Set Up To Fail - Because why make money

[Judge Dredd]

Something I see almost exclusively in movies and TV is the idea of a show or movie being sabotaged by it's own studio or producers. What shows and movies had this happen, and why do you think they do this?

Most obvious one is Firefly. Cancelled despite rave reviews and good ratings. They put out a movie to wrap up as much as they could. The reason? "The ships weren't shiny like in Star Trek." is the one I hear a lot. Supposedly there was some fuckery with the movie release to try and tank that.

I like the Disney movie Atlantis, even though it was largely forgotten even at the time. A friend of mine loves Treasure Planet, but I've not seen that yet. Both films barely broke even. Just recently I heard a theory that the movies were sabotaged by Disney who did barely any marketing, because the executives didn't want 2D animation any more. I can believe it because after that was the golden age of Pixar. Another reason I saw was that those movies appealed to men and boys and Disney wanted more women, but I don't buy that for the same reason. The golden age of Pixar had a lot of boy movies like Cars.


I'm not sure why they do this. As far as I can tell it's vanity or simply being out of touch. I remember some movie (I think it was one of the Jack Reacher movies) made a lot of money, but mostly with over 40s. The studio considered the movie a failure as they wanted a young audience and weren't interested in "the grey pound". I've had the mindset that money is money so why does age matter?

 

[Tablet County]

With Firefly it sounds like an example of being unwilling to change from a sure profit, while the last two cases it's more of the corporation's tendency to want continued, new profits.
Especially in Disney's case. This is kind of a tangent, but I usually roll my eyes whenever some faggot goes "(x corporation) is moloch and they want you to worship them and give them your soul", but in Disney's case they do want you to worship them and would probably put a copyright on your soul if they could.

 

[Evil Whitey]

FoodFight was reportedly sabotaged, almost all files being erased by the perpetrator. But the catch is that due to the insurance the studio had, they could only get reimbursed if the movie was finished, so they rushed to make something that was the legal bare minimum for a movie. It's free on Youtube now, and yes, it's shit

 

[User names must be unique]

Police Squad cancelled after only 4 episodes cancelled because:

Nielsen said ABC entertainment president Tony Thomopoulos asserted Police Squad! was canceled because viewers had to pay close attention to the show in order to get much of the humor: "the viewer had to watch it in order to appreciate it"

 

[The Skeksis Emperor]

Oh boy, a thread relevant to my account.

Netflix fucked The Dark Crystal : Age of Resistance so hard that I still seethe about it. The show runner and writers had a complete story planned. They sold it to Netflix and asked for one (1) season. Netflix said they would produce the show, but that the story should be split in half, so that two seasons could be made. The show runner and writers agreed, and all puppets and most environments needed for the two seasons were made.

After season 1, Netflix refused to renew the show. For a whole year. I know it was a year, because I spent a year in the general on /tv/ where everyone was waiting for news of the renewal. The show had a decent sized audience and universal critical acclaim. It even won a primetime Emmy. And days after the Emmy, Netflix cancelled the show. They cancelled it, and then refused to sell the rights to any other company to produce the end of the story. I think they kept all the puppets too, but I could be wrong about that.

I don't know why they did it, I don't know why they went out of their way to lie about producing two seasons, I don't know why they didn't just stick to the original plan of one season. The stupid thing is that a season 2 would have been relatively cheap, because all the puppets and environments were already made, the writing was done, and all voice actors were already contracted. The base investment was done, the money was spent. I guess they did it just because they could. And I hope to see them go bankrupt soon.

 

[DapperShark]

Oh boy, a thread relevant to my account.

Netflix fucked The Dark Crystal : Age of Resistance so hard that I still seethe about it. The show runner and writers had a complete story planned. They sold it to Netflix and asked for one (1) season. Netflix said they would produce the show, but that the story should be split in half, so that two seasons could be made. The show runner and writers agreed, and all puppets and most environments needed for the two seasons were made.

After season 1, Netflix refused to renew the show. For a whole year. I know it was a year, because I spent a year in the general on /tv/ where everyone was waiting for news of the renewal. The show had a decent sized audience and universal critical acclaim. It even won a primetime Emmy. And days after the Emmy, Netflix cancelled the show. They cancelled it, and then refused to sell the rights to any other company to produce the end of the story. I think they kept all the puppets too, but I could be wrong about that.

I don't know why they did it, I don't know why they went out of their way to lie about producing two seasons, I don't know why they didn't just stick to the original plan of one season. The stupid thing is that a season 2 would have been relatively cheap, because all the puppets and environments were already made, the writing was done, and all voice actors were already contracted. The base investment was done, the money was spent. I guess they did it just because they could. And I hope to see them go bankrupt soon.

It's Netflix, they probably thought the money for your show would be better spent on one of the endless Adam Sandler movies they seem intent on flooding their platform with.

 

[Your Starter for 10]

"Major" studios aren't in business to make money any more. They exist solely for two reasons: to siphon money from existing corporate structures into the pockets of family and allies; and to push propaganda/destroy cultural touchstones. That's it. Things make a lot more sense if you understand and accept that.

 

[Whaler]

It's Netflix, they probably thought the money for your show would be better spent on one of the endless Adam Sandler movies they seem intent on flooding their platform with.

Netflix killing 1899 after agreeing to a three season contract with the creators is when I realized that Netflix is a place content goes to die so they can use any funds from it to make useless shit nobody cares about only because it's full of political messaages.

