Writer, historian, cosplayer, Vermonter. Author of Cosplay: A History. Newsletter: https://www.andrewliptak.com
![I'm going to make a broad sweeping statement here, but I think that ]] Abrams makes movies that make great trailers, and I guess there's an argument that that's the real measure of success for a lot of films. Most studio movies make a majority of their money in the first week, and Star Wars in particular makes an enormous amount in ticket pre-sales and midnight screenings.
That's money made before anyone sees the film, before reviews or word of mouth, so it's really money made from the trailer and the brand. If you want to make yourself sad, well, you could argue that that's the real value test of a film, especially a studio film. Its purpose is to make money for the company and the shareholders.
If anything, there's actually less of an incentive now to make a good film than they used to be because the home video market is dead. We've gotten to the point of making disposable, single-use movies, events that you have to see to understand the next installment and the memes, but you totally forget as soon as you leave the cinema.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:hnqcx5kcgtnqul7np23ru2j5/bafkreibaervkw4fdoyi5uzkbcl6kbpzkwv2oquoufcc4othdrpcboyloye)
Writer, historian, cosplayer, Vermonter. Author of Cosplay: A History. Newsletter: https://www.andrewliptak.com