[Weekly Update] How do Bad Movies Make Money?

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CHANNEL UPDATE

Our next video is more or less complete. We are just waiting for the sponsorship schedule to line up. Thanks to everyone who lend a voice for this video.

I have also began work on our next video: Chinese memes. While not a very serious topic (at least I have trouble expanding it into anything deep or meaningful), it's surprisingly more work than one would expect. Principally, movie memes just don't last very long in China, as very few films managed to stay in the public consciousness for long. Balancing between relevancy and humor is gonna be a big part of the editorial process.

I should start working on our April Fool's video as well. I don't have anything special planned, so I might just do a full Mahjong tutorial. Animating the entire thing is gonna be a pain in the butt, so I'll have to start early.

As for this month's bonus video, you suggested National Treasure, the Nick Cage movie. Thank you for the idea, and I think that's exactly what I'll be talking about! Only the first movie, though. I don't remember much about the second one.

MEDIA TALK

For the past week and a half, I have immersed myself with the travesty that is Devilman, the worst Japanese movie ever made, and possibly one of the worst movie ever in the world. Much like Japanese food, Devilman has this very complex flavour to it that is really hard to describe. And trying to put it into words was a torment of the souls.

Since I was in a bad movie mood, I ended up browsing r/BadMovies on Reddit a lot, mostly for its Tubi movies. And it gets me wondering... Who's watching these movies?

A cursory search on the subreddit gives me such classic as Baby Cat (2023), a NSFW movie about a cat girl but not he anime kind. Breaking Barbi (2019), a movie about a social media influencer lost in the wilderness trying to survive while an alien invasion is happening. Death Park: The Beginning (2021), which has a killer in the woods, in broad daylight, wearing a Trump mask. And Blacks & UFOs (2023), a movie I can't talk about without sounding very racist.

As far as I know, these movies are produced with the budget of a couple thousands, so it's not too difficult to recoup in theory. Indeed, there clearly is a market for them. As far as I know, Neil Breen currently lives as one of the most successful indie filmmaker of our generation, because ALL of his productions turned a profit. Yes, ALL.

But competition is evidently extremely fierce. You never see the same trash twice on Tubi, that's how prevalent these types of movies are. Is there really that much demand for these films to warrant this level of saturation?

A part of me certainly understands the appeal. From Hollywood to Hallmark, bigger budget productions are so same-y and safe. These trashy no budget productions are the types of films that make me feel alive. They excite me because I don't know what I'm getting into.

Yet I can't imagine my hobby being mainstream in anyway. On YouTube, every 100 view translates to about 1 to 2 dollars in return. For a movie to recoup its 5000 USD production cost, it'll need 5 million views. That's higher viewership than all but the first season of Supergirl, the CW TV show.

And since many of these films are original IPs, they can't even trick your grandma into buying it from Walmart. The only reason people watch them is because they want to. And that boggles my mind to no end.

Anyway, do you watch Tubi movies? Did you know Get Out is on Tubi? this is not a Tubi ad, by the way. I swear.

Alright, now that my brain has melted, I'll see you soon with a new video!