Transcription
Hi everyone, female Froto Baggins here. And I was working on another video actually before this article from Variety came out and really caught my eye, and I have some things to say about it.
So after years of watching, and then, uh, some years after that of covering what has been happening with the movie industry and franchises, and how franchises have been destroyed, I just thought that this article from Variety was very interesting. The article reads, "Disney's Boy Trouble: Studio Seeks Original IP to Win Back Gen Z Men Amid Marvel, Lucasfilm Struggles." Wow. Wow. Wow. Disney's boy trouble. Hm. H. That's strange. That's very strange.
Disney spent literally billions upon billions of dollars to get two of the, no, not, not of the, the biggest, um, IPs for movies aimed at boys in the world: Star Wars and Marvel. Two multibillion dollar franchises. They bought those in order to appeal to more boys. So what happened? Why aren't Gen Z men, which this article defines as boys and men aged 13 to 28, why aren't they interested in the two biggest IPs they have? Why? Why is Disney having to pivot to original ideas when they own the two biggest, uh, uh, male-oriented IPs on the planet?
Hasted thatum. Eat it up. Okay. 321. You know I'm the hottest. You ain't never got to heat me up. Power one. The power of two. The power of. Do you think it's safe to say that Reed is the first capital Daddy in the MCU? Could it be? Could it be that you took all of these male hero icons and diminished them, assassinated their characters, and turned them into sad sack clowns? Could it be that you demoralized and emasculated these characters and always had a spunky female Mary Sue to take their place and put them down and tell them where they went wrong? Could it be that that might be part of the reason why this happened? Hm. Hm.
Could it be that you bought these two massive IPs for Disney, a brand that had most, a more so female audience with their Disney Princess brand and whatnot? Could it be that you bought these brands to appeal to men, but then you, for whatever reason, for whatever reason, you had executives get it into their heads that, no, we need to take these brands that we bought for boys and make them more female skewing? Maybe I'm just tripping here. Maybe I'm just tripping. But, uh, it's, it's quite surreal, quite surreal to see these, these articles come out after all this.
So, uh, this article says, "Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty aren't the only ones looking for a prince. Leadership at Walt Disney Studios has been pressing Hollywood creatives in recent months. Multiple sources tell Variety for movies that will bring young men back to the brand in a meaningful way." Variety says, "First, duh. Every film studio is looking for better ways to convert young audiences into habitual moviegoers. Numerous studios show that Gen Z men in particular are a lonely gaming, except obsessed group who were hampered in their formative years by COVID-19 lockdowns. Not the easiest segment to grasp. But what's surprising is producers, writers, and other partners in the larger industry is that Disney has been calling for original concepts to lure demo back to the movies."
Is it really that shocking? Is it really that shocking? This article is pretending to be surprised. It's pretending to be surprised at all of this. It says, "This is the same Disney whose multi-billion dollar content engines Marvel and Lucasfilm have sated men over all ages almost two decades since the company acquired them." The sources say that Disney has been seeking new IP and pitches such as splashy global adventures and treasure hunts, as well as seasonal fare like films for the Halloween corridor. The calls come as the Star Wars machine struggles to produce any film project, and the superhero genre sheds audiences by the minute. And why did it do that? Why did it do that?
Later on in the article, it says, "Much has been written about the narrowing audience for superhero movies. The performance of Marvel's latest release, Fantastic Four: First Steps, which aimed to launch yet another superhero franchise led by Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby, failed to meet expectations." Thank you. Star Wars, meanwhile, has not produced a film in seven years.
Now, this is my favorite part of the article. One top film executive at a Disney rival says, "Every studio should be looking for originals, as sequels and reboots continue to exhaust the culture, even if they're packing in moviegoers in the short term." And that, ladies and gentlemen, that is the best thing I have heard out of Hollywood in so long. That somebody, somebody behind the scenes is showing sense, that you cannot continue on the culture of reboots and remakes. No matter if Lilo and Stitch made a billion dollars or not. I never thought I'd say it. The exact muse is about the Magic Kingdom's boy troubles despite its gem of a box office iconic IP. But it looks like Disney is going to have to start trying. Disney is going to have to start trying. Eureka. Eureka. Everyone, they finally got a breakthrough. Oh. Oh my gosh. We're gonna have to start trying to make good movies. We're not going to have to rely on the IPs anymore. Oh my gosh, guys. It broke new ground. See, it happened. It happened. After 10 years, 15 years, someone, more an executive at a Disney rival, used some common sense. But we'll get back to that in a second. We'll get back to that.
