So a few things here:
There was a huge drought in talent after Leo, Affleck, Damon's class came. I separate Pitt/Clooney/Roberts from them because those 3 were active in the late 80’s. The lack of talent outside of Michael B Jordan, the dude from The Bear (Jeremy Allen White) and (formerly) Jonathan Majors is obvious, most of the people are on social media or doing straight streaming garbage.
The original films flopped hard. Battleship, John Carter, etc. Even franchises like the Green Lantern and the Lone Ranger (remake) did not move the needle. In the case of the latter, it was an IP that had been sitting on the shelf for too long. I have always said these movies need to be tweaked and re-released every 30 years, otherwise, the public won't care. Original IPs are dead because of poor vision and planning, so we get remakes and Marvel.
Mid budgets movies are gone. Look at any of the early Wesley Snipes films, they didn’t cost 100 million to make. People will make art house films of less than 40 million or blockbusters. The middle is where new stuff should come in, but since it does not exist anymore, this is what we get.
The problem is now, will people give up on writing and acting with AI around? It remains to be seen. But we need better actors. Kristen Stewart isn’t it. Let’s see what Pattinson can do after the new Batman movies and the Superman actor is ok from what I have seen.
But we need more original stuff that people will watch, and that is a much longer long-term challenge.
