Hollywood so BANKRUPT They're Mining REDDIT for Ideas?!

[00:00:03]So, the summer has been really weird at the box office. We had a couple of movies, low-budget movies, done by YouTubers beating out major tentpole franchises from Disney and other other studios.

[00:00:17]And now, Hollywood is looking to go to Reddit to find ideas for movies.

[00:00:23]>> What?

[00:00:24]>> Well, your first problem is don't go to Reddit.

[00:00:26]>> Never go to Reddit.

[00:00:27]>> God, [sighs] Reddit. I just This is what they're taking wrong They're taking the wrong takeaway. Because, you know, we have some independent films doing well because mostly cuz it's YouTubers, and they have these stories they've been they they've built up an audience over.

[00:00:40]And they're they're just basically like, "Well, we'll just go pick up anything now and it'll do well." They're going to make the same mistakes they've been making, but this time at least they're giving chances to new things instead of just re- re- you know, reanimating old things that are, you know, done and over.

[00:00:54]But, I don't think they're going to pick the right things because they are just looking for what we can quick quick make a money on. It's going to have to be something that's it resonates with people, has an audience, has people associated with people that people want to support. I think the support is a big part of it. These are people that people follow, and they want to support it. I think that's part of it. And they're just going to take the complete wrong takeaway from it, guaranteed.

[00:01:15]>> So, we're going to talk about this the strip mining of Reddit. I I cannot imagine what they're going to come up with.

[00:01:21]>> you go to Reddit?

[00:01:23]Like, there's so many other places, like Wattpad and other places >> Yeah, I know, right?

[00:01:27]>> Why the hell would you go to Reddit?

[00:01:29]Reddit is like, you know, a wretched hive of scum and villainy. I just don't understand why you'd go to Reddit.

[00:01:35]>> It it worked for Twilight, right? Wasn't Twilight like a fan fic? Or do I get it >> Yeah, but I don't know if it was off Reddit.

[00:01:41]>> Um God, well, I think it was a Wattpad thing. I don't know. Anyway, let's let's talk about this.

[00:01:46]Before we get into it any further, please subscribe for more pop culture news, views, and rants, guys. You'll get a woohoo if you do.

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[00:01:53]>> Go out to more m o r e.clownfishtv.com and check out uh videos we have out there that you will not find on YouTube.

[00:02:01]And also, if you'd like to listen to us instead of watch us, you can go out to iTunes, iHeartRadio, wherever you listen to podcast, Spotify, Amazon, etc., etc. So, how we got here is Backrooms and Obsession both made a ridiculous amount of money and pummeled a lot of uh box office uh franchises. It beat Star Wars.

[00:02:22]>> Wars.

[00:02:23]>> It beat Star Wars. A million-dollar movie >> low.

[00:02:26]>> It was pretty low, but a million-dollar movie made by a YouTuber beat Star Wars.

[00:02:32]I mean, that's insane. And then Masters of the Universe, I think probably would have done a lot better had [snorts] it not gone up against these movies uh Obsession and Backrooms. And then we had um The Amazing Digital Circus was in the theaters for a while, too. That's a YouTube thing. So, yeah. Now they're like, "Oh, YouTubers and uh Reddit.

[00:02:50]That's That's where we're going to go."

[00:02:51]>> "They're going to YouTube as much as they're thinking they're going to go to Reddit." And I'm like, "Okay." I mean, that wasn't That wouldn't be my go-to. Actually, want some good stuff, go out to um like Webtoons or something like that, too.

[00:03:03]>> Yeah, well, they've been doing that for streaming shows, I think.

[00:03:06]>> and they do it in Korea all the time.

[00:03:07]But I'm just saying, there's some good ideas out there you can probably make deals with people. I will say to anybody who gets a deal, have a lawyer look over your contract because you're going to get screwed, 100%.

[00:03:18]>> Absolutely.

[00:03:19]>> I I guarantee you're going to get screwed.