But I, I love how this talks about the decline in viewership for Marvel and Star Wars, but doesn't, um, acknowledge the reasons. Or maybe, maybe it does because it does, uh, point out that another project that, uh, the studio owns is Pirates of the Caribbean. And what was their idea of how to continue with the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise? Well, as this article points out, they were going to do a Margot Robbie-led Pirates of the Caribbean movie, a female-led Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
Now, guys, listen, listen, listen. The main problem with movies these days is bad productions, bad movies. But there is a myriad, myriad, myriad. I'm not smart, but I am smart in this, in this context. There is many reasons behind the scenes for why these movies have been so bad, and one of those big reasons have been Hollywood has been listening to the wrong people behind the scenes who have these things that they want to promote. Disney made a wise move as a company that was more so skewing to girls to go, "Hey, let's get some IPs on board that will attract boys to watch these movies. Let's get Marvel up and running. Let's get, um, Star Wars up and running." And then they were destroyed for several reasons. They did, they made bad movies. They disrespected their audiences. They changed characters. But a lot of that was fueled by the activism behind the scenes that believed that these boy-centric brands needed to now be catered to what they thought girls wanted, which I'm going to say, no, we don't want.
But that is how you get a brand like Marvel and you get a show like She-Hulk, a show that is, is about a narcissistic lawyer in LA that, um, uh, is just an incredible toxic person, and it's talking about these gender dynamics in my opinion, kind of a toxic way, in a way that actually makes feminism look embarrassing and bad for this show. Anger. Well, here's the thing, Bruce. I'm great at controlling my anger. M. I do it all the time when I'm catcalled in the street. When incompetent men explain my own area of expertise to me, I do it pretty much every day because if I don't, I will get called emotional or difficult, or I might just literally get murdered. So, I'm an expert at controlling my anger because I do it infinitely more than you. No, no, no, no. You to get these condescending shows, shows like She-Hulk that are condescending towards the male audience, yeah, you're going to lose the male audience with that.
When you come up with shows like Obi-Wan or movies like The Last Jedi or Indiana Jones, and you have the male characters that people paid to see in it, and they're emasculated and they're sad and they're washed up, then yeah, you're going to, and you're, and you're putting forth the female characters as better than them, yeah, you're gonna lose the male audience with that. And then let's not even, let's move away from the character assassinations for a minute. Like, that's what Disney has been doing. I did a video on this. That is what they've been doing with all their boy-led brands, including Cars, huge, uh, franchise that appealed to little boys. They also did a story where the male character gets depleted, and he has to give up and give it up to a female character. That is the pattern at Disney. That was in Incredibles 2. That was in so many of their projects. So, yeah, of course you lost the boy audience by doing that.
And not only that, you took away all of the things that made this male skewing. Like, um, I could point to a show, a movie like The Marvels, where I watched that movie. You know, they tried to advertise it with a cat live stream. So we're literally hurting cats. Come here, kitty. Attention Saber crew, stop running and let the flurries eat you. You will be fine. I watched the movie and it's like, is this a horrible movie? Yes. But I also thought during, while I was watching that movie, cuz it was the conversation at the time, there is nothing about this movie that would appeal to a boy. Now, Wonder Woman, I know that some people's ideas have changed on that. Like, there are IPs with female-led heroes or that might be a little bit more girl skewing that can be appealing to boys. Like Alien actually has a female lead. The original franchise, and Terminator, that was actually always a more boy skewing franchise. But so just having a female lead doesn't mean that men will be pushed away. You could have great female leads. But the way that they promoted this stuff, it was not stuff that would appeal to a boy. In fact, I haven't seen a Marvel movie except I guess Deadpool and Wolverine, but that's R-rated. But I haven't seen a Marvel movie in forever that I would like, yeah, a little boy would definitely love this thing. None of them. It was all female skewing stuff.
But here's the thing. Before you go, you're, you're bell, you're sing for men. You're sing for men. Well, first of all, we can all treat each other with respect. Like, um, like we, we should all treat each other with respect. Just because you're talking and you're a woman defending like a male-led thing, that's just about treating each other with respect and equality. I would want men to treat women with respect in that way as well. But for me, it's like, when I was growing up, I always was more attracted to what was traditionally considered boy stuff. Like I liked Barbie and princess movies and all that stuff, but my main thing that I really liked, I liked Star Wars. I liked Lord of the Rings. I liked playing war with my brother. I used to ambush him and it was really fun. I like that stuff. I, I just was the kind of girl where I liked more traditionally boy skewing stuff. And so for me, when you take away the things that made boys or men enjoy these franchises in the first place, then you take away what I enjoyed.
