DreamerOfImprobableDreams

Kind of similar to how people gradually stopped using the phrase "social network" (implying the main point of these sites was to connect with other human beings) and shifted to calling it "social media" (implying the main point is to passively consume content).

I think you missed OP's point that studios care about minimizing risk as much as they care about maximizing profit. Sure, if you take risks maybe you'll come out with a smash hit that makes you billions-- but you could just as easily come out with a bomb that costs you hundreds of millions of dollars.

Let's say your studio has a budget of $500 million for this year. You've decided to produce 10 movies, each costing an average of $50 million to make. You could take risks, leading to two gems that each pull in $500 million, and eight stinkers that "only" pull in $5 million. (Remember, they cost $50 million to make each, so you're losing $45 million per flop here.) You end the year with $680 million, for a profit of $180 million. Not bad, all things considered, but not spectacular margins.

Alternatively, you could play it safely by numbers, and make $100 million per movie. Now you're making a profit of $5 billion.

If you're a corporate exect who doesn't give a damn about art and only cares about the numbers, it's tragically a no-brainer.

Nah, if anything they're benefiting from the joint marketing. Lots of people who'd never be interested in Oppenheimer are booking double-features of it and Barbie just to get in on the Barbenheimer meme (and vice versa!).

Why is Wonka being played by an actor in his mid twenties?

Prigozhin accidentally touches the fractal version of himself, causing a space-time cascade that tears a hole in the fabric of reality at A0 which instantly swallows him whole.

Maybe I'm entering the cranky old women yelling at kids to get off her lawn phase of my life-- but why are all the TikTok challenges always something ridiculously dangerous? (Emphasis on "ridiculous")

Always a good time to remind people the OG version of the laptop conspiracy in 2019 was as much about dragging Ukraine through the mud as well as the Bidens! And I'd be willing to bet anything it was to turn Republican opinion against Ukraine, so the base wouldn't be upset when dear leader turned a blind eye to Putin invading them in his second term.

And the willfully ignorant morons flocking to that site still somehow manage to delude themselves that it's not going to become an alt-right breeding ground. Even though that's true for, oh, I don't know, literally all of Meta's other products.

I'm glad you're still here ♥️

As an elder Zoomer, can confirm. Seeing first-hand the horrific effects social media has had on so many of my IRL friends' mental health-- and how it's utterly decimated IRL communities-- makes me want to cut it out of my life as much as possible.

Tell ya what: don't use a sexist metaphor next time, and I promise not to overreact. ;)

Sorry I didn't put a ton of brainpower into spicing up the wording of a throwaway comment on an anonymous message board I wrote at near-midnight my time.