re: Why is it so difficult for Hollywood to make good movies?

Another issue that doesn’t get discussed is the fact that wide release movies from Hollywood (not indie movies) typically have incredibly huge budgets.

There’s no such thing as a “cheap” or “mid-budget” movie anymore.

Blade Runner 2049 was a good movie. But it made $240 million against a $150 million budget. I think ultimately it was an $80 million loss for Warner Bros.

Now, Blade Runner 2049 is a sequel, but it’s not a hot franchise like a comic book movie is. There’s no way it was ever going to be able to make the $320 million break-even point to be successful.

So why did it have to be made for $150 million? Villenueve made a just as visually compelling movie called Arrival for a mere $50 million.

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Don't ask me where the comedies have gone. You think you would see more woke comedies or something like that, but even those movies aren't getting made. Hollywood just isn't banking on funny movies these days. (Or, if they are, they are banking on comedic action movies like the Guardians of the Galaxy.)

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I think comedy is almost an entirely separate discussion. “Good” comedy movies are difficult to do well, and there aren’t a whole lot of people writing them. It’s a lot harder to make a funny, engaging feature-length film than a 30 minute sitcom.

There were some really funny movies produced from ~2005-2012, but when you look back at the most successful titles you realize that most of them came from either the Will Ferrell or Judd Apatow “camp” (or both). There are a few notable exceptions like The Hangover, but the influence Ferrell and Apatow had on comedy films in that period really can’t be understated.

I don’t know why those guys have stopped hammering out funny movies - maybe they ran out of material, or their brands of comedy got stale, but I don’t think it has much to do with PC culture. I think Superbad, The Other Guys, Step Brothers, The Goods, etc. would still be pretty damned funny and successful if they were released today instead of 10-15 years ago.

Regardless, I guess it’s a question of who’s going to pick up that mantle. Maybe it’s a matter of trust from the big studios, and nobody else has earned the confidence yet that those guys had 10 years ago.