What I would say was my favorite character when I was really little, I would always say it was Luke Skywalker. Luke Skywalker was my favorite character. My favorite Jedi. Really saw him as a hero. How do you think I felt when they assassinated him? When they nuked him? I didn't even like it when he didn't even get a line at the end of The Force Awakens, when they assassinated him and they nuked him. So, when you're tearing down the male characters and promoting these bad female characters, and you're saying that it's for the sake of women, like, but you're tearing down what we already liked from these franchises as well. And you're not appealing to women. You're pushing away the women who like these franchises, and you're not even appealing to the ones that didn't. That's what my next video is about. I'm comparing how K-pop Demon Hunters is such a huge success among little girls in particular that Disney couldn't even dream about in the past 10 years. I'm just saying with all their girl boss characters that failed, finally a different franchise comes out and gets that female audience that they were trying to get because it actually has good female characters.
But anyway, it's just so surreal after 10 years of depleting these franchises and not listening to criticism to finally see them get to this place. And they seem to think that the only way they can do it is with original IP because Marvel and Star Wars have been so depleted. But here's the thing. Here's the thing. You could still make good Marvel and Star Wars shows that appealed to men. Now, would you have the same mass, uh, audience that you once did? That's a question because sometimes when you lose an audience, it can be for good. Like if they created, like let's say an animated series that was following the original, um, extended universe where Luke never becomes a bitter old man or any of that stuff. Maybe it could have been the best thing of Star Wars that we've ever seen. But I don't know how many people would be interested at this point because audience has been so depleted. But you could make good things and you could get an audience for it. You could still make a great X-Men movie because there are great male and female characters from that franchise that boys would really enjoy. You could still make a great Blade movie, but you said that your original pitch or one of your pitches for Blade was going to have him be overrun, regulated to the fourth lead while his daughter and her friends take over for a journey of self-discovery. Like, this is what you have been doing to your boy-led franchises, and it doesn't appeal to anyone.
You spent years being like, "Oh, a, a male-led movie that has to be covered with, um, bland female characters and be a story about them." Like, and now you wonder why you lost the boy audience. But here's the problem is, like I said, you could still make these franchises work, but you still have the same people behind the scenes. Kathleen Kennedy is the one who wanted it to go in this direction for Star Wars. She's still there, and all the people that she put in place are still there. Kevin Feige, who is the one who wanted to, who said, and I guess he's just gonna take responsibility for this. He said he wanted it to go this way with the female characters. Um, like he's still there, and a lot of the people that work with him are still there. And so it's like, but what does it matter? Because you could make these Star Wars and Marvel projects still work, and you could make original projects like, uh, whatever you're going to make up. You could make original projects work too. But if the same people who started this stuff is still in place, then it doesn't matter.
Are you, like, like you originally bought Star Wars and Marvel in order to appeal to male audiences, but you, you messed that up. So, how can we trust that the same thing isn't going to happen with these new IPs? A, a, as I guess, are you leaving these other ones like Marvel and Star Wars in the dust because you failed with them? But here's the thing, and here's the problem of what happened with Hollywood. They got the wrong people in their ears. Like with what happened with The Last Jedi, with, you know, uh, I was just listening to the Red Letter Media video on this the other day with, you know, uh, what's her name? Holo with pink hair, condescending Po, who was supposed to be one of the male heroes of that movie and the big, you know, star fighter, and she's condescending him at every turn. Uh, like they, they legitimately thought, they legitimately thought that is what younger audiences want. They, they want these emasculated heroes. We want these pseudo strong female characters to tell everyone down, and for these old heroes to be torn down because they're old, and we need the new ones. We need the new characters to come up and take over everything. Uh, they needed, they thought legitimately they thought, you know, The Last Jedi with its environmentalist messages and all of that stuff, and the new diverse characters coming up. They thought that is what people want in the future. They don't want these old fogies. They want these new characters that we created. And aren't these characters so much better?
