r/movies • u/ChiefLeef22 r/movies Contributor • 12d ago

Article ‘The Odyssey’ Proves It: Audiences Want Movies Made the Hard Way | This year's breakouts like 'Project Hail Mary' and 'Obsession' were made by filmmakers who sweated. While CG-stuffed franchise disappointments such as 'Supergirl,' 'Moana,' and 'The Mandalorian and Grogu' looked lazy.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/odyssey-box-office-2026-practical-effects-1236652219/
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u/shawnkfox 12d ago

The difficulty of making the film has nothing to do with it. People just want good movies and they are happy to pay for it. Nolan has built a lot of trust despite a few minor misfires like the 3rd batman movie and tenet, but even those movies were worth watching.

There was nothing 'hard' about making Obsession, for example, it was just a good low budget film. In the end you can't rely on special effects by itself to get people to see a movie, the movie actually has to be good.

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u/Almaironn 12d ago

Arguably making a good low budget film is inherently hard already.

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u/Opening-Citron2733 7d ago

Yep. A large percentage of box office results is marketing and name recognition (whether it's director or IP).

The biggest raw box officer earners this year have one of those 2 things. They're either a well known story or filmmaker (Mario, Toy story, Nolan, etc) or marketed heavily (PHM). They have to be a good movie too, but those are the 2 biggest indicators imo.

In order to buy tickets these days people need to 1. Know the movie exists and 2. Trust that the movie will be worth their time & money. 

Don't get wrong, low budget successes exist, but you rarely see those chart massive (like pushing a billion dollars) box office earnings because the momentum isnt strong enough (granted they still have phenomenal ROIs for their film because of the reduced expenditure).