Dear Hollywood: Please Stop Listening to the Fans and Feeding the Trolls

Also, how Tinseltown and an SEO-driven media forgot that bad-faith online keyboard warriors don't represent real-world opinion and don't require explanation or empathy.

In a typical healthy theatrical marketplace, I wouldn't "care" that Joker: Folie a Deux is looking to open this weekend below $50 million on its way to pulling a box office drop (from its predecessor) on par with The Marvels. Even noting my displeasure (as a critic/moviegoer) with the film not delivering the "wild-n-crazy musical crime dramedy" promised by the pitch and previews, I'd respect for Todd Phillips and Scott Silver taking $200 million from a major Hollywood studio and setting it on fire. However, the streaming rush and a global pandemic have turned nearly every multiplex release into a glorified underdog. Moreover, it's almost certain that the relative commercial failure of Warner Bros. Discovery's Joaquin Phoenix/Lady Gaga flick will result in a further clampdown on coloring outside the lines with big-budget franchise films. It will likely further the false and harmful narrative that IP-specific adaptations exist to please the biggest/loudest fans rather than adding to an existing fanbase. 

Most of yesterday's Variety article concerning Hollywood dealing with aggressive and often prejudicial "fans" of franchises, brands and IPs had a reasonable "Don't feed the trolls" approach. Most folks quoted (directly or on background) by Adam B. Very correctly noted that most of these social media complainers represent a deafening but exceedingly small minority. However, a critical section said that "studios will assemble a specialized cluster of superfans to assess possible marketing materials for major franchise projects." The article implied that notes given by the groups about possible fan outrage would spur studios, if the project weren't complete, to make changes to the film or show to prevent online discontent. Whether that's as grim as it sounds, and whether that pertains to things like more inclusive or race-bended casting, I cannot say. However, this marks a change in thinking, one borne of misguided fear (via industry-wide austerity) and a failure to learn from the previous decade's successes and failures. 

I've long argued that the review-bombers who flood social media are not fans of specific properties but a band of roving sexist and racist assholes who jump from one IP to the next as attention-seeking, self-gratifying agents of chaos and online practitioners of performative cruelty. That, as the article notes, Rings of Power season two suffered far less "backlash" (nobody bitching about Black hobbits or girl-boss Galadriel) hints that they only show up when it's most likely that the media will be listening. Even noting that not every loud online complainer is a racist and sexist troll or gatekeeper, "listening to the fans" is still wrong. The goal of making a movie or TV show based on an established property isn't to explicitly cater to the existing fanbase. It's to create new fans of the respective adaptation. And you can't do that by obsessing over the reactions of a niche fanbase whom you already expect to show up.