 

[Lithuophile]

Treasure Planet

Treasure planet failed because they had an inferior Dr. Livesey

 

[SNEED.EXE]

Treasure Planet

Treasure planet failed because they had an inferior Dr. Livesey

Treasure Planet failed because Disney ripped off superior Bulgarian kino.

 

[Squanto Airi]

Just recently I heard a theory that the movies were sabotaged by Disney who did barely any marketing, because the executives didn't want 2D animation any more. I can believe it because after that was the golden age of Pixar

Wasn't Princess and the Frog sabotaged in a similar fashion?

 

[Nicholas II of Russia]

It's probably not related but, wasn't Matrix Revelations being extremely bad on purpose because the tranny twins that made the series didn't wanted to work on it anymore?

Also, I'm pretty sure Joker 2 was set up of failure as well, considering how extremely bad of a movie it was and how bad it bombed in box office.

 

[Tablet County]

Also, I'm pretty sure Joker 2 was set up of failure as well, considering how extremely bad of a movie it was and how bad it bombed in box office.

That one's obvious. Torpedoing your own "franchise" is a very auteur-type thing to do.
I know the official line is that he made it shit on purpose to spite le heccin incels, but I do sort of wonder if it was a kind of meta-prank on the studio. Like Todd Phillips was curious to see just how much the people bankrolling him would let him get away with now that they had dollar signs in their eyes. I mean, why else would you make the sequel to your near-universally acclaimed psychological drama film a musical if not because you don't give a shit?

 

[waffle]

Treasure Planet failed because Disney ripped off superior Bulgarian kino.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=5SCFL4TSuBM

That looks like it was animated by a child on drugs. I like the parts where the characters just kind of vibrate when they're not sure quite how to draw something.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

That looks like it was animated by a child on drugs.

eastern bloc animation is a magical world

 

[Judge Dredd]

Police Squad cancelled after only 4 episodes cancelled because:

It gets better. It was replaced by a shitty show called Sledge Hammer. Same premise, far worse execution. It lasted much longer.

Interesting bit of trivia is that the intro of Sledge Hammer has him point a gun off screen, shoot, and the screen shatters. Supposedly the original intro was meant to point the gun at the camera, but they were forced to change it so the network couldn't get sued.

These days the show has defenders. Never watched it, but it's hard to see it as anything other than sub par police squad.

Wasn't Princess and the Frog sabotaged in a similar fashion?

Could be. It would make sense.

It also further torpedo's the idea that Disney didn't want boy movies.

The show runner and writers had a complete story planned.

This supposedly happened with Adventure Time. But backwards. Not one I've seen, but a friend tells me. Supposedly the "final" season is rushed because the network refused to pay for two more seasons, only one, so they crammed two seasons worth of story lines into one to wrap it up. Only for the network to change their mind again and agree to pay for another season. So the real finale feels rushed, then there's a lengthy epilogue season that was never intended to exist.

Netflix has supposedly done similar with shows that were meant to have more than 3 seasons. For whatever reason, the execs pull the plug on shows after 3 seasons. I guess they have data to explain that's the sweet spot between hype and views?

With Firefly it sounds like an example of being unwilling to change from a sure profit, while the last two cases it's more of the corporation's tendency to want continued, new profits.

I don't know the details, but I don't think they were making Star Trek at the time, or even if the channel Firefly was on had the rights to it?

Oh boy, a thread relevant to my account.

Might as well mention Dredd, the 2012 movie, had fans begging for a sequel. But for whatever reason, various rights holders and distributers can't agree on a deal so it languishes in development hell. If they all made money from the movie, why argue over it? Karl Urban might age out the role unless they do it soon.

 

[Neodanthril]

The reason

With Firefly it sounds like an example of being unwilling to change from a sure profit

firefly was cancelled because the bachelor was blowing it out of the ratings with a fraction of the production cost.

in a similar vein, the show sliders was embroiled in gay retard drama that ruined the original premise and made all the actors hate working on it. and also made the show markedly worse.

 

[Judge Dredd]

firefly was cancelled because the bachelor was blowing it out of the ratings with a fraction of the production cost.

Been thinking about this all day.

I'd never heard that reason, but it makes sense. More sense than some exec not liking the space ships.

Was the Bachelor an outlier, or typical? Asking because in another thread I mentioned how media began a decline when suddenly being profitable wasn't enough. It had to make all the money, or it was written off as an obscure failure.


And related to the thread. Just saw in some YouTube slop I was watching, but supposedly one of the Addams Family sequels was sabotaged. Despite doing well in test screenings, the marketing budget was slashed and the film was dropped a week after Mrs Doutfire.

@Señora Airi The same video also talked about the animated Sinbad movie, which was plagued by production problems. But dreamworks scrapped their 2D animation division to focus on 3D.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

Only for the network to change their mind again and agree to pay for another season. So the real finale feels rushed, then there's a lengthy epilogue season that was never intended to exist.

that's sorta what happened with Babylon 5

also Firefly had the problem of waiting for the lawsuit for ripping off Outlaw Star, probably extra damages for making it suck

 

[millais]

Mike Judge's "Idiocracy" infamously had a theatrical release in just a handful of theaters, where it barely played for a few weeks, and only the later DVD release was able to save it from obscurity and ensure its wider spread and lasting popularity.

iirc, the sabotaged release was due to the fact that the studio did not want to make the movie at all, but they were forced to do so, since they already signed a contract with Mike Judge years before that committed them to produce one more movie under his direction and creative control.