Getting priced out of What "Culture" (Are We Great Yet? Capitalism Edition)

 When Trump 2.0 started I started to see a quote that came from the communists. "Fascism is Capitalism in Decay" and observing the USA at this point in time. Capitalism is in decay and it is putting everything in to decay because its pricing people out of things.

MAGA sycophants are all crying about the birth rate decline. All want to blame abortions and contraception. "Liberal: Hollywood telling the youth to hate families, babies and to embrace hook up culture. (Like they didn't to THOSE THINGS when they were that age) Last the classic blame of youth being turned away form Jesus.  No fools it is the LACK OF MONEY. Jobs are not paying enough to get the stability required to do those things, you know American Stagnation.

I saw this video on YouTube, the billionaire owners are pricing out the average person from attending NBA games, they are now selling atmosphere not basketball. Cheap Seats are being torn out and replaced with exclusive suites that have bottle service and where the game is just background noise. This is not exclusive to the NBA all the pro team owners are doing this. They saw that one those suites makes them more money than 15 nose bleed tickets.  Not only that tie broadcast TV market is crashing due to the rise of streaming and those services do not want to show bad performing teams from small markets. They want GLOBAL market teams. 

In 25 years when fan base among average person collapses, because live games are not accessible to the average person as courtside seats as perks for corporate executives. Cheap Bleachers became hotel suites for another executive to bone mistress or a high class escort with basketball as background noise. Youth Participation is getting expensive, basketball still has a street pick up culture but has gone extinct for the rest. Now kids have to "work" a sport to chase scholarships etc., the result is 65% of these kids burn out before 13.

Same thing is going on with the WWE, ever since they merged with Zuffa, LLC the parent company of UFC and became TKO, WWE has become corporate. Ringside seats at the recent Summerslam, that a video of Trump was BOOED AT cost I kid you not $50000. The price of a SUV to go watch live wrestling. Now the ring has a PRIME LOGO and every other surface is covered in sponsorships like a NASCAR race, with sponsors like energy drinks and some Crypto crap. Its no longer pleasing the fans with entertaining wrestling show, its about keeping the shareholders happy.

2050 all the Pro Leagues and the 24/7 News Talking Heads will be bemoaning the collapse of fanbase how kids are being raised by "Gamer Dads" who are not doing their duty by upholding these "traditions". They will blame video games, probably like the birth rate problem the is a scapegoat never the root cause.

I will be there to say:

"You gutted the cheap seats and replaced them with Executive Fuck Chambers, sold courtside seats to companies to use as corporate perks, who never attend. Turned youth sports into a wallet draining scheme akin to live service games. Rising expenses led it to become a social cesspool of bad adult behavior where the kids had to "work" a sport and 65% burn out. Now you whine that Dads are not taking their kids to games. I wonder why."

Landlords are donating to the Sex Pest's campaign because they want to price everyone out of living in NYC, not much difference between him and Trump. Why the younger voters are being drawn to Mamdami, Bernie Sanders and AOC. They are not thriving in this current economic climate.

Now these Media IPs are going to have the same problems Hollywood Budgets for these franchise films are getting bigger and becoming harder to make back that money. When these movies fail to hit those box office targets the chuds come out and cry "Go Woke Go Broke" and how that film disrespected the REAL Fans. You know Real Fans who are getting close to 50. Studios like most of corporate sector has bent the knee and are pulling back on DEI. What will they blame when some blockbuster film that did not GO WOKE and catered to the REAL FANS has toys and merch rotting on the shelves at Ollies? Superman, Batman, Star Wars, and Star Trek have to be reinvented every 25 years to appeal to new generation while still not betraying the core ideals of what it is about. It is the core reason Disney Star Wars sucks, the corporate types in control know hoe Star Wars looks but do not understand why, just like AI art. They are consuming and expelling their own feces in a human centipede Ouroboros.

