Robin Williams), but that was about it.

And yes, they're doing that now with whatever the "live action" Lion King nonsense is going on, I know. A circle, not a line.

DCEU was always a schitzo behavior of either copying Marvel or going all edge and no point.

WB's major fuckup was looking at Zack Snyder and thinking, "Oh yeah, this edgelord totally gets Superman." I get that 300 was hot shit and Watchman was... well, pretty well received (the films). But why that retard got to run a franchise is beyond me.

I don't understand why this man was picked to run a creative company.

Bob Iger was originally a weather man at like... Rochester NY? ... anyway, some podunk local affiliates owned by Capital Cities Communications. (Not a meteorologist, just a talking head.) CCC bought ABC, and at some point Disney bought CCC/ABC. After a hazy bit of work history, he was put in charge of the Olympics in Calgary and got noticed for personal interest filler. And somehow Bob worked his way up the ladder to running the Walt Disney Company into the ground.

---

All the above commented, the worst thing to me is denying the public the films they saw originally. Whether the OG Star Wars, or the stupid ET Walkie Talkies, or the dumb changes they do on streaming platforms now, it's all shit and communist revisionism. There is no history, there is no fact, there is no truth. Sell both versions, people would buy it.

 

[Pokemon Conquistador]

the best thing about the stage vs the theater is that you can see all the characters on stage at all times, which leads to even people acting when not actively speaking. one of the best parts of the nut cracker is the opening for me because you can see all the dancers and their "plots" developing as the party proceeds, which you don't get in a film. everything is so close up in film, if a person isn't speaking then who gives a fuck as far as the medium is concerned. This is why ninjas are so much more impressive on stage vs films, because of how you have to focus on them you can't have a random extra just kill someone or else people would complain, meanwhile you can focus on the murderer in a stage play and even if they're not actively speaking their movements tell the story

This is why that awful movie version of "Noises Off" didn't work. It's a play that depends on the characters interacting with each other at certain locations relative to the audience at certain times and needs to be pulled off like a precise drill routine. Instead, it's a bunch of famous British actors doing slapstick humor and pratfalls, which makes it okay, but a lot of the humor just isn't translated to film.

I would argue the biggest recent Hollywood mistake was the making of The Hobbit trilogy. Executive Meddling and Hollywood's need to turn it into the next epic LOTR moneymaker took what could have been an enchanting version of the beloved story and made it into a bloated mess. If they'd stuck to the main theme of Bilbo finding his courage, the finding of the One Ring, the confrontation with Smaug, and the war over the Treasure, then they would have maybe been able to squeeze two decent movies out of it. Instead, they crammed in a bunch of annoying side characters, made most of the dwarves idiot joke characters, and threw in a love triangle that no one asked for or wanted. FanEdits that stick to the original book plot have been made, but they still seem like they're trying to piece together something where the seams don't quite match.

 

[Cheesegirl78]

In Bohemian Rhapsody, some of studio equipment they use to record is wrong. When I watched this movie with my boyfriend, who's a sound engineer, he started to sperg about the mics. I have no idea what he said about them.

Mr. Cheese is an airplane geek, and he goes nuts when they use the wrong planes in WW2 movies, or use the wrong sound effects.

 

[Get the rope Macaulay!]

I would argue the biggest recent Hollywood mistake was the making of The Hobbit trilogy

i personally blame Del Toro, that fag is like the film version of Tim Schafer at this point, whatever reputation he has hasn't leaked yet but there's a reason every project takes years to come out (if it even does after years of pre-production) and they aren't really big money makers and always go overbudget. They pretty much had to hold Peter Jackson at gunpoint to finish the films.

. And somehow Bob worked his way up the ladder to running the Walt Disney Company into the ground.

you're speed running it but basically his la times article says he took a straight out of college job as studio supervisor and 2 years later was running "Wide World of Sports" and rose through the sporting division when his winter olympics coverage lead to him going from ABC sports to running all of ABC. worked his way up. really tells you how great boomers had it that in span of 15 years they can go from entry level to greenlighting shows. the fact they had someone 25 years old in charge of "Wide World of Sports" is fucking incredibly too, now they don't even let you decide when to take a piss at that age.

Mr. Cheese is an airplane geek, and he goes nuts when they use the wrong planes in WW2 movies, or use the wrong sound effects.

He must love Airplane! then.

 

[millais]

Did Hollywood make the right financial decision to sell out to China? They were able to get the Chinese film companies and investors to finance many Hollywood films, at the cost of some artistic discretion, and they were able to guarantee some of their films were screened in China.

But after all this time, I would guess that the Chinese filmgoers don't have that much interest in paying to see American films (pirating them, maybe).

 

[Metamorpho]

Scrapping Skate Jam was a retarded move imo.

 

[Get the rope Macaulay!]

