About failure and success in Hollywood
What is success to you? Have you ever really thought about that? We all have an idea of what filmmaking success looks like. We’ve seen images of people holding Oscars and the glitz and glam associated with stardom. But have you ever really considered what success actually looks like in terms of yourself? Is it simply getting your film made? Is it being able to share your ideas with people, seeing your movie on a VOD platform somewhere? Or is it simply getting a job at a studio or production company somewhere? What is it? The line between what is considered a failure and success in Hollywood is so razor sharp that it’s hard to make a distinction between the two. Failure and success in Hollywood is determined with a few aspects, none of which is based on how good something is, (ie: the story, the acting, the production value). Rather, success is determined solely on a movie’s ability to over-perform. The keywords here are “over-perform”. That’s right. If a film does not over-perform its predecessor, or a competitive film, its usually deemed a failure. It’s complete B.S. and is perpetuated by the media and industry elitists. Taking this with the never-ending inflation of budgets and shrinking theatrical sales, its no wonder there has been a rise of indie filmmaking. When it comes to you as the sole filmmaker, there is a very small target you have to hit in order to be deemed a success, at least by industry standards. Here are a few examples of both:What Hollywood considers a failure
- A filmmaker that doesn’t gain critical acclaim;
- A filmmaker that doesn’t over perform their predecessors;
- A filmmaker that doesn’t direct a movie or TV show for one of the big studios. (ie: Netflix, Disney, Amazon, Warner Bros, Universal, etc)
What Hollywood considers a success
- A filmmaker that gains critical acclaim;
- A filmmaker that over performs their predecessors;
- A filmmaker that directs a movie or TV show for one of the big studios. (ie: Netflix, Disney, Amazon, Warner Bros, Universal, etc)