Walt Disney Animation Studios chief technical officer Andy Hendrickson, in a talk at the Siggraph conference Sunday, revealed the thinking behind Disney's approach to their tentpole movies. Basically, with less and less people heading to cinemas these days, he believes that studios need to compensate for this by producing more big movies. You can read more about that by clicking the link below...here's something a little more interesting. After discussing the various strategies for marketing blockbusters, he then went on to say the following. (thanks to
Variety for the following excerpt)
"People say 'It's all about the story. When you're making tentpole films, bullshit." Hendrickson showed a chart of the top 12 all-time domestic grossers, and noted every one is a spectacle film. Of his own studio's "Alice in Wonderland," which is on the list, he said: "The story isn't very good, but visual spectacle brought people in droves. And Johnny Depp didn't hurt."
Of course, before we all start getting frantic about Disney not paying attention to the scripts of any upcoming Marvel movies (resulting in mediocre fare like
Tron Legacy) it's worth remembering that Marvel Studios are still their own thing, so I doubt we'll see a drop in quality any time soon! What do you guys think about this attitude though? Be sure to share your thoughts in the usual place!