Did Hollywood make the right financial decision to sell out to China?

in hindsight no, the china partnership lasted about a decade at most, they told the US to all but fuck off once covid hit, and all it did was piss off people stateside. it also led to lower quality because the perception was "who cares, it'll make money in china" and the writing didn't recover plus outside of the big franchises (superhero films, transformers, MI, Avatar, F&F) the money was fuck all.

Beyond that streaming really fucked hollywood, Wicked is #5 at the weekend US box office, but you can buy the film for the cost of 2 tickets. Meaning most people will just not go to the theater and they just lost that money. Because you can literally buy the film when its still in literally 3000+ theaters, no one is bothering to go to movies as much.

in terms of gross money, our film industry domestic box office is stuck to where it was in the 90s, except everything costs triple as much and the overuse of CGI to keep costs down make most films look like shit. every major film seems to way overbudget because your average streaming show is 2hrs long and costs $100 million to make so movies have to get bigger to compete.

The only good part is indie films are fucking thriving, we're really in a modern new hollywood era because of it. a film like terrifer 3 or Anora coming out in the 2000s would have led to their creators getting prison sentences, I Saw the TV Glow wouldn't even have been made as a student film, and Robert Eggers would still be making shorts.

but you can tell Hollywood is in its dying days, a decade ago we had 6 big studios and honestly we should be down to 3. streaming mostly killed theaters and the slowdown in content from streaming sites means hollywood is super fucked, AI is obviously going to replace a lot of roles, especially in writing and once people start making their own shit to compete hollywood is completely dead. its mainly being supported by inertia.

 

[Smar Mijou]

Whoever at Paramount thought this was good look for Sonic. At least that mistake was corrected while Disney reused it for their Chip & Dale movie.

A perfect example of what listening to the public feedback, and not focus groups, can actually do. The original Sonic design as above was indeed atrocious, and bizzare considering there were decades of video games and even the TV show to base the character off of. Delaying the release to redo that massive fuckup was the right move, and it paid off.

The majority of the DCEU. DC basically looked over at Marvel, and went, "Hey we can do that too!"

Yup, and the shame of it all, is that DC standalone projects generally turn out to be pretty good when not trying to make a "universe", or become "Marvel-lite". The standalone Joker movie was great, and the animated shows are usually good. Batman: TAS was phenomenal and although a "kids show", still holds up today.

Trying to have every single thing be a universe or a collaboration by stuffing in as many IP properties superhero characters for the purposes of milking everyrhing to death for maximum profit audience entertainment has killed the entire capeshit genre. You shouldn't need to watch 47 different movies, a half a dozen reboots, subscribe to at least 2 streaming services, and navigate a convoluted web of IP and copyright issues just to watch fucking Spider-Man.

 

[Screamer_2]

in terms of gross money, our film industry domestic box office is stuck to where it was in the 90s, except everything costs triple as much and the overuse of CGI to keep costs down make most films look like shit. every major film seems to way overbudget because your average streaming show is 2hrs long and costs $100 million to make so movies have to get bigger to compete.

I think you're underestimating the cost of streaming shows...

With budgets, I think the perception of how outrageous they have become is skewed by Disney films. They'll spend 250-350 mil as a starting point for any of their pieces of shit.

However, what are other studios doing?

Dune 2 cost $190 mil. That film is brilliant and looks fantastic. Top quality across the board in that production. If you said it cost $300 mil no one would question that. If it was made by Disney it'd cost that and have worse CGI.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. $160 mil. This was a CGI heavy film that looked great. The budget seems appropriate if not good value compared to what we see from Disney.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. $135–150 mil. Absolute CGI shit show, not the best CGI but still modern-day well done with that artificial CGI look.

Why are these types of films still done on decent budgets and make money, as opposed to a $350 mil Disney-produced piece of shit?

 

[GlupShitto]

All the above commented, the worst thing to me is denying the public the films they saw originally. Whether the OG Star Wars, or the stupid ET Walkie Talkies, or the dumb changes they do on streaming platforms now, it's all shit and communist revisionism. There is no history, there is no fact, there is no truth. Sell both versions, people would buy it.

In all fairness, Disney releasing the original Star Wars cuts would probably be the worst possible case of them desecrating George Lucas' legacy and wishes. He's made it abundantly clear that he doesn't like the theatrical cuts and doesn't want them available and honestly I can't blame him. I don't agree with all the changes he made, but they definitely make the OT more consistent with the PT and that's not even mentioning the unfortunate memories associated with his wife cheating on him with the guy who built his house.

 

[Tasty Tatty]

Right up there with those are the cheapquels from the 90s. Remember Lion King 1.5? Remember Belle's Christmas with the Beast? I sure wish I didn't. I think the 2nd Aladdin sequel was ok (when they brought back Robin Williams), but that was about it.

At least those were never intended to be more than just silly straight to dvd sequels, side-b movies for the main ones. They still had some respect for the original and the fans that they at least tried to make new stories.

New reboots are lazy and insulting to the og material. That stupid asshole Zegler is telling you that to your face: "remember Snow White? Fuck that, it was made in times I hate so it sucks and my version is gonna be better". Fuck her too.