Maybe the reason why shows like Yellowstone that are called NON WOKE are doing well because it aligns with the values of a older age group that still watches TV? Younger ages are on Xbox or Tik Tok.When that age group gets too old to watch cowboy shows about bored Texas Housewives that pendulum will swing back. Please just cater to us aging Gen Xers and Boomers reaching the ripe old age of dead. Like the WWE, this is all about the shareholders value not making a product for audiences.

These franchises especially films that cost $300 million have to be MASS MARKET to get the largest audience possible, being against INCLUSION is self defeating. This whining is from middle age fans who cry it no longer centers around them anymore. Boo Hoo.

Fun Fact: Star Trek has been "woke" since 1966, just that back then it was written better.

Sign of the Beefcarver did that, there is one location left in 27400 Woodward Ave Royal Oak MI, if you have a craving for cafeteria style hospital food well, go there while you still can. 

Remember WE LEGACY FANS ARE NOT IMMORTAL.

Cultural Cesspools

 By 2055 there is a possibility that the USA will be Godless and Gunless nation. The two things the Conservatives think what America is supposed to be about and make it great, It will not be the liberals that make this happen. But the MAGAGOP NRA Evangelicals themselves that bring this about.

None of their Christian Nationalism is bringing people to Christ, fact is it is turning them away. A year into the Trump Presidency, Friendly Atheist had an article about how less Christians are "sharing the gospel". Because NO ONE wants to hear about their religion. The one that is separating families at the border, taking away women's reproductive rights, attacking vulnerable groups while protecting abusers in their own ranks and flooding them with a barrage of lies they cannot escape. 

Why would I or any sane person want to be any part of that? It is all because these places have become cesspools infested with toxic people.

I read this blog and hear about the drama he put up with at the church he finally left and others who were pushed out by the fanatics and how now him and these others are now not conservative or Christian anymore. 

When the Fanatics take over the moderate sane people leave and the organization shrinks gets more toxic to the point that no new members want to join. Why join a church or any social organization that will just add more drama and stress to your life?

In 40 years Gun Culture went from being about mostly hunters and sport to the cult of SELF DEFENSE and MILITAS. Six Shooters and Lever Action Rifles got replaced by black taciticool rifles and prepping for some Mad Max scenario. Kids under the threat of school shootings and having to do lockdown drills are not going to embrace gun ownership.

Gun chuds come out and say "I teach my son to love guns and hunt" good for you while you do that ten others are not.

When people leave, it is NEVER their fault, no Satan pulled them away. It was video games that caused their son to quit sportsball and now will not be Captain Varsity. Not the fact he never had any talent or passion and was only there out of obligation because you made him do it and spent 80% of the time riding bench and the other 20% being target of abuse from adults.

Oh but it was Super Mario that pulled him away. Not the washed up high school hero who was his coach screaming at him or watching other dads get into fights with each other. 65'5 of kids in sports will burn out before 13. To quote Michael French of Retroblasting "Maybe the kids ran screaming to video games because you screwed up royal."

Trump is at some Evangelical Convention in Nashville rambling about baseball fields being replaced by "knocker fields". His rotting brain is probably trying to say soccer, because brown people are coming in and prefer that to Baseball, America's "past time".  Little League Participation has been in decline since 1995, I see it with the young new hires at my job, I can get into conservations with them about the video game Insurgency Sandstorm than any recent sports game that happened recently except for major events like the Super Bowl. If immigrants are changing our sports preference SO WHAT? 75 years ago the top three sports was Baseball, Boxing and Horse Racing. Now only one is a major attraction.

Seeing this cancer with pop culture fandoms, Madame Web recently tanked HARD at the box office. All the middle aged white fan boys are crying GO WOKE GO BROKE or M-SHE-U. I knew this film was going to brick when I first heard of it. Like that kid in the crappy sports ball league the film was done out of obligation. Sony made it to keep the movie rights from reverting back to Disney/Marvel and used a Z List character that only exists in Spiderman comics to drive the plot forward, not a character that is suitable to lead a feature. Madame Web is a plot device in the comics not a leading character.

