Top 10 Movies That RUINED Hollywood for Everyone

WatchMojo

Ever wonder why modern cinema feels so formulaic? Join us as we examine the films that transformed Hollywood for the worse! From cynical marketing cash-grabs to franchises that killed creativity, these movies set precedents that continue to plague mainstream filmmaking today. Which movie do you think did the most damage?

Transcript

00:00Welcome to WatchMojo and today, we're counting down our picks for the top 10 movies that

00:13are responsible for ruining mainstream cinema.

00:1910. The Emoji Movie

00:30Just the title alone makes you wonder, what cynical marketing executive thought this was

00:34a good idea?

00:40A movie built entirely around smiley faces you send in text messages? Yes, it is as terrible

00:46as it sounds, but too many folks let their morbid curiosity get the better of them.

00:59Having made quadruple its budget back at the box office, the Emoji Movie signified the start

01:04of marketing movies, films made entirely for the sake of raising brand awareness for a

01:08product at the expense of creativity.

01:13Don't get us wrong, it is important to consider what audiences you might be catering to, but

01:17in the case of the Emoji Movie, the awful writing and obscene product placement show where the

01:21priorities were during production.

01:26game over.

01:399. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 and 2

01:41Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 and 2

01:50For most people, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was the epic inclusion to an extensive

01:54story we had been growing up with for over a decade.

01:58For others, it indicated the start of a new greedy business practice for movie distributors

02:02to exercise the necessity of splitting movies into multiple parts.

02:05Now, there is a case to be made here that Deathly Hallows was a massive book and was the end

02:23of Harry Potter, so sure, make a big two-parter to cap off the story.

02:27But soon after, other distributors started taking on parts and chapters to movies that

02:31should have been one-offs, looking at you, The Hunger Games Mockingjay, Twilight Breaking

02:36Dawn and Spider- Across the Spider-Verse.

02:428.

02:43Ready Player One

02:52In the world of movies, Ready Player One was the death of the cameo in Easter Eggs.

02:57To compensate for the mediocre plot, Ready Player One was loaded with all kinds of characters

03:02from across movies, television, and video games.

03:14However, they were all just… there.

03:17No purpose in the story, no meaning behind their inclusion, just here's Iron Giant standing

03:22next to Tracer from Overwatch and the Mortal Kombat characters.

03:25Since then, cameos and easter eggs just get put in for the sake of easy fan service and

03:30it's gotten even more excessive in popular IPs like Star Wars, Marvel, DC Comics, and

03:35way, way more.

03:37You think I'm a corporate asshole, that I don't appreciate pop culture, but man, that's

03:42not true.

03:437.

03:44Twilight

03:45How did you get over to me so fast?

03:47I was standing right next to you, Bella.

03:50No, you were next to your car, across the lot.

03:54Remember the flood of movies we saw in the late 2000s and early 2010s that were adapted from

03:59books aimed at teens and tweens?

04:01Well, we have Twilight to blame for that.

04:03Oh, you do smell good.

04:05Alice, what are you?

04:07It's okay.

04:08Bella and I are going to be great friends.

04:10The angsty vampire romance combined with the constant success of the Harry Potter movies

04:14caused many studios to worry about missing out on a possible gold mine.

04:18And so we saw almost every mainstream young adult book get a movie deal the second it published.

04:24The Maze Runner, Jumper, Divergent, and Percy Jackson all fought for the next wave of attention

04:29from the masses.

04:30Some got another movie or two, others never returned, and the chase for the next popular

04:34young adult novel continues to this day.

04:36Bella won't be out too late tonight, you're just going to play baseball with my family.

04:40Baseball?

04:41Yes, sir, that's the plan.

04:436.

04:44Transformers

04:45If you've ever wondered why people weren't keen on Transformers for a while, you can blame

05:00it on Michael Bay's first Transformers flick.

05:02Audiences flock to the theater for this one, only to be met with a bland story driven entirely

05:06by overly detailed CGI.

05:16Movie studios took note of this and immediately began abandoning practical effects in favor

05:20of excessively using CGI.

