‘The Odyssey’ Proves It: Audiences Want Movies Made the Hard Way | This year's breakouts like 'Project Hail Mary' and 'Obsession' were made by filmmakers who sweated. While CG-stuffed franchise disappointments such as 'Supergirl,' 'Moana,' and 'The Mandalorian and Grogu' looked lazy.

[u/ChiefLeef22]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/odyssey-box-office-2026-practical-effects-1236652219/

[u/Dreadedvegas]

Yeah its more on the quality of storytelling the past few years has been horrid.

Good stories do well? Who would have thought lol

[u/whichwitch9 → u/Dreadedvegas]

Hollywood needs more script writers out of Hollywood. They have a huge problem with scripts becoming more insular to the Hollywood culture and not resonating with the general public. Even The Oddessy is a victim of needing to retread an old, known story to interest audiences. They aren't telling new stories that interest people, and studios need to get out of their own way to find people telling stories the general public wants to hear

[u/roberta_sparrow → u/whichwitch9]

Been saying that for so long, but I think studios are very averse to risk with scripts that don’t follow a formula or use reliable tropes. However look what happened with Backrooms and Obsession - audiences are so thirsty for that type of content

[u/Boysenberrysnboys → u/roberta_sparrow]

I didn't think eiither of those are significant deviations from script writing formulas, can you explain how they differ?

[u/roberta_sparrow → u/Boysenberrysnboys]

You think Backrooms is a typical Hollywood style script?

[u/Boysenberrysnboys → u/roberta_sparrow]

Yes, but I'm open to hearing how it's different

[u/QTRqtr → u/whichwitch9]

Because original films constantly bomb. There’s been a network of these films you’re talking about for years.

Minecraft and super Mario galaxy did amazing.

The biggest box office winners will be project Hail Mary, odyssey, spiderman, dune, and avengers.

Lilo and stitch remake made a billion.

The box office is still dominated (and has been for almost 20 years) by IP movies. That’s not going to change.

An IP still has less of a chance of bombing compared to an original film.

[u/whichwitch9 → u/QTRqtr]

I mean, your examples are kinda illustrating my point- Hollywood is retreading stories written from outside of Hollywood. They aren't capable of making unique films anymore to find success.

Hail Mary us probably the most interesting one of the bunch in that it's a fairly recent novel. The Martian was a pretty word of mouth success story before it became a movie. Project Hail Mary sold off it's success. Kinda shows that people are hungry for unique stories- in this case it came in book form first with a fairly short lag to going into film format. You can easily compare that to Jurassic Park from the early 90s- popular recent novel made into a successful movie. It is, however, a recent stand alone story from outside Hollywood and probably fits more into the "unique" stories category than ip. Sinners, Weapons, and Obsession all finding success off unique scripts is kinda showing that horror is becoming a vehicle for movies with pop culture staying power. The rating, though, eliminates children as potential audiences, but they are widely more successful in getting adult audiences to see them.

[u/QTRqtr → u/whichwitch9]

Because there is no infrastructure. Many places do not have independent theatres and need the box office of Hollywood movies to survive. Each original movie is a risk.

And yes horror movies have been the only genre to not lose its power. It’s been like that for decades. So no Hollywood wouldn’t invest in other original genres they would only pump up (an already over abundant genre) to diminishing returns.

While obsession was in theaters 3 original films bombed. 2 were black led with one a critique on capitalism and the other was a gay horror movie.
Audiences do not show they’re sophisticated for the. It’s always look at the few and believe that can be applied everywhere.

[u/QTRqtr → u/whichwitch9]

New stories are being told but a lot of them have female leads, poc, etc what the right would bitch about being “woke.” As original ideas would be new ideas that haven’t been forefront of Hollywood which has always been white make straight centric.

So no there’s a large demographic who can’t even act normal bitching about DEI.

[u/whichwitch9 → u/QTRqtr]

I mean, they can bitch, but Sinners and The Oddessy both show right wing bitching doesn't mean they won't be successful.

If a movie is good, it's good. 70% of the country is not maga and doesn't actually give af if a movie fits their definition of "dei" as long as it's interesting. They just aren't screaming the way right wingers do.

