there's such a better way of doing that, one which doesn't involve shutting down the OP in your opening
I don't believe in blowing smoke up the ass of people. You do them no favors. Rewarding effort and mediocrity is a dangerous path.
Sweetie is dissappointed, because
Partly. I fell victim to my own slack work. The largest reason I'm disappointed is the article fails to answer its own objective. "How to achieve the billion box office gross". While it was obvious that he put in effort, it also felt careless. It felt like an excuse to make pretty internet graphs, to show off and hope no one noticed. I noticed. Walter noticed.
I can live with a writer who shoots and misses. Even bad or wrong ideas can lead to great ideas.
Great writers are bold. They have their opinions. They come to their conclusions and aren't afraid to share them.
The conclusion was basically, if you don't have sunny skies, if it's not pg-13 and isn't over 2 hours long, you won't hit the billion mark. That'd be great if your aim was to show how not to hit the billion mark.
Did you test your supposition?
Lets assume your lazy supposition is worth taking a few minutes to take a look and see if you've identified a pattern.
Lets look at the first movie that caught my eye. Guardians of the Galaxy. 2hr 1 min, PG-13 and sunny skies and no billion. Mission Impossible Rogue Nation, Interstellar, The Martian, Ternimator Genisys, Warcraft, Pacific Rim, Independence Day Resurgence and more all fall within these parameters and fall short of the 10 figure mark.
Don't forget the context. This is an article on his website for his production company. I would assume the purpose of these kinds of articles is to generate some level of professional standing, so clients are more inclined to hire him.
With this in mind, would you be more or less inclined to hire his company?
The site I linked, Stephen Follows does a great job on his website. His analysis is highly regarded and as such has garnered himself work through it. These is a reason I linked it. If he's going down this path to increase business, I'd hope he would be invested enough to do it well.
It saddens me that too many users are happy to give and receive a good smoke blowing. The independent film community needs to stand up and support others to improve so we can all earn a living from this industry. Accepting BS excuses and repetitively patting each other on the back for mediocre effort does no one any favors. It's time for tough love. We need to stop enabling and start with some real support. It's time to encourage others to raise the bar.
/Release the Lynch Mob