05:22Unfortunately, this wave of spectacle driven blockbusters has not slowed down much over the

05:27years.

05:28We still see plenty of big budget films made almost entirely in front of a blue screen.

05:33So much so, that more movies are forgetting the true beauty we can be using in the real

05:37world with real materials and real scenes.

05:40Just look at Five Nights at Freddy's.

05:425.

05:43The Avengers

05:44You and me, we stay here on the ground, we keep the fighting here.

05:58The Avengers

05:59The Avengers was the first superhero movie with a major ensemble and a ton of financial backing

06:07from Marvel and its partners.

06:09And it turned out to be an insanely great movie.

06:12Unfortunately, too many movie studios desperately tried to copy its blueprint and failed miserably.

06:17Everything has to be a crossover, everything has to have a world ending conflict, and everything

06:22has to be the start of the next MCU.

06:24What they fail to realize is that the movies that led up to the Avengers, Iron Man, Captain

06:26America, The First Avenger, and Thor were all great films on their own.

06:30There was a reason audiences cared about the Avengers, and it wasn't because, ooh, pretty

06:47world with lots of exposition and special effects.

06:514.

06:52Alice in Wonderland

06:53Those who bemoan the trend of live action Disney remakes will point blame at many different

07:13at many different movies.

07:14It's Lilo and Stitch's Fart, no, it's Aladdin's Fart, no, The Lion King was the

07:19start of that downfall, no, it's actually Maleficent.

07:22If you really want to go back to when this started, it began with Alice in Wonderland.

07:36For just a couple hundred million dollars in investment, the movie brought in over a

07:40billion big bucks for Disney.

07:42I told the company, hey, people want us to milk this stuff, and now some feel the House

07:46of Mouse is a sequel mill and remake factory.

07:49What little originality remains gets little to no attention.

07:563.

07:57Jurassic World Much like Ghostbusters, it seems like the movie

08:06industry cannot move past the original Jurassic Park in 1993.

08:10Ever since the Lost World sequel in 1997, the Jurassic Park franchise has been on a steep

08:15decline in quality.

08:17Jurassic World was apparently good enough for audiences to give Universal a ton of undeserved

08:27box office receipts, and they continue to do so.

08:31No matter how awful the next sequel is, people keep showing up and giving more and more money.

08:37At what point do we realize that we should be asking if we SHOULD make Jurassic Park sequels

08:43instead of if we COULD make them?

08:45Right, Dr. Malcolm?

08:46Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't

08:50stop to think if they SHOULD.

08:512.

08:52Avatar

08:53There is something to be said about Avatar's enigmatic popularity given how long its story

09:01wallows around and how captivating and immersive its world is.

09:05But what Avatar really ignited was the notion of 3D becoming the future of cinema.

09:09So many movie studios bought into the idea that they needed to match the visual fidelity

09:14and 3D effects Avatar showcased, for whatever reason.

09:27And surprise, surprise, none of them really justified the extra cost of display in IMAX

09:323D.

09:33The movies that followed felt cheap and gimmicky and soon enough everyone went back to watching

09:37movies the way they have been for years, and years, and years before.

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10:081.

10:09Heaven's Gate

10:13If we could rename Heaven's Gate to reflect its impact on the filmmaking industry, we'd

10:19call it the day the auteur died.

10:21Director Michael Cimino caused a lot of problems throughout production in order to achieve his

10:26perfect vision.

10:27So much so that the budget went four times over its initial amount.

10:31But people always get thirsty after a funeral.

10:33I'm not about to sit and watch the grass grow and there's money that he made.

10:40The critical reception was not kind and wound up scaring tons of movie studios in the process.

10:45It didn't help that the film was a major player in United Artists filing for bankruptcy.

10:50Cimino's big blunder showed studios that there was no reason to give directors complete creative

10:55control and so began the practice of corporate meddling and entertainment, with some exceptions

10:59here and there.

11:09Was there another movie you feel has contributed to the downward quality in modern films?

11:13Let us know down in the comments below and don't forget to subscribe to watch mojo video.

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