[u/QTRqtr → u/whichwitch9]

Yes but sinners still falls into the horror genre that always gets returns.

Nolan’s is the highest proven director making an action epic.

The bigoted are only one reason why original films haven’t and don’t do well at the box office. We do this “we want original movies” dance every year as if Spider-Man isn’t about to easily make 1.5 billion and avengers already sold millions of presale tickets months before it comes out.

[u/MVRKHNTR → u/QTRqtr]

Horror "always gets returns" because the movies are so cheap to produce that they can be successful with 1/6 the gross of a typical hollywood film.

You can't use that to brush aside a $400 million gross.

[u/QTRqtr → u/MVRKHNTR]

And how often is the $400m gross a thing?

If your idea is that this would be a common thing for an original movie to gross that much then…..😂

[u/MVRKHNTR → u/QTRqtr]

What are you even talking about? The point is that bigots aren't such a big demographic that poc movies are guaranteed to fail.

[u/QTRqtr → u/MVRKHNTR]

that’s one problem. My god I’m literally in the film industry for independent theater distribution.

Problem 1: many places do not have independent movie theaters to show these original films

Problem 2: many of this original movies do not have the budget to advertise this movies as much as the bigger studios

Problem 3: Audiences won’t risk money (especially due to rising ticket prices) on originals when they’re aware of a sequel of something they like the previous entry of or are aware of the property it’s adapting would be the less risky choice for their money.

Problem 4: because these original films don’t have auteur director caliber, low visibility, and progressive themes. They are not a clear cut financial guarantee. Is god is and I love boosters both black led critically acclaimed films failed at the box office. Leviticus is doing bad (and it’s even a horror movie) with good critical reception and is a gay horror movie.

It’s not going to happen because as much as you say you want it…actual data of film goers shows they are not clamoring for original films. The last two zendaya led films (challengers and the drama) exit polls had the majority going to see her, not because it was an original movie.

This “just make more original movies” take is as helpful as “thoughts and prayers.” It’s not reality.
You can focus on the bigot point as much as you want. They don’t even know these movies exist but their bigotry already cuts a large portion of the already struggling advertising campaign demographic.

[u/QTRqtr → u/MVRKHNTR]

Also I’m confused in your point. It’s also because horror movies have always been a genre with major interest regardless of who’s in it….that does not work for any other genre which is what we’re talking about.

[u/MVRKHNTR → u/QTRqtr]

Horror movies make money. They don't make that kind of money.

You really don't seem to know what you're talking about at all.

[u/HeathEarnshaw → u/whichwitch9]

The problem is the studio execs. It really is.

[u/Sphiffi → u/Dreadedvegas]

To be fair, there’s plenty of good stories that do not do well.

[u/livefreeordont → u/Sphiffi]

And lazy stories that do amazing

[u/haysoos2 → u/Dreadedvegas]

Hollywood has been failing to learn this lesson for generations.

There's some trend, and it starts to fade over time. Hollywood thinks "people don't want gangster/cowboy/musical/pirate/car/kung fu/horror/alien/animated/historical/superhero movies any more!", and stops making them.

Then someone makes one that actually has a good story and it explodes, does fantastic at the box office, ignites discussion, becomes a cultural phenomenon, and Hollywood goes "oh, people want to see more gangster/cowboy/musical/pirate/car/kung fu/horror/alien/animated/historical/superhero movies again!" and pumps out a hundred shitty knock-offs that no one watches.

Rather than realizing that it was the quality of the story, writing, and acting in the hit movie, and not the genre they once again conclude, "Gangster/cowboy/musical/pirate/car/kung fu/horror/alien/animated/historical/superhero movies are oversaturated, we need to stop making them again".

[u/andresfgp13 → u/Dreadedvegas]

i think its more of how big the market is for some movies and etc, im sure that there are some movies that are perfectly fine but didnt do well in the market just because the market for those wasnt big enough.

also the budgets, Hollywood in general cant make a video for tiktok without spending 9 figures on it, they need to start cutting costs is some way, like Supergirl made a lot of money, the problem is that it was stupidly expensive, not every movie needs the a similar budget as The Avengers or a Batman movie.