The Cine-Economy

Fight Club was a movie that was well appreciated by the critics and indeed deserved to be for its unconventional story line and unorthodox methodology of dealing with storytelling. However, it ended up performing poorly in the box office.

At the same time, the American Pie series, the Marvel movies and even the Fifty Shades franchise for that fact were box office blockbusters. Analysing the returns to scale of these movies, it has time and again been proven that it is profitable to shoot a movie, similar to the ones that lack what the “cinephiles” term as “substance”. The nuances of the economy of the film industry is indeed intriguing owing to the inclination of movies that lack substance to being potential blockbusters.

This trend can be used to trace out a pattern. Before explaining what the pattern is, I’d like to acquaint the reader with an essential knowledge to make proper sense of it. Entertainment through visual media primarily appeals to two sub personas of human beings. One being the hormonal being. This is the persona, which if left on its own can trigger a person to any given stimulus. This is the persona that can be pleasured by the colourful and power packed entry of “Thala Ajith” or when Chulbul Pandey takes care of a truck filled with goons twice his size. This kind of a persona is predominant among the people who lovingly call Salman Khan, “Bhai” and the kind that wastes gallons of milk in a poverty struck country such as India over washing the many a feet statues of Rajni and Vijay.

Then comes the second persona, the intellectual being. This is the kind that appreciates movies for its subtle nature of conveying powerful messages. This is the kind that despise the quintessential “masala movies” owing to the fact they are able to trace out the backbone of the story even before it commences. This is seldom seen in isolation and is often accompanied by the hormonal being.

Having acquainted the reader with the essential information, I’d like to present my hypothesis on the film economy. Two kinds of people make movies. One consider it an investment capable of protecting their hard earned money from inflation and doubling and probably even tripling the returns. The other consider it to be an art, who go on to make a film to project the vivid images that had been playing on the back of their heads, to a larger mass. Now, the former may not neccesarily be a half-wit. They are the ones capable of making movies appeasing both the hormonal and the intellectual personas to a certain extent. A prominent example being the Marvel movie franchise. However most of members of the former group, are just hell bent on making easy money. Hence they rely on pandering to the masses i.e. the population primarily possessing the hormonal being. They don’t bat an eye while using the same old recycled plot line as long as it generates sufficient returns. Kya Kool Hai Hum, Kya Super Kool Hai Hum, Great Grand Masti etc. are movies that were sodomized by the critics. However, its ability to pander to the sexually frustrated typical Indian and make amazing returns every single time shows the genius of the formula.

The latter is made up of entities that consider the projector to be a holy apparatus that should only project legit works of art. While these movies have a lot of soul in them, they are destined to fail at the box office with the latest victim being “Blade Runner 2049”. It appeals to a small mass of people who are sensitive enough to notice and appreciate the inherent soul in the film while the rest consider the movie to be a two-hour long drama made bearable by the charms of Ryan Gosling. The pattern visible here is pretty much comprehensible for the average Joe by now. If you want to make money, i.e. if film making is a looked upon as a business by you, then all you got to do is not abide by the artistic association it possesses. A movie targeting the intellectual being alone will seldom be successful taking into account the overwhelming success of the Nolan Product. If all you want is an assured profit, stick onto appeasing the hormonal being primarily. While Tarrantino movies can be thought provoking, the gore and classy take on rhe duels between the symbols of good and evil often lead to an upsurge of adrenaline, appeasing the hormonal being.

The bottom line is if you want to make money from a film, stick to the old overused storyline in the book. If you want to make money whilst attaining fame for your witty mechanism of movie making, all you got to do while making an out of the normal plot is add enough elements of Karan Johar and probably even a pinch of Rohit Shetty to it. However, if you want to distinguish yourself as a renowned director making public appearances at Cannes, make sure your empty canvas is going to be filled with your work sans the inspiration from the abomination being the cancer of cinema.