Victims of the Hollywood Paradox
The studios spend ever more on the blockbusters they make because that demonstrates their power and pays everyone in the chain more money, which creates more (apparent) power for those in charge.
But since they pay so much, they have no choice, they think, but to say, “This must work!” So they polish off the edges, follow the widely-known secret formula and create banality. No glory, it seems, with guts.
Every meeting is about avoiding coming anywhere near the sentence, "this might not work," and instead giving ammunition to the groupthink belief that this must work.
And as soon as you do that, you’ve guaranteed it won’t.
Every bestseller is a surprise bestseller, and in fact, nobody knows anything.
(And of course, it's not just movies, is it?)