Why Are Movie Fans Rooting for Movies to Fail?
Movie fandom used to be about what we loved. Now it’s about what bombed at the box office, what failed, and who can call it first.
At some point, being a “movie lover” on the internet stopped being about loving movies. It became about tracking numbers. It became about calling something a bomb before the opening weekend is even over. It became about rooting for failure because failure gets more clicks.
I don’t know exactly when it happened, but here we are. Every Monday, my timeline turns into a CNBC segment. People don’t even talk about what they watched anymore. They just post charts and estimated budgets. It’s all dollars. Not story, not performances, not the crowd in the theater, just dollars.
And the weirdest part is, most of the people doing this claim to love movies. So why do they act like they want them to fail?
Look at the Sinners situation. Variety couldn’t wait to frame it as a flop after its first weekend, even as it played strongly for weeks afterward and found its audience as one of the biggest hits of all-time. They tried to make the narrative stick because "box office disaster" is clickbait, even if its wrong.
Don’t believe me? Here is their direct quote:
In all, "Sinners" has amassed $61 million in its global debut. It's a great result for an original, R-rated horror film that takes place in the 1930s, yet the Warner Bros. release has an eye-popping $90 million price tag before global marketing expenses, so profitability remains a ways away.
Profitability was not a ways away. It was likely profitable by the next weekend. But the framing of this statement was annoying. $61 million is a great result for an R-rated horror film set in the 1930s. Leave it at that.
But that’s the pattern now. People online don’t just report box office numbers, they try to spin them into doom and gloom. They’re hoping for the car crash. They refresh Box Office Mojo like day traders watching crypto. It’s like Wall Street for weirdos.
I know why it happens. It’s more fun to go online and talk about a movie bombing. That’s why they do it. It makes you feel like you’ve got insider info. Like you’re smarter than the people who greenlit it. Like you are some kind of movie expert that knows better than everyone else. And sure, there are lots of bad movies and poor decisions getting greenlit with insane budgets that are destined to fail. I have talked about it here on my site.
But if you actually like movies, that mentality is backwards. If you like movies, you should want them to work, even if they aren’t your cup of tea. You should want them to find an audience, even if it isn’t you. You should want theaters to survive, studios to take risks, and weird original stuff to get made. You shouldn’t be rooting for failure just because it’s more fun to post about online.
I have certainly fallen into this world myself, even recently. It is easy to get caught up in the numbers and call out box office bombs. But it gets sad really quick, and anyone who truly enjoys movies wouldn’t last in that negative space for long.
I’m not saying box office doesn’t matter. Of course it does. But when we break down movies into dollars and cents instead of an art form, we devalue them. Even worse, we show the studios and filmmakers that risks are not worth taking because they will get dragged on the Internet if it doesn’t do well. Trust me, there are whole teams out there monitoring this stuff. They see the online chatter. They sometimes do reshoots or change their marketing because of a few negative people who rile up a fan base. It must be exhausting…
So next time you catch yourself celebrating a "box office bomb," ask yourself: What’s the objective here? Do you want fewer movies? Do you want fewer theaters? Do you want a world where the only movies getting made are guaranteed IP cash grabs?
Or do you actually want a community where we talk about the stuff that moved us? Do you want a world that prioritizes originality and art over dollars and profit?
Because right now, it feels like the love of movies is getting lost in the love of watching them crash, and that sucks. So cut it out!
You raise some very interesting points Jeff. I think also quite a few new movies are being deliberately targeted in the so called 'culture wars' and some people want them to fail so bad.
I generally agree with your sentiment and arguments. Where I would push back on is that criticism of things that are crappy shouldn't be avoided, and when crappy things are successful, we just end up with more crap. I know- very technical analysis lol. I would never put down creative, unique, independent projects, even if they weren't for me, or I didn't care for it. But getting mindless Schlock, endless sequels, nothing new or interesting, well I'd rather those aren't that successful, to maybe motivate them for something of substance, something new. I want more Sinners types movies, less Jurassic sequels. If the former fails and the latter succeeds, we only keep circling the drain on capitalist rot, no longer an art form, its McDonalds cinema vs. quality cuisine.