Damn. I'm continually impressed/depressed by learning how much of a science this has come down to. "Seven times coverage" - that's a whole new one to me, and I worked in advertising for a while, but at the writer/director/producer level, so I didn't have to worry about ad buying and placement budgets, etc., just the shooting budget. Every time I find out more, I think, "Bergman didn't have to worry about this shit! And he's a national treasure, for god's sake!"

So they are trend followers, not trend setters. Too bad. I suspect seeking quality great story telling would nurture and cultivate a dedicated longer term net profit than quick weekend watch 'em come, watch 'em go films.
They are content to be the nutritionally empty big box McD of storytelling, and perhaps on an even deeper level, chasing perpetual youth, personally.
There's got to be a better way.

The tragedy here isn't so much that the studios are targeting the young but how much they undervalue their primary audience. I don't know about you but the young folk of today strike me as a pretty smart, savvy bunch... and the sludge they're troweling out to them is about as empty and brain dead as it comes.

I know it breaks what they're looking for, but I can't write something that I'd consider trash.

I'll just keep on writing the kind of films that I enjoy watching, even if they aren't the kind that will generate a 30-second ad for a 14-year-old kid.

Rather write what I want. The story has a better chance of being good if I stay true to myself rather than try to write something that will only make me wish I never did.

If that means I'll never sell a script to Hollywood, well, I guess I'll just have to start buying a load of comics and sell them in 25 years.