VintageComics

So, in typical "stream of consciousness" posting style, and in the spirit of this discussion here, I was having dinner tonight at a spot while we were discussing the success of the Marvels movie in the other thread here (I have my laptop), and I got into a conversation with a manager at the spot I was having dinner. She's a 27 year old female, East Indian born but raised in the West Indies. When I asked her what she thought about the Barbie movie, she replied with this: "I thought it was DUMB!" Hammer, meet nail. When I asked why, and this was entirely HER interpretation she said "If it was just a funny comedy, it was good, but I don't think that's what Greta Gerwig intended to do with that movie. They marketed it like they were trying to ram something down your throat." Her words. I kid you not. 27 year old woman of color raised elsewhere. She sounded like my ex at half her age, which is REALLY strange because they're so different as women culturally, racially and age wise. But they both came to the same conclusion and most of the non-American women I talk to seem to feel the same way. The only thing I've been able to conclude, and I really think that this is the case, is that within the US borders, or in the US and Canada everyone lives here in a different planet than the rest of the world and those with roots to other countries see things very differently than those who have had blinders fitted by years of conditioning to actually accept everything as it's conveyed and not to question anything. It's quite literally a black and white difference between people within North America and those without. Either that, or these women are misogynistic and they need to be reprogrammed. -------------------------------------------- I'm still planning on seeing it this weekend with my two younger daughters, but I thought that was worth mentioning.

I think that is the weird one I just mentioned. Maybe I'll give it another shot. I left during the bar scene but most of what I'm seeing in the trailer looks unfamiliar. I think we're talking about the same movie. Sorry, I'm tired. It's kind of Christopher Nolanesque in a Memento / Tenet sort of way with bending time and you're right, it is very weird to the point where it made my stomach almost churn. I also think I understand where you come from ideologically, and I don't think you'll enjoy it for that reason but technically the twists are pretty great. I'll check out Arq. Love the name.

with your crisp and concise writings you definitely deserve 100X that many followers His research is incredibly accurate, concise and to the point. He's just missing a marketing campaign to spread it to the masses. ------------------------------------------- I'm still literally dumbfounded at how well this discussion ended. I'm in disbelief, in awe and elated at the same time. It's a weird feeling. And I'm reminded that given the time to have the discussion, investigate all possible avenues of the discussion and to come to a final conclusion had we been allowed to have such a discussion with the banned threads over the last 2-3 years, everyone here would have seen a very different outcome in those threads as well, albeit with exactly the same people involved. It's very easy to eviscerate falsehoods when you just allow the information to flow openly as there can always, only be one final conclusion and it's impossible to do it when you cut off half the room. What a day.

Did you ever watch the movie Predestination? If so, what did you think?

You need a charismatic Stan Lee to your Kirby...and I think we should collaborate. I'm not kidding. I think that we could create a great product. The synergy is real.

I actually messaged Mike and thanked him for allowing the discussion and he replied. God bless Mike, I was very much antagonistic towards him (it was a VERY heated time) but the past is water under the bridge and I am thankful it's allowed.

This is truly a great Litmus test. If I'm passively watching a movie and it gets interesting, I stop what I'm doing. Literally. I can be processing books and if an old MCU movie comes on, I stop what I'm doing. But when something I'm not interested in comes on, I don't what I'm doing. Great observation that I didn't even realize was happening, which leads me to my next question: Why are people enjoying some of these movies and who is loving them?

The entire planet has become an eerie Stepford Wives scene and what's scary is most think it's normal. Thank God my kids don't.

Not yet. I tend to watch stuff that I'm not too interested in passively while working or doing something else so I will likely watch it at some point. Why?

Edited in a link above.

Have you not heard about ESG in general or just not in the Disney decision making process? https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/app/uploads/2023/03/2022-CSR-Report.pdf It HAS to be there, because that is the fundamental principle 800 of the world's largest corporations are united on, although it is backfiring. I read a great article last year how Wall Street was pushing FOR ESG investing with Larry Fink from Blackrock championing it (they manage $10 Trillion in assets and basically own most of the world) but that Wall Street has started pushing back because the investing strategy has been backfiring. Again, Bud Light and Disney as evidence. ------------------------------------------- Not sure how high up you were or your friends still are but it's obvious that it's real and I'm not making it up. https://www.sustainalytics.com/esg-rating/the-walt-disney-co/1008069810 https://www.marketbeat.com/stocks/NYSE/DIS/sustainability/

Corrections are bad if you don't understand history, are impatient or are spread too thin. Corrections are great for everyone over all, much like old branches and leaves dying to make way for new growth. How much in Crypto profits were absorbed by the general public in 2021 when Bitcoin holders cashed in? $2 Trillion? How many trillions were given away by Central Banks during the same period? And those trillions have grown by smart people who reinvested. There is more money in the world than there is to buy things. That's why there's inflation. The wealthy are still buying assets at a pace that you can't imagine. I've spoken to them. I went to an incredible showcase of music artifacts, collectibles, instruments and such THIS SUMMER. There were kids there in their 20's and 30's buying up everything. And they were buying to HOLD and borrow against their assets. It was staggering.

