do movies have to be stupid now for stupid audiences?

No.

Films that are very expensive to make have to appeal to the widest possible audience in order to turn a profit. This widest possible audience also includes stupid people. If you're spending $150m+, you have to pitch your film at the stupidest person in the room.

This is not new in American blockbusters (I emphasise American because few other nations spend these kinds of sums on making single movies).

This is why they over-explain themselves and resist any ambiguity or ellipses. The dummy at the back needs to understand it.

This doesn't mean the audience for those movies are stupid as a whole. They're not. Smart people can enjoy stupid movies. Stupid people can't enjoy smart movies. So -- if the budget is high enough -- the stupid people win.

The People of Stupid are satisfied!

It's the only reason the Barbie movie was such a massive hit.

The movies of today are no dumber or worse than those of recent decades. Half the stuff made in the 80s is cheesy fluff for shithead teens but since the old fogies on here have nostalgia for those they give them a pass.

Seriously the 'dumbing down' of cinema happened in the late 70s and especially the early 80s, shortly after Star Wars, with the introduction of PG-13 in 1984 really cementing the concept of movies made for teenagers. That's the time period when the mass commercialization of movies began.

I don't know if it's just me - maybe others would agree.

I can only say - one may start 20 movies before I find one I stick with.

Even then, of the one I stick with, it may be one in 5 of those I think is very good.

I could probably present the titles of 5-6 movies, since 2018, I thought were really good.

That's it.

And I don't mean outstanding, just good. Movies definitely worth watching.

So what does this mean? To me it means Hollywood is running out of ideas. Maybe Hollywood is dumbing down - one really doesn't know.

I sometimes see a guy named "Film Threat" on some of Gary's videos from "Nerdrotic," and Film Threat has brought up some great insight into the film industry, particularly from the indie branch. He made the most interesting observation from past films that were super-big hits:

It seems some of the most popular films in history were the ones that took risks with story-telling, movies that probably wouldn't have been greenlit at all today. That includes the ones with very intelligent stories that make you think and want to open up a dialogue about it with your friends around the water cooler. Incidentally, they were not films made by big, mainstream studios, but smaller ones, but sometimes they got backing from larger studios, and of course, the bigger ones took credit if the movie was a success, despite it being indie.

I guarantee you, if you look at a lot of the really famous, well-known films, you'd be surprised how many of them were indie to start with.

No, I don’t think so.
They make thousands of movies a year in many countries, but not all of them need to be super serious and deep.

When you go to a DC/Marvel movie you sort of know what you’re in for, same with say a Schindlers List level movie.

Sometimes people just want to watch a big bonkers box office movie that’s loud and silly and fun.

Not every movie needs to be loaded with dire fear and pain. Gotta relax sometimes and just watch a caped crusader kick a bunch of villains in the teeth.

NO judgies👍

Fine films are made, but they're often foreign, are not in wide distribution.

I agree that most general distribution films in the US, on major streaming channels, are trash. However, we don't have to settle for that, anymore.

I select most of my films from best films lists. They are often challenging, but almost invariably intelligent, not rarely witty & subtle, occasionally brilliant.

Here's a few I've watched in the last few years :

Godland
Zone Of Interest
Azor
Funny Pages