Have Franchise Fanbases Gotten Toxic?
By Movieguide® Contributor
In recent years, Hollywood has faced more public backlash for some of its biggest franchises than it is used to, and while studios claim it’s simply because fans are becoming more toxic, their outcry is justified.
Many of the largest IPs have been subject to this increased backlash across the internet. Star Wars, Marvel and even The Lord of the Rings have all been lambasted across social media for the content they have produced in recent years.
“It comes with the territory, but it’s gotten incredibly loud in the last couple years,” a veteran marketing executive at a major studio told Variety. “People are just out for blood, regardless. They think the purity of the first version will never be replaced, or you’ve done something to upset the canon of a beloved franchise, and they’re going to take you down for doing so.”
While the executive is right that a small number of people are getting upset for the sake of getting upset, a much larger number of fans are angry for a different reason. They are tired of content that is lazy and boring and is fed to them under the title of an established IP to cover up these flaws.
Studios have even begun to shoulder the blame for these shortcomings, admitting that the content they have produced is not up to quality. Earlier this year, Disney — who owns and produces Star Wars and Marvel content — CEO Bob Iger announced a change in strategy to produce less content so they can focus on quality.
“As we got into the streaming business in a very, very aggressive way, we tried to tell too many stories…” Iger told investors in May. “There’s a very fine line that you can cross and get in trouble if your volume ends up diluting management’s attention to what is being made is right. And that’s what happened to us. So I have pulled that back.”
“I’ve been telling everybody good isn’t good enough. It has to be great,” Iger added, further admitting Disney has been producing mediocre content. “Just keep driving that, but if you force them to make too much, then that becomes impossible to do.”
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER showrunners spoke similarly about their project, explaining that the first half of Season 1 wasn’t quite what they had hoped, though they found their feet towards the end of the season and carried that into Season 2. The fans agree as well.
“You had to set up an entire world in season one. You have to introduce audiences to the Second Age. You have to meet all these different characters in a half dozen worlds,” executive producer and writer, J.D. Payne told The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s a lot to onboard. Now we’re really able to just hit the ground running by virtue of the fact that this is the next chapter, the board is set, and the pieces are in motion. We can start with a bang. Sauron is making moves and he never slows down — neither does the show.”
Despite its slow start, RINGS OF POWER points toward the content audiences actually want: uplifting stories that families can enjoy together. Even before RINGS OF POWER won over its audience, viewers preferred the show over the GAME OF THRONES spinoff, THE HOUSE OF DRAGON, which was released at the same time and featured extreme violence, sex and nudity.
While Hollywood is unhappy with the backlash it has been facing, the outcry from fans has been both justified and heard by executives.
Slowly, but surely, the industry must come around to the viewers and provide them the content they want. The entertainment space is currently facing a tipping point and now, more than ever, it is crucial that audiences vote with their dollar and support projects that align with their values, rather than allow studios to continue to get away with excessive, immoral and lazy content.
Movieguide® previously reported on what the media gets wrong:
While movies containing strong moral and Christian content have outperformed immoral content at the box office, mainstream media continues to find other reasons for their success.
In “The Simple Secret to the ‘Super Mario’ Animation Studio’s Success,” published by The Wall Street Journal, the success of Illumination Studios is explained as coming from its reliance on proven franchises and IPs, creation of films that people of all ages want to see, and the decline of Disney’s Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios.
“[An] explanation for Illumination’s success is the studio’s reliance on tried-and-true intellectual property as the basis of its stories” the article states. “The first movie to feature the minions–now an indelible part of pop culture–came out in 2012 and has spawned four sequels and spinoffs.”
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