What I've learnt about the film industry.
From Mark Kermode's 'How to Make an Intelligent Blockbuster and not Alienate People', it is clear that, while he takes a subjective slant on contemporary blockbusters - stating it as a fact that 'No one enjoyed Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End', he makes it clear that modern cinemagoers, who have been taught to believe that the blockbuster genre cannot give them a masterpiece though a series of unimpressive yet big budget films, have diminished their expectations for cinema events. He describes it as 'unfashionable' for a critically successful director such as Christopher Nolan to treat audiences as intelligent, demonstrating how a trend has begun within big-budget directors to diminish audience's expectations.
He elaborates on the idea of big budget films becoming financial hits, despite poor quality, explaining how a budget can be used as a form of marketing, saying that the success of the film Inception did not come from an intellectually challenging script, but a list of three things: 'a) an A-list star. b) eye popping special effects. c) a newsworthy budget'. Through this, he seems to suggest that cinema is being dumbed-down, and that people will happily pay for a film with a big budget, no matter how good or bad it is 'they'll flock to see films that are rubbish, and which they don't actually enjoy. Like Pearl Harbor'. This explains his concept of diminished expectations.
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