[00:03:21]>> All right. So, this is coming from The Hollywood Reporter. Backrooms sends Hollywood running to Reddit for new ideas. The old-school forum that originated A24's Backrooms is embracing its role as an idea incubator, where fandom can grow organically.

[00:03:35]>> So, cuz of one thing, they're going cuz of Backrooms. Cuz I mean, it it went from Reddit to YouTube, though, which is why it was popular.

[00:03:44]>> [snorts] >> So, they said, "Yeah, Reddit has helped build communities on different topics."

[00:03:47]That includes internet phenomenon, and that's where apparently the the Backrooms started out on Reddit. I don't know. I seriously I had to have my kids explain it to me because I I wasn't paying attention to any of this stuff. And I'm like, how do you guys how do you guys know this? But they said, going back to our movies, we had a lot of updates for the project. So they're using Reddit to go back and forth with Reddit because that's where it came from. They said, "Hollywood appears poised to pivot to digitally native creatives like Parsons and obsession director Curry Barker. Reddit is emerging as a focus point alongside obvious suspects like YouTube and TikTok for agents and executives seeking the next big thing."

[00:04:29]One agency veteran says the assistants at their agency have identified a bunch of subreddits and short stories they think could lead to compelling ideas. Oh my god, did you not see that power tripping Reddit mod?

[00:04:43]>> Yeah.

[00:04:44]>> Like >> I'm just like of all the places to go, just Reddit. Okay.

[00:04:49]I mean, TikTok and YouTube I get before I get Reddit.

[00:04:53]>> They said, "Backrooms originated on Reddit where a community helped create a world but also subreddits dedicated to short stories or the popular no sleep subreddit where people write and read original horror. One of those stories on Reddit is being developed as a feature film produced by and starring Sydney Sweeney called I pretended to be a missing girl."

[00:05:12]>> Okay.

[00:05:15]>> Was it a guy?

[00:05:17]>> [laughter] >> I don't know. I don't know what the twist is. I mean, yes, okay, so it sounds like Reddit might be a place to go find some of these people, but it's just I think they're I think what they're thinking is we're going to just go whatever they have some popularity that that looks indie and that's horror based cuz then all the Gen Zs will come to it is what they're thinking.

[00:05:32]>> That's exactly >> it's more to it than anything that.

[00:05:35]>> And that's that's what I've been saying is we talk about these these big Hollywood, you know, tentpoles collapsing this summer. We've seen it happen multiple times. I think Supergirl's going to collapse, too.

[00:05:46]They're they're going to be like, "Wait a second. Wait a second. We can go out to the internet. We can pick something up probably on the cheap, so we can make a movie for a couple million bucks and make a hundred million dollars at the box office. Well, that's way more money than we made off of The Mandalorian and Grogu. We're actually probably going to lose money on that one." That's what they're going to think.

[00:06:04]>> That's what they're thinking though. But the thing is it's like I think there's more involved than just having I mean, yeah, there's a popular forum and a subreddit or whatever. But I think it takes more than that. Like we had Markiplier do well because he was Markiplier, you know? So there's people on YouTube and they YouTube and they've been doing this stuff for a while and they've got quite the audience there and it's like The Backrooms is I think is something that you people are know from Reddit and from, you know, this guy being on YouTube.

[00:06:30]But it's going to be not so easy to find that. And it just sounds like that's what they're going to do and they're going to And what they're going to do is they're going to spend a bunch of money on stupid things that's not going to do well.

[00:06:38]And then they're going to go back to trying to, you know, necromancy all the IP they've already destroyed. It's just not going to go I mean, I like the fact that they're doing new things. I do like that. I just think that in their quest to try to make money, they're going to one pick the wrong things and two, they're going to screw over the people who it belongs to.

[00:06:56]>> I I would love to see a an Am I the movie.

[00:07:01]>> [laughter] >> That'd be great. Just people doing the rudest ever.

[00:07:04]>> Well, that or like, you know, you you tell people like you this stuff comes out and they Am I the And then people will tell you, "Yeah, you're the asshole." And so they you ruins your whole day cuz like, "Oh, no, I'm an asshole." And then, you know, they start thinking about all the things they do.

