Is Terrence Malick the most powerful man in Hollywood?

His films don't even make money anymore. In fact, they lose money...lots of it. Tree of Life had a budget of 32 mil and grossed not even half that. To the Wonder didn't even break a mil. Same thing with Knight of Cups. Incredible when you think about it, I mean considering the name power alone among those casts.

Heck if you ask the average person about any of these films they in all likelihood haven't seen nor heard of them.

Not that Malick cares...in fact I think he prefers that these films have niche audiences as opposed to being mainstream. Clearly he's not doing this for the money.

That said, how do these experimental films he keeps rolling out get bankrolled and green lighted? I mean it's not like he's rounding out these films with no name actors...these are some pretty powerful, deep casts in these movies. He virtually gets any actor/actress he wants, and his films are a virtual lock to lose money nowadays -- yet he's still able to push out one after the other now.

You have to be able to wield a whole lot of power to to do what he does.