Because most movies are too lousy to bother with. Hollywood movies are generally made for a certain demographic. That would be men 18-34. Hollywood used to make movies about adults and adult problems. Now when they're not making movies based on comic books, they are touting a political agenda out of step with most of the country, or they make a movie like "Failure To Launch" which is about a Peter Pan type guy.
Then the Hollywood types wring their hands when they're not demeaning the rest of us for being dopes who refuse to support their trash.
I went to California to attempt to get into the film biz. I was too old and I was the wrong sex. The ideal screenwriter is about 29 and male. That's why we get the movies we get. They understand the target audience because they are the target audience.
If you make movies that are so expensive that you must take in astonishing box office receipts just to cover the debt, then this situation is understandable. After all, it's business.
What if you made less expensive movies and more of them, for a wider range of potential movie goers? According to Hollywood, you would be a big dope.
What does this have to do with publishing. Other than publishing is still seen as a way to find film properties, the publishing business is making the same dumb mistakes.
I had a proposal for a nonfiction book called "True Brit: An Anglophile's Guide to Living a British Life". The editor liked it but it wasn't "downtown" enough.
I'm sorry. I don't know how to make that fix. "Make it more like Bridget Jones," I was told.
WHAT???
I don't know how to make that fix either.
They want books that target a very specific audience, the rest of us can get lost. Another really good business decision, you early retirees.
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