‘The Odyssey’ Proves It: Audiences Want Movies Made the Hard Way | This year's breakouts like 'Project Hail Mary' and 'Obsession' were made by filmmakers who sweated. While CG-stuffed franchise disappointments such as 'Supergirl,' 'Moana,' and 'The Mandalorian and Grogu' looked lazy.

[u/ChiefLeef22]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/odyssey-box-office-2026-practical-effects-1236652219/

[u/Slow_Werewolf3021]

It’s hard to believe we have to keep repeating this to the bigwigs over and over again, time and time again… it’s always been about telling good stories. That’s what cinema is all about, good TV series, and of course books… well, water is wet and the sky is blue. Welcome to our era

[u/astroK120 → u/Slow_Werewolf3021]

I do think there's some other piece to this. There are movies every year that have this sub going "This movie deserved better!" after bombing despite being good.

[u/dl064 → u/astroK120]

And then you've absolute shit which makes XXX million.

[u/Miserable_Row_793 → u/dl064]

Almost like movies and their success can be fleeting or reflective of a ton of factors.

And people in these threads(and opposites) just use confirmation bias to reinforce ideas/beliefs they already had.

[u/kiwigate → u/Slow_Werewolf3021]

Because the money contradicts that claim. Audiences are still lining up for crap and they don't even know it. Just look at 2025 highest grossing films: sequels, IPs, a goddamn Minecraft movie

The money says audiences don't give a shit about storytelling.

[u/Daihatschi → u/kiwigate]

yeah. I just thought the same. Looking at the yearly Top 10 in earnings for the last 15 years, story is absolutely not important, or else Marvel would have been dead in the water a long time already. I have friends who pretty much say word for word that going to the cinema is practically a 2-hour rollercoaster to them and anything that isn't big and bombastic they don't care about. I guess they are pretty close to the 'general audience'.

I can see the argument that the market is pretty much saturated and the superhero genre has been chasing quantity to an extreme just not sustainable. We might also see a revival of the early 90s where a bunch of experimental films and filmmakers gained popularity after years of extremely cautious, mass market appeal, studio films with all edges carefully sanded off. We've seen some critical darlings after covid, but I think this is the first time they actually make big bank competetively.

[u/timmyintransit → u/Slow_Werewolf3021]

and its been the same story with hollywood going back to the inception of movies.

[u/ifinallyreallyreddit → u/Slow_Werewolf3021]

That’s what cinema is all about, good TV series, and of course books…

No, it isn't. Cinema is not like TV and books, it does not tell its stories the same way.