[00:07:17]>> You can make it like The Running Man.

[00:07:19]Like it could be a game show. It's like and people like vote like, "Here's all the Here's all the shitty things you did this week. Are you the asshole?" And if you're the like you get incinerated or yeah, did you know, the gladiator fight or something. Some horror thing you have to >> other >> You have to fight the Yes.

[00:07:36]on action.

[00:07:39]Brought to you by Reddit.

[00:07:40]>> I mean, I get why they're going to Reddit. I just >> I don't.

[00:07:44]>> [laughter] >> I'm just like whatever.

[00:07:46]>> it I don't I think I don't think it's going to go the way I think it's going to go. I think they're just going to spend a lot of ton of time and money and we're going to get a bunch of subpar things.

[00:07:53]And then um they're going to learn their lesson from that and then they're going to but whatever it is it's going to it's going to be the wrong lesson.

[00:07:59]>> Yeah.

[00:08:00]>> And I I'm really really really concerned for creatives because I do think they're going to get screwed. They're going to be razzle-dazzled by Hollywood and then they're going to you know not get checked by the you know lawyers they should or things they should do and they're going to get everything taken from them. It's going to be like the Skibidi Toilet situation again. Somehow they got 25 million in venture capital.

[00:08:20]>> Yeah, I was I was just going to mention that cuz you were talking about this morning and for those of you who don't know, apparently last I heard the animator behind Skibidi Toilet went in with this other company and they basically bamboozled him. They took Skibidi Toilet from him. He's broke-ass.

[00:08:34]There's supposed to be a movie. There were toys. The toys did not sell. They were on clearance on >> Shocker, I tell you.

[00:08:39]>> almost immediately and everybody's moved on. That's the problem with the internet thing is if you're you're chasing um you know these internet things and and they're they're hot for about a month and then >> you get to it and make it, it's it's it's over.

[00:08:54]>> It's stale.

[00:08:55]>> Like I think Backrooms has been around for you know many years. So that wasn't the case. But if you have something that holds on for a long time, then maybe go with that. But otherwise it they're just they just they just cycle.

[00:09:06]So I I don't know. I just think it's a really bad idea. I just know what ever lesson that is there, whatever kernel of corn is there that's actually you know worth it, they're going to throw out and take the big turd instead and run with that because Hollywood is creatively bankrupt and they're really stupid and they just want and they're just about money. That's all they care about.

[00:09:26]>> Th- Now this is interesting. This is coming from the marketing executive at Reddit. They talked to him, right?

[00:09:32]>> Okay.

[00:09:33]>> I think this is Reddit trying to make itself cuz remember, you know Reddit for some reason has become the most important website in the world. All the AI are trained off of Reddit and >> It is a very far left-leaning piece of that mocks everybody else.

[00:09:46]>> But they're also trying to monetize Reddit. They're not so far they're not very good at monetizing it, right? So they threw ads on it and they're charging people for the API and all that. Okay, here. Here we go.

[00:09:57]This is the marketing guy from Reddit. I think of Reddit as the most powerful focus group that's ever existed. So that's both for discovering ideas you may not have thought of, but also for testing ideas and interacting with the community to understand how things are being received and what's happening.

[00:10:11]Ultimately, if a studio or producer has an idea they want to develop like the Sydney Sweeney idea, that's for them to ultimately reach out to the moderators and to the right people on the platform to do it and they do those deals directly, but we'll certainly help facilitate when needed.

[00:10:26]>> We'll take a cut.

[00:10:27]>> We'll take a cut. Oh my god, they're going to like out Reddit threads, subreddits.

[00:10:31]>> for them to make it mandatory that if you get a deal they get a cut.

[00:10:35]>> I don't know.

[00:10:36]>> Probably.

[00:10:36]>> It's just but they're part of those moderators. I'm like the moderators are part of the problem. You want to interact with the community, are you allowed to because if the moderators don't like your they just delete it.