Studio hired a director who did TV shows and never had any feature film experience and no surprise this entire film looked like it belonged as CW TV Movie or straight to a streaming service.

Script was written by two people who wrote other box office turds like Gods of Egypt and Dracula Untold. There is now rumors that Chat GPT helped write this movie as well. 

ADR for the main antagonist was so terrible that his speech did not synch with this lips and looked like a badly dubbed over Anime Character. Then the Editing at parts was amateur at best making many of the scenes disjointed. This mess then caused Dakota Johnston to fire her talent agent over this film and her performance had as much passion as that kid stuck in a sport he does not want to be in, looks of it other people working on  that film same lack of interest.

Madame Web failed because it was a GARBAGE movie, not because it refused to cater to the "real fans" these REAL fans forget that the MCU was a box office juggernaut because it appealed to the casual movie goer who does not have a Masters Degree in Super Hero Studies from a State University. Casual movie goers only care about the A list Super Heroes not a film about some D List Side Character they barely know about. They will go to see a Superman Film, not some lower budget film about Jimmy Olsen. Super Hero Fatigue is real, it is from the casuals getting fatigued over the steady stream of garbage. Trump MAGA Fatigue is also real despite these polls saying Trump is leading people are getting tired of the constant ramblings and constant drama. Like the Westerns they got so bad that every one will want them GONE. None of these things can keep going on like this.

Outside forces are not destroying these things, they are collapsing from the rot that is happening on the inside. .

Hollywood Meltdown

 2023 so far has been one of the WORST years for the film industry. Studios are dealing with a double writer and actors strike and so far many of their tentpole films had either barely broke even or outright flopped. Disney alone has lost one billion this year.  Some want to blame that on the MAGA boycotts over GROOMERS or something, but really this was a disaster that was a long time coming due to industry trends, changes in technology and culture.

Reasons - 

1. Overbloated Budgets 

 Movies cost too much money especially the big tent pole films. Most of these flops cost $250-300 million to make. A film needs to make 2.5x that much to just break even. $300 million is that thresh hold where the budget gets so big that it will get harder to get the butts in seats needed to make that money back and more.

Movie going has what I call for myself a  30-30-30 problem. Back in 2016 last time since I went to the theatre it cost me $30 to see a film (tix and food) 30 minutes to get there and I have to get 30 minutes early.. Its a hassle and Id rather just watch a film on whatever streaming service I am already paying for. Now in 2023 it is likely a $40-30-30 problem for me now.

2. Blockbuster Congestion 

There are too many of these tentpole blockbusters, when ever major release has to be a $300M event then none of them can make money, even before COVID movie going was in a decline. 1975 JAWS was the FIRST blockbuster and then Star Wars in 1977 blew up.  For like 30 years these event films were the big ones of the year and few and far between. March 2023 year we had 5 event films being released in a span of 4 weeks, Creed 3, Scream 6 sequel, John Wick 4, Shazam 2, and a new Dungeons & Dragons film that was not a sequel. 

When every film has to be a blockbuster no film can be a blockbuster. With the average person only seeing 4 movies at a theatre a year. They are going to real choosy.

3. COVID changed movie going habits

The Pandemic strained an already breaking system, movie going was already in decline, go back to my 30-30-30 problem, thus people are selective on what MAJOR EVENT they go and see. We are seeing the same with video games, the big AAA live service MMO grind fests are getting shut down left and right. There is just not enough people, with not enough time and money to support all of them.

What did the Atari Jaguar commercial say? "Do the Math"

4. Possible Franchise Fatigue

It is possible that after Infinity War the audience has gotten burned out on Super Heroes, other major franchises and the Remakes. Does not help after Marvels big hyped event the franchise is now left with the B and C Squad Heroes. RDJ, Chris Evans and ScarJo is gone. Now the product seems unerwhelming and drifting aimless.

