this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2024
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That's what I'm hoping, just very much not optimistically. Corpos will usually allow things like feminism (the Barbie movie, for example), but I can't see them being cool with telling the tale of wealth inequality. Maybe a super watered-down version where one poor person gets a better outcome, but nothing systematic is changed. They're typically ok with stuff like that. (Like the whole Undercover Boss model, where the boss pays off someone's tuition or whatever but wages remain the same.)
Capitalism is a system that sustains itself even if literally everyone knows how evil it is. This is part of the fundamental conceit.
Capitalists literally have nothing to gain by "hiding" some truths, as if the masses were living with a veil in front of their eyes that one can just pull back to radicalize them. We were all there in 2008. We all saw behind the curtain. Literally nothing fundamentally changed and no movie is going to come close to having that cultural impact.
Also capitalists aren't any less prone to the tragedy of the commons than any other group of people. One corporation would end capitalism next quarter if they believed it would make them richer this quarter.
The truth is much simpler than any conspiracy theory: Hollywood is largely systematically incapable of competent social commentary. There are occasional brilliant exceptions, but rampant nepotism, incompetent corporate meddling, and a strong history/culture of "character stories" means that Hollywood doesn't know how to make a story about anything other than a character story.
Anyway if the topic interests you here's a one hour essay on how Apple failed to adapt Foundation, with a truly masterful ending on an anticapitalist message.