[Slight OT] TDPL in Russia

[Walter Bright]

dsimcha wrote:
> Of course everyone thinks ~60-70% of what Hollywood puts out is crap.  The problem
> is that everyone thinks that about a **different** ~60-70% because different
> movies cater to different niches.

Reminds me of the old joke about advertising. Businessmen know that half of 
their advertising budget is wasted, they just don't know which half.


> Having a single centralized "this movie is
> crap" authority is how dictatorship works.  Producing movies even if only a
> minority thinks they're worth watching, as long as that minority can pay enough to
> make it profitable is how capitalism works.

Hollywood moguls don't set out to make crap. They set out to make what sells. 
When they're investing $50 million in a project, they want some assurance that 
it will sell. Therefore, they look at movies that did sell well and make their 
new movie like them - that's why sequels are produced, and why stars get big 
salaries.

For all the drek that this does produce, it still produces far more good stuff 
than ones where a government agency decides what will be produced. For example, 
there's all that crap on TV, and then there's "Breaking Bad".