• JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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    6 hours ago

    “Cool” is subjective. But if you’re looking at a population, you need to look at what is most popular to determine what people think is “cool”.

    Mass approval means mass acceptance. Mass acceptance means mass cool.

    I can’t think of a better measure for what the majority of people like and think is cool, than cinema gross revenue. Because most walks of life enjoy the movies. Hollywood knows movie-goers vote with their wallets, or at least they knew that in 2000.

    Hipsters weren’t gonna be cool for nearly a decade.

    Iron Man wouldn’t come out till 2008, roughly the time the universe splintered and we got stuck in Timeline B. That was basically the beginning of the end of anything making sense. Now everything’s a reboot, a sequel, a sequel to a reboot, or a reboot of a sequel.

    • some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      Nah, this ain’t it IMO.

      “Cool” is nebulous and ephemeral, and defined by being unforced and difficult to pull off. The majority of cool things and people tend to burn bright and quick. It’s also very relative in a social sense. (What’s considered cool in rural Nebraska is definitely not cool in LA, at least not at the same time.)

      Being the right person (or social group) in the right place at the right time, being of another time (including future) or just having a particularly unique sensibility can all be factors.

      Once something cool becomes widely popular, though, it tends toward commodification and watering down, and that is the opposite of cool.

      • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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        5 hours ago

        They are highest grossing because they sold the most tickets.

        Uncool movies don’t sell the most seats.

        It’s literally a popularity contest. And popularity contests are always given to the coolest.

        • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          3 hours ago

          You answered the question by saying ‘because it is’.

          No, its not.

          Yes, ‘cool’ is subjective.

          Popular and cool are not the same thing.

          Many of the movies with a cult following now were basically commercial disappointments or even failures.

          Art doesn’t exist purely to make money.

          That’s ‘content’ you’re thinking of.

          • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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            3 hours ago

            It’s right there on the list. Y2k women wanted Mel Gibson. Again, before everyone knew he was a nutter. And apparently despite Lethal Weapon 4 when he was clearly too old for this shit.

            • petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              2 hours ago

              What Women Want
              $33.6 million opening weekend

              X-Men
              $57.5 million opening weekend

              Nice. So, I think we can conclude that X-Men is more romantic than What Women Want. That’s cool, I guess.