Abso. Fricking. Lutely. Read my last reply to you before this one.

Ironically, it was around 2019 when things really changed in a big way, and I'm not making that up. There's a good Forbes article documenting the progress of the term ESG, which is the governance principle by which all large corporations invest. I am fairly certain that this is NOT against the rules, but if it is, I'm not doing it intentionally. I scanned the article for politics, searched key words etc and couldn't find any. It's strictly a discussion about economics and it shows that around 2017 things started ramping up and by 2019 the concept was growing exponentially around the globe. https://www.forbes.com/sites/giacomotognini/2023/11/11/sage-investment-advice-from-exhausted-real-estate-billionaire-jeff-greene/?sh=3444a3ec2d73 ---------------------------- This is the "outside corporate interference" I have been talking about. Companies are basically uniting with each other to invest under these principles in concert, and in doing so are giving each other "report card" scores to test how high they rank on the ESG scale. So if you, for example, cater to minorities more, whether in your staff or in your content, you get a higher ranking and the other companies will be more interested in dealing with you because of your higher score. That is literally what the Forbes article says. You can actually see a company's report card openly and know where they rank, and companies with low report cards struggle to do business with other companies, so everyone is trying to get the highest report card score possible by making everything as compliant to the scale as possible. Which is WHY YOU SEE ALL OF THESE THINGS THROWN INTO MOVIES THAT DON'T MAKE SENSE. They're not doing it for entertainment. That's what we've been trying to tell you. They're LITERALLY doing it to get a better "report card" score. Only it's backfiring. They had no idea how badly it was going to backfire. Just like it did for BUD LIGHT. If I've said anything wrong here, please correct me. I'm happy to be wrong.

Nope... I spent thirteen years as a corporate executive at one of The Mouse's chief competitors and sat in the exec and board meetings and I can assure you this is not how major multinationals operate. You either hit your numbers or your gone... that's how it operates. Which time period or year span, if I'm allowed to ask? Did we meet at San Deigo one year? I think I may have your card still. Edited because it was a Disney exec.

Yes. Let's again ignore the actual science of how and why men and women are different and instead, fabricate a new reality again. Goodness.

It absolutely is. Would you like me to prove it to you? They actually don't know who their target audience should be and this is why they crumbled. Just look at Bud Light as a test case. Bud still hasn't recovered and may never will. Disney seems to be next. This isn't anything more than a horrible business move, but HOW they made the horrible business move is next for discussion. Would you like to have that discussion because I'm well versed in it.

Pretty much every single person on the internet who thought there was another reason Marvels was flopping. But specifically in this thread, every single poster - namisgr, Cat, jsilverjanet, Buzzetta and every other person who as name calling, insulting, demeaning, or just plain WRONG about their methodology while trying to get people to stop talking. They couldn't accept they were wrong even though the science was NOT ON THEIR SIDE. I tried to point it out subtly at first in the Barbie thread and then here but they kept trying to shut the convo down. The question I want answered is why they kept insulting people when they were wrong? -------------------------------------------- What REALLY started to make me think was this post: Almost ALL the characters are women and I immediately thought, no woman wants to watch a movie about a female Super-team. How do I know? Because if you watch female sports, the audience is dwarfed by the numbers in male audiences. It's not "inequality". It's BIOLOGY. And you can't trick nature into doing something it doesn't want to do. EVER. Remember Jurassic Park?

The debate on why the Marvels movie is struggling at the box office.

Dude, we just solved a multi billion dollar problem for Disney when they couldn't figure it out. Light up a stogie. There's no torches. We just doused them permanently. Now let's see who admits they were wrong in the face of an immutable act. As @TupennyConan Conan once said, pay attention to what people say and do and remember it.

The Union will need to jump on this now, and police it from the get go. I don't see the studio's adhering, without testing the boundaries of the points negotiated. It's too easy for them to push any questions to their legal team, and actors will need to strike again as their only real power leverage. The studio will adhere to this the way the public adhered to downloading music 20 years ago.

Now, let's reverse the tables. What does that make Disney, when they are trying to force people who don't want to like something to like it. Because that is EXACTLY what they're doing. This is not the Disney of 1965. What does it make the people who are trying to force others to accept things they don't want? Honest question.

I just ended the debate with the help of @RedRaven. See how we can get to the heart of a matter if we're just allowed to continue respectful discourse?

Right. So they missed an ACTUAL OPPORTUNITY to cast a lead role with a different race and instead put him in a lesser role. I would actually have less objection to this. It would have been more logical, and yet the studios missed it.

Buzz, you have it backwards. You have the narrative, it's not real and it's being pushed from my perspective, and I GENUINELY don't have a preferred narrative except one that's grounding in reality.