Let People Enjoy Things

What I’m about to say isn’t revolutionary. And I will admit I indulge in hater culture every once in a while. But I do think there’s a time and place, and I also have a theory about why certain things aren’t reaching the right audience…and it’s all due to negativity and the algorithm.

On March 25th, Marvel went live on multiple platforms to reveal the cast of the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday. It was five and a half hours long where every 12-15 minutes they would unveil a new chair culminating in Robert Downey Jr. making an appearance since he’s returning to the MCU as Doctor Doom. While I had some criticisms, mostly with how slow the reveal was going and thinking about how they handled these reveals previously (the Civil War announcement is peak!), I still felt some excitement watching and tanking my workday productivity to keep an eye on who would be going up against Doom.

However, with any excitement, there also comes the naysayers. “I wish I cared about anything Marvel does now”, “I’m so tired of the MCU”, etc. These are valid opinions, but to express them when others are very clearly excited about what’s to come kinda sucks. We’ve gotten to a place where everyone loves being negative and yucking people’s yums because that’s their personality. Sorry to say it, but hating things isn’t actually a personality!

You are absolutely allowed to outgrow what you previously liked. But what becomes annoying and constant on social media is how often these opinions come out. Do you know how many times I shock people when I mention I don’t like something popular? Quite a bit! I don’t particularly find it interesting to talk about something I dislike in a void. If it comes up in conversation, I will (hopefully) say in a polite manner that I dislike the subject and go from there. I would much rather talk about what I do like than focus on negativity!

And here comes the rub. Last month, almost every new theatrical release underperformed. While I’m not saying box office success equals quality, it was interesting to me to see people come up with reasons for lack of box office returns to Mickey 17, Novocaine, and Black Bag. From my perspective, I think a huge issue is marketing, studios have never figured out where to shift to capture everyone’s eyes since there is no singular space where people watch TV nowadays. So, a bigger part of marketing is word of mouth. Simple right? Social media is so intrinsic in our daily lives! But that would require people focusing on what they like instead of constantly discussing what they don’t.

I would say that in the lead up for both of the weekends where the three films were released, the dominating discourse on social media was for a film that wasn’t coming out until a bit later: Disney’s Snow White. And it was before anyone had even seen it either. There were articles talking about why it was doomed to fail for a variety of reasons, and they may be right, but damn, after almost two years of discourse for this movie (even before we saw a SINGLE production still!), I was tired of seeing the constant dissection of it. And it was from people who were never going to like it or ever cared about Snow White that much to begin with.

Imagine had these people actually talked about Mickey 17, Bong Joon Ho’s follow-up to Parasite more (even though I had heard mixed reviews from most people) and if that had led to a bigger box office! I did hear a lot about Black Bag, a film I saw and loved, but it’s not necessarily a splashy sell (though it should be, current contender for favorite movie of the year).

If we’re going to complain about the system, we need to recognize that WE are also part of the system. Negativity fuels the algorithm, hate clicks are huge. So, why can’t we focus on what we love and encourage others to see those films on the off-chance that they ALSO love it? I think this is ultimately why I stepped away from being part of a blog. SEO optimization doesn’t work for me. I want to write about things I like, algorithm be damned! Maybe this is an old lady yells at cloud moment, but I don’t care! There’s enough negativity from the real world, I don’t need it about entertainment (unless it’s actually warranted because the people behind it are bad!).

Thank you for letting me rant and ramble about my thoughts on this prevailing issue. And I’m aware that my complaining about this also makes me part of the problem. But I’m tired and want to enjoy going to see MCU movies without perceived judgment.

So, what are YOU enjoying lately? Please let me know!