Sales=Quality

[vlad321]

HappySqurriel said:

vlad321 said:

That is more or less what I was refering to by saying a braindead romance in there. I also agree that it's what Harry Potter basically had as well. You also said it youself, it had braod appeal. Well that broad appeal is the problem. To have that broad appeal you shoot quality in the foot, and bury it.

First off, I didn’t say they had broad appeal; in fact I said the opposite. Twilight only really appeals to a very small portion of the population but it does it so well that it has almost ubiquitous appeal within this group. Twilight targeted teenaged white middle-class girls, and because it was so successful at doing this it couuld sell tens of millions of copies around the world ... If Twilight had broad appeal it would be successful across mutliple demographic barriers, but it really doesn't

Harry Potter certainly has a broader appeal but only because it is significantly better than the Twilight series. While I'm certain you won't see the challenge, to write something that is accessable to children with limited reading skills and not too simplistic for experienced adult readers is not easy; and is made remarkably more complicated by trying to make a story and characters that appeal to both groups. I challenge you to read any series of books at a similar reading-level to Harry Potter and then question the quality of the Harry Potter books ...

 

For people like Michael Bay who is (rightfully) hated for producing movies with terrible writing and acting the quality of their work that leads to their success is easy to explain. If I'm going to be convinced to pay $10 to $15 per movie ticket, and another $10 to $20 for snacks per person, to see a movie in the theater I want the movie to provide an experience that can only truly be appreciated in the theater; and with 40+ inch HD televisions and surround sound systems this is becoming a harder thing to achieve.  In this environment, in a competition between a well written and acted drama and a movie where two robots beat each-other up while tearing up the city the robot movie wins.

Michael Bay makes movies that are high quality spectacles and gets rewarded for that. Movies that combine better writing and acting while creating high quality spectacles (The Dark Knight, Avatar, etc) are also rewarded very well.

 

Well i was refering to broad appeal of Harry Potter, not Twilight. But yes, at least I know we're on the same page there. As I outlined in another post, the reason Harry Potter worked, or Twilight for its demographics, is because it appealed to the basest parts of people. A boy and a fight of good vs evil, a la Potter, is some of the most basic motif in any book. Meanwhile if you take Heart of Darkness(man do I hate it, or Catch-22(to be more modern), most people won't read it either due to the writing or they just don't get the ideas behind it or the humor.

I am glad you brought in movies as well because I was just about to do the same myself. The simple fact is, Transformers made more money than it had ANY right to do. Yes you can't get the same experience on your TV, but that doesn't mean it's any form of quality. If anythign that's just shallow and artificial.