So many of the flops and underperformers are all FRANCHISES. New Mission Impossible under performed, Little Mermaid Broke Even, Transformers rise of the Beasts did not make money and its trying to bring back GI JOE, another franchise that Hasbro cannot bring back after 3 movies. Shazam 2 lost WB $150M,  Newest Fast and the Furious tanked and Pixar had a string of flops.

Ant Man and the Wasp Quantumania cost $250M and lost its debut weekend to a $35M movie about a Bear cranked out on Cocaine. But the biggest losers were Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and The Flash. The last Indy movie was not so great and this is a IP that Millennials and Gen Z just do not care about. Dial Of Destiny cost $300M for a series that should have stayed ended with Last Crusade.

Head of Lucasarts, Kathleen Kennedy wanted to push the Pheobe Waller-Bridge as some female Indy Jones acting like it is new and revolutionary. It was when it was called Lara Croft Tomb Raider on the PlayStation and led to film series with Angelina Jolie then a tepid reboot with Alicia Vikander. Oh....

https://www.ign.com/articles/phoebe-waller-bridge-resurrecting-tomb-raider-dangerous-new-tv-series

Same person is trying to do a Tomb Raider Amazon TV series, she is only producing, but still how clueless are these people? Disney did think having a fake space cruise Hotel that cost $6000 for two nights was a great idea when a real cruise on Royal Carribbean is $1400 for 5 nights. It closed down and knew this was going to be a future Defunctland Episode when I first saw it.

The Flash, the film was announced in 2014 went though 6 directors did not have a script written until 2018, the lead actor started becoming a criminal sex pest who was still at the movies premier instead of in prison. The movie itself was a complete mess with the entire multiverse premise which it seems like EVERY Super Hero movie is about now. Future does not look any better Blue Beetle looks to be DOA for WB and I have new clue the movie even existed until like two weeks ago. There is too much bad mojo around Disney's live action Snow White. Rachel Zegler has said some stupid things in public interviews and the Seven Dwarves look like Seven Ren Faire Rejects.

The Winners - Super Mario Bros animated dominated when the Pixar films and a movie about a Teenage Kraken sank. Held the record for the winning until....Barbie came out. It had right wingers losing their shit, the ones who cry Go Woke Go Broke cried about it being woke, but it did not go broke and knocked Super Mario Bros from its pedestal.

Reason why the did well is because Barbie and Mario are still active as IPs. Nintendo still makes Mario games, the movie until that live action flop from the 80s was tied to the video games and made references to the 35+ year history of the character. Donkey Kong, Mario Cart etc. Now the character has multi generational appeal, we have kids being raised by gamer dads now. Barbie, the toy is still active one of the few that still makes playsets. I see those $190 Malibu Dream Houses come through the Amazon facility I work at all the time. Other toys, ones aimed at boys no longer make playsets and Barbie as stood the test of time while most of the lines I grew up with were fads that never survived the 1980s.

GI JOE is MIA, mentioned the film franchise could not get off the ground after 3 movies. He-Man, Silverhawks, Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors etc. Did not make it into the 90s a decade that a new wave of children went crazy for Pokemon, Digimon and other battle monster CCGs.

Oppenheimer, shows that movie goers might want more mature dramas and are sick of the infantile people in tights movies save the world for the 100,000th time.

In video games while the MMOs are shuttering, Elden Ring and Baldur's Gate 3 soared. Two games that were expected to only appeal to a hardcore niche gamer, gamers are getting sick of the live service loot box micro transaction money grubbing.

Now the entire Blockbuster System has gotten so unsustainable that the studios needed to shortchange the talent in order to be somewhat viable and that broke the system as Actors and Writers went on strike and now the VFX artists are trying to unionize. Studios think they can get AI to just churn out more of their basic franchise comic book super hero movies that are already mostly computer generated.

The Hollywood Meltdown is just getting started.