[00:10:45]>> Yeah.

[00:10:45]>> they talk and then they lie and if you say, "Hey, that's a blatant lie." Um they'll just delete your comment and just keep going and talking So it's like you know, you think that's going to work out for you, but I don't think it's going to work out necessarily the way you want and we saw how these moderators behave and what they think about themselves with that one guy who had the meltdown because he's basically the god of Reddit.

[00:11:07]>> He thinks he's the god of Reddit.

[00:11:09]>> Instead of a don, he's a dorkus.

[00:11:11]>> A dorkus. Oh my god. Yeah, well, I think I think a lot of these Hollywood studios are going to get >> Well, they deserve it cuz they're dumb.

[00:11:18]>> Am I the No, but you're taking it up the for sure. Uh bend over. That's yeah.

[00:11:22]>> They say, "Am I the asshole?" The answer's probably yes depending on who you ask. If you ask Reddit, 100% we're the as they lie about us and our kids.

[00:11:30]on action over at Reddit.

[00:11:33]>> But I just don't I just I really think that that it's going to be again, once again, Hollywood having the wrong takeaway. We saw this already back when they started all the whole, you know, put a woman chicken and make it gay, make it lame stuff like in 2016 2014 on. And they like, you know, they were listening to Twitter.

[00:11:50]>> And Tumblr.

[00:11:51]>> And yeah, and they were basically run by the the Blue Sky Reddit crowd at the time until they got chased off to Blue you know, they start Blue Sky and were chased off to Reddit or whatever cuz back then Reddit was actually like tech and science stuff.

[00:12:03]And they took over other places and they listened to them and it was the wrong call and we all know how that's all gone. Ask Star Wars, you know, ask Doctor Who, ask, you know, She-Ra, ask, you know, Star Trek, etc., etc. Wrong calls right and left. Ghostbusters, they fixed it eventually, kind of. And then you go to, you know, >> They patched it.

[00:12:22]>> Yeah, they patched it. And and it keeps seeing these bad mistakes but they listen to the wrong kinds of people taking the wrong taking the wrong lesson away from the situation. And people like this, they keep doing more and more of that but then it's so fake and it's not organic that people don't like it cuz they can see through your And that's what's going to happen again.

[00:12:38]It's just going to be what what are the what are the cool kids on Reddit who told us when they were on Twitter and Tumblr told us this, what are they saying now? And you're just going to throw more good money after bad if you listen to some of these people.

[00:12:49]>> Well, that's just it. They need to go after the paying customers, right? They need to go after people that are going to pay to go to the theater, pay to buy the merchandise, whatever.

[00:12:57]But they're just looking at these these successes and then they're like, yeah, it's social media. We're going to strip mine social media for movies.

[00:13:03]>> like you said, pay is key because a lot of these places, like even YouTube, they can watch for free.

[00:13:08]>> Yeah.

[00:13:09]>> So it's free content. Doesn't mean that that's the best content. It's free content. Does that mean that they'll pay for it when it they Oh, I have 10 million subs. [music] Does that mean that the 10 million subs will actually pay for it at the movie theater they have to pay? No. Most likely not. I have a bunch of people on Reddit that like my stuff cuz it's free.

[00:13:24]If they had to pay for the the the rest of the story, they're not going to do it. They're going to scream at you that you need to give it to them for free cuz that's what you've been giving them the whole time. Someone from Webcomics, I can tell you that's exactly what will happen.

[00:13:35]>> Mhm.

[00:13:37]So, there we go. Good luck with that.

[00:13:39]We'll We'll see. We'll see how long this lasts. So, we're going to wrap it up.

[00:13:42]>> hopefully they make some good choices, but we'll see.

[00:13:43]>> We'll see. Uh we're going to wrap it up.

[00:13:46]>> Yeah.

[00:13:46]>> Please subscribe for more pop culture news, views, and rants. We'll talk later.

[00:13:50]>> Bye.