We’ve all heard all the reasons that people aren’t going to see movies. Some say that people are willing to wait two or three weeks for a new movie to hit streaming. Others are put off by the prices and poor experiences at the theater. But the one thing I keep seeing throughout the whole conversation is the conclusion that, because people aren’t seeing a movie, it must be bad. Ta-da! Movies are bad now!
“Nobody wants to see a Mad Max film without Mad Max”. Sure, that’s possible. It’s also possible we were kind ofover hyping ourselves on how much the culture as a whole loved Mad Max. As others have pointed out, on its opening weekend, Mad Max: Fury Road came in a distant second to Pitch Perfect 2.
Not Every Failure Or Success Is Worth An Overreaction
And yet, the way a lot of people talk about it, Furiosa didn’t do well because the entire population somehow psychically intuited it was low quality. A lot of this stems from the tribalism of fandoms. Fans want things they like to dovery wellas proof that they’re good and morally correct. Fans want things they don’t like to dovery poorlyas proof they’re bad and morally evil. People who weren’t excited about Furiosa or are frustrated with the current state of movies might take a light flop as a clear sign that the general population agrees with their personal feelings. This is then extended outward to mean that enjoying a poor-performing product indicates a lack of taste on your part.
But the idea that something only fails because it’s objectively bad is strangely frustrating to me. Video game fans use it all the time. If aPlayStationgame underperformers, it’s a sign thatSonyfailed to do their best and fans have given up on the platform. If anXboxgame underperforms, it’s a sign thatMicrosoft is on its last legs and bound to leave the console space. If aNintendogame underperforms, that usually just means it only sold 50 million copies or something. Regardless, and this is very important, and I mean this: you’re able to andshouldstill enjoy movies and games that didn’t sell well! In fact, it’s probably better to do so!
This seems so obvious. We refer to movies as ‘cult classics’ all the time. And we all know that cult classics get that way by building up an audienceover a long period of time. All of us are aware of this fact. But you’ll still go online and see that a game bombing or a movie failing automatically means it sucks, which automatically means any fans suck for liking it. If it’s not breaking box office records or winning every award, it must be mediocre. If it didn’t get international acclaim and attention, you’re foolish for liking it. You’re just some sucker who got hoodwinked by a game that isn’t even 80 on Metacritic.
Modern Media Doesn’t Allow For Cult Classics
I’m not being cute here. I’ve written before about absolutely loving virtual reality while knowing that it’s not doing too great as a medium. Yet when I tell people I use VR, I’m earnestly asked if I’m aware that there aren’t many games on the PS VR2. Weirder,I’m asked why I keep buying new games for the device when it’s clearly not being supported. It’s an assumption that I was born into the world yesterday with no knowledge and therefore am choosing the wrong things to enjoy.
The thing is, I don’t care. Neither should you. Sure, a game selling like hotcakes is always going to get your attention because we all know the speed at which hotcakes sell, which is very fast. But a game or a movie failing doesn’t mean it’s not worth your time. And it certainly doesn’t mean that the movie or game is bad or this is an indictment on entire industries. It just means they didn’t connect with a wider audience.Marvel’s Midnight Sunsis fantastic, but it didn’t sell well. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad game. And itreallydoesn’t mean you should skip it. Planescape: Torment is one of my favorite games of all time, but it sold like very cold cakes. Again, I’m not sure about the speed of cake sales.
It’s natural we want things we like to do well and things we don’t like to not do well. Certainly. But it’s alright if you’re the only person in the movie theater. It’s okay if you’re one of ten people onSteamplaying a game (well, not a multiplayer game). Failure of a product in the entertainment industry is not always - or even often - a sign that it’s not good. The same can be said of success, too: Just because everyone bought it, doesn’t mean it’s the greatest game ever. But, again, a lot of people still act like that’s the case. But we need to get out of the mindset that ‘not everyone wants this’ means ‘everyone knows for a fact that it’s bad’. Just enjoy things. Stop treating a flop like it’s a moral judgment. Please.
