It's crazy to say that you're late to the party when you see a movie only a week after it comes out, but you also know a movie is a big deal when it seems like everyone you know saw it opening weekend and then went back and saw it again.
It's an especially big deal if that movie isn't part of a franchise or a sequel or a remake or a reboot or any kind of known IP.
And all that talking might have you thinking that we don't really need to talk anymore about Hustlers, written and directed by Lorene Scafaria, and starring Constance Wu and Yes-Mom-Just-Kidding-I-Do-Like-Girls-Now Jennifer Lopez, but trust me--we do.
We need to talk about it.
Because while the movie only came in number two at the box office, it made a f***ton of money for something that was just filmed IN MARCH OF THIS YEAR and cost less than what it takes to produce twenty minutes of a Fast & Furious spin-off.
But you already know that.
Everyone knows that.
Let's talk about what didn't happen Monday morning when the returns came in and it became clear that audiences and critics really, really loved this movie.
But before we do that, let's talk about what would have happened if this were another movie--any other movie--with a different cast, the same budget, and a different director.
Let's say the latest Men in Black movie over-performed (granted, it cost more, but it's also got a higher profile, so split the difference).
The studio would have greenlit ten more sequels.
Studio execs would have gotten raises.
The director would have been offered any film they wanted to direct.
Knock-off Men in Black films would have been rushed into production.
Gloating articles from that idiot that the Hollywood Reporter always talks to would have been published saying something like "Look, the same stuff always works, right? That's why we're just going to keep doing what we're doing."
But that movie bombed and this movie did well, and here's what happened--
Nothing.
None of those things happened.
Vulture wrote a couple of articles about it and that--was it.
Scafaria demonstrated that she can make a movie in six months that looks better than some movie that took years to make, and yet, for some reason, nobody's offering her a contract with Marvel or DC or Disney or Star Wars.
And it's possible that she's not interested in any of that, but it doesn't seem like it's even being discussed.
Nobody's saying--
"Wow, we REALLY need to make more movies with women in them. And women of color. Written and directed by women."
Instead, I heard something along the lines of--
"Okay, but remember that all-woman Ghostbusters..."
This movie should have been seen as yet another mandate that this is the kind of material audiences are looking for, and yet--
Nothing.
And at this point, we have to start accepting--and trying to change--the fact that it's not because studio executives and filmmakers are oblivious or that they don't see the patterns or potential.
They pay way too much attention to money and care about profit way too much for us to keep believing that.
The reason they say movies like this are an anomaly is because they simply don't want to make these movies.
They don't want to make them.
They don't want to finance them.
And they sure as hell don't want to watch them.
And they refuse to believe that anybody else does either, because that would involve accepting a version of the world where people look like the characters in Hustlers and the other people in the movie they can identify with are the Wall Street brokers getting conned.
There needs to be a reclaiming of the narrative here, because it seems like no matter how many movies like Bridesmaids we get, the studios are still trying to shove another Terminator down our throat.
It's important to get in those comments sections (I know, I know) when articles are being written about Hustlers and other films like it and point out that this is not a fluke. This is not unusual. These movies not only make money, but they reliably make money, because at the end of the day, women seem to get the job done faster, cheaper, and better.
And that's what we need to be talking about.
It's an especially big deal if that movie isn't part of a franchise or a sequel or a remake or a reboot or any kind of known IP.
And all that talking might have you thinking that we don't really need to talk anymore about Hustlers, written and directed by Lorene Scafaria, and starring Constance Wu and Yes-Mom-Just-Kidding-I-Do-Like-Girls-Now Jennifer Lopez, but trust me--we do.
We need to talk about it.
Because while the movie only came in number two at the box office, it made a f***ton of money for something that was just filmed IN MARCH OF THIS YEAR and cost less than what it takes to produce twenty minutes of a Fast & Furious spin-off.
But you already know that.
Everyone knows that.
Let's talk about what didn't happen Monday morning when the returns came in and it became clear that audiences and critics really, really loved this movie.
But before we do that, let's talk about what would have happened if this were another movie--any other movie--with a different cast, the same budget, and a different director.
Let's say the latest Men in Black movie over-performed (granted, it cost more, but it's also got a higher profile, so split the difference).
The studio would have greenlit ten more sequels.
Studio execs would have gotten raises.
The director would have been offered any film they wanted to direct.
Knock-off Men in Black films would have been rushed into production.
Gloating articles from that idiot that the Hollywood Reporter always talks to would have been published saying something like "Look, the same stuff always works, right? That's why we're just going to keep doing what we're doing."
But that movie bombed and this movie did well, and here's what happened--
Nothing.
None of those things happened.
Vulture wrote a couple of articles about it and that--was it.
Scafaria demonstrated that she can make a movie in six months that looks better than some movie that took years to make, and yet, for some reason, nobody's offering her a contract with Marvel or DC or Disney or Star Wars.
And it's possible that she's not interested in any of that, but it doesn't seem like it's even being discussed.
Nobody's saying--
"Wow, we REALLY need to make more movies with women in them. And women of color. Written and directed by women."
Instead, I heard something along the lines of--
"Okay, but remember that all-woman Ghostbusters..."
This movie should have been seen as yet another mandate that this is the kind of material audiences are looking for, and yet--
Nothing.
And at this point, we have to start accepting--and trying to change--the fact that it's not because studio executives and filmmakers are oblivious or that they don't see the patterns or potential.
They pay way too much attention to money and care about profit way too much for us to keep believing that.
The reason they say movies like this are an anomaly is because they simply don't want to make these movies.
They don't want to make them.
They don't want to finance them.
And they sure as hell don't want to watch them.
And they refuse to believe that anybody else does either, because that would involve accepting a version of the world where people look like the characters in Hustlers and the other people in the movie they can identify with are the Wall Street brokers getting conned.
There needs to be a reclaiming of the narrative here, because it seems like no matter how many movies like Bridesmaids we get, the studios are still trying to shove another Terminator down our throat.
It's important to get in those comments sections (I know, I know) when articles are being written about Hustlers and other films like it and point out that this is not a fluke. This is not unusual. These movies not only make money, but they reliably make money, because at the end of the day, women seem to get the job done faster, cheaper, and better.
And that's what we need to be talking about.
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