credit: Babylon
These days it’s easy to assume that there are a few dozen excuses that are loaded and ready to be used when it comes to a worst-case scenario, which means a box office failure when talking about a Hollywood feature. Having been released just recently, Babylon was expected to be a widely popular ensemble movie that attempts to encapsulate the Roaring Twenties and the transition from silent to sound films. This was a major shift in Hollywood as many film students should know verbatim since the path from silence to sound had a huge impact on tinsel town given that it meant that various celebrities saw their stars dim and fade, while others finally had the chance to excel as they found new ways to operate and new opportunities that came about as the advent of sound created a whole new range of possibilities in film. But somehow, Babylon didn’t take off with the fans, and there are many that have used several of the excuses that were locked and loaded to explain away the reason for this flop. One of those is that there was a snowstorm over the weekend, which can of course affect numbers, but the idea of misogyny being used as an excuse is kind of confusing, at least until one hears that Margot Robbie is being grilled for this failure in a big way. It’s not fair, that’s true, but it’s also a narrow view of the reason why Babylon has not performed that well as of yet.
credit: Babylon
Margot Robbie is still a big star, a failure doesn’t change that, and it’s not her first.
A failure is not the end of a career, no matter how bad it might be. Actors can ruin their own career on their own, as movies are often forgiven by many upon many fans, meaning that this is not a death knell to Margot’s career as some people appear to think. But the big issue, that her male counterparts are not being roasted as badly as she is at this time, is easy to explain. She’s one of the biggest stars in the movie, and as a result, she’s going to be targeted for her acting, for the movie’s failure, and for anything else fans can think of. The amusing thing is that after saying what they like, people are going to move on to the next attraction that Hollywood has to offer, and Margot will keep moving forward in order to complete her next movie. As for the male actors in this movie, there’s a reason why they’re not being blasted, as several of them aren’t quite as relevant as Robbie at this time. There is another reason why Brad Pitt escaped the vitriol to be fair.
People need to remember that bad movies tend to happen sometimes.
Not every movie is going to be a huge hit since like it or not, the story isn’t captivating, the acting isn’t as on point as people want, or something, anything happens that might not vibe with the intended audience. The point is: BAD MOVIES HAPPEN. If nothing else, this idea is something that needs to be understood and accepted since perfection is something that everyone seeks, but not everyone attains. Even the greatest movie stars in the world won’t have a chain of great movies that will define their career, as there are always bound to be weak links therein that people remember as truly horrible movies that people don’t want to remember.
credit: Babylon
How did Brad Pitt escape the criticism?
The fact that this is a question on anyone’s mind is kind of funny since Brad Pitt has been a part of plenty of less-than-successful movies, and yet he’s become such a beloved actor that many people have accepted that he’s not always going to be attached to successful movies. Some would say that Bullet Train wasn’t a worthwhile movie, and others would beg to disagree. Margot Robbie hasn’t been in the business nearly as long as Pitt, which means that she has a lot of learning yet to do despite the fact that she’s been around long enough to know how to weather a bad movie now and then. As far as the reason why Pitt, who was a big part of this movie, didn’t catch as much hell for it, one could easily state that as a veteran that it wouldn’t affect him as much. The guy has been through enough movies to be insulated from a box office flop at this point, and therefore it’s easy to think that Babylon’s failure isn’t going to be laid at his feet. It shouldn’t be laid at Robbie’s either, but like it or not, people will always find a scapegoat.
Blaming misogyny for a failure at the box office is a slippery slope.
As one of the many excuses to use when something doesn’t go the way people want, misogyny is one of the many explanations that can be used against a movie or even an individual that is tough to bottle up once it’s been used just once. There’s nothing to stop this same excuse from being used again and again when it comes to another movie, and another, and another that doesn’t perform that well. Eventually, such excuses become little more than automatic actions that mean next to nothing and are there to cause more drama than is required for a box office failure.
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