But the problem is that's actually not how young people were. They just got these people in their ears telling them that this is what people wanted, and they were wrong. And that is how you get a year like this year where almost every movie from Disney, well, with the exception of perhaps, I guess Lilo and Stitch, we haven't heard any major re-shoots, but I can list you Brave New World, Snow White, um, maybe not Thunderbolts, but I know Fantastic Four went through a lot of reworking. So many movies from Disney this year, so many of them have been reworked because they got the wrong people in their ears and said, "No, this is what people want in the future. This is what people are going to want in the future." And they were lied to. And now that Disney is realizing, oh, I guess this audience that we've been trying to seek, it doesn't exist. So now we have to desperately course correct, and we can't course correct fast enough.
So, as much as it's great, like that part of this article, seeing that they are finally, I guess, finally considering making original IPs, recognizing that sequels and reboots are just exhausting the culture. Well, thank you. Thank you after all this time for realizing that. Finally, a ray of hope for the movie industry. But it's also just very frustrating that it took you this long and this much destruction to realize it. Is that Ray movie still on the table? Is it? My voice is getting high-pitched. After after all this stuff, like why it took you this long to figure out what you were doing. I just want my characters, the characters whether they are from girl skewing brands or boy skewing brands, to be treated with respect and for you to create good movies. I don't want you to have Jennifer Lee coming in here and being like, "Girls don't want romance," and and and Kathleen Kennedy coming in here and being like, "We need to deplete these masculine characters and the Force is female." I don't want any of that junk. I just want you to respect these franchises, keep the characters the way they are and the way people like them, and go forward from there. Whether it's an original one or an old IP that you're trying to resurrect from the dead. Stop this stupid crusade that you have where it's like, well, we need to, we need to make sure that Blade is surrounded by little girls. I don't care about any of that junk. I don't care about it. I don't care about it. I don't care about any of that stuff. All I care about, and the only reason I'm even talking about this stuff is this stuff has disrupted the franchises and movies that I love, and I want to get back to normal.
So I don't care if you come at me and be like, "Oh, you, you, you're making this video about how they destroyed it for men." Guess what? They destroyed it. They destroyed the things that people liked about it, and the things that I liked about it. So it's like, get back to normal. Get back to what these characters are supposed to be. Get rid of these executives who made these decisions and understand what the audience actually wants for a change. If we're seeing a ray of hope now, is it too late? I don't know. I don't care. I'm just glad that now we are seeing some sort of ray of hope for the future that maybe we can leave this nonsense behind us for so many years after all this time.
But it still is such a gap in that 10 years of so much destruction where it would have never been said before that Star Wars would have ever gone away or ever not been the big popular culture zeitgeist that it was. But now we are living in a day and age where it is irrelevant with young men. Like this article talks about how Disney might be seeking the rights to Fortnite to try to get young men back. It's like, yeah, you want that good Minecraft movie. Why do you think that men were in isolation playing video games? I look at video games and I'm like, no, video games aren't perfect. They're not perfect. But I see more that I am looking forward to and enjoying from video games than movies. Maybe the reason why people enjoy video games is not because of COVID-19, but just because a lot of video game companies have actually been catering to what their audiences want. Maybe that's why Gen Z men are shut up in their rooms playing video games. I'm just saying, Disney.
And you're going to make the same mistakes again if you don't get rid of those people who in the first place looked at these billion-dollar franchises that you had and said, "We need to change that. We need to change that. We need, we need to have cats. We need to have capital D Daddy Pedro Pascal. We need to, we need to have have all this stuff in here. Yeah, sure. That, that, that appeals to boys. Sure." Anyway, Disney, if you're finally learning, let's get to work. But it is very frustrating, and it is going to take you guys years, if at all, to bring back audiences that you want because you have spent so many years turning them off, intentionally turning them off.
So, I'm glad to see the ship slowly changing, but there's still a lot of work to do, and it's going to take a lot of time because, as you see of me getting worked up in this video, there's a lot of pent-up emotions around this stuff. So, um, I'm glad, I guess, that you want to get the boy audience back, but let's see. Let's see if there's still time to do that. If you keep on with the same executives that you have before, it's going to be more of the same. We heard that Marvel wanted to change too, and it was still more of the same because you have the same executives in place, and they're still making the same mistakes. You still, you had female Silver Surfer in a movie this year. You had female Silver Surfer in a movie where it could have just been Norrin Radd, this big character from the comics. You are still making these mistakes.
I've ranted enough. Thank you for watching this video. What do you think about Disney changing things around? Let me know in the comments below. Let me know what kind of videos you're curious about seeing in the future. And you can support me on Patreon and memberships. If you want to, uh, support this channel in any little way you can, I would really appreciate it. I will see you guys next.