Actor Johnny Depp took Hollywood to task noting that film studios are pumping out “dreck” that no one wants to watch and executives are just “glorified accountants” who can easily be replaced.
Johnny Depp as John Dillinger in Public Enemies (2009), Universal Pictures
In an interview with Metro discussing his film Jeanne du Barry, where he plays French king Louis XV, Depp first discussed types of films that moviegoers want while at the same time criticizing those that are currently being made by Hollywood studios.
“By and large, for the majority of the years I’ve been wandering around aimlessly talking to people, they really want the same thing,” he said. “They don’t want to be fed dreck. They’re happy when they experience something new or different.”
He continued, “So that’s why I’ve always felt, as an actor, it’s your responsibility. When you come out of the gate each time… you’re putting as much at stake as anybody.”
Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), Walt Disney Pictures
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Next, he turned his attention to Hollywood executives who he says “threw me in the bin.”
Depp asserted, “They’re disposable and they realise it. Glorified accountants who have the ability to press the green light and make studio films… but they press the green light, they spent s***loads of money.”
“Budgets are ridiculous on these films… some romantic comedy with two very popular people. People – the real people – they’re sick of it,” Depp concluded.
Margot Robbie as Stereotypical Barbie in Barbie (2023), Warner Bros. Pictures
Depp is correct. Moviegoers do not want to be fed dreck and box office returns appear to indicate they aren’t willing to pay for it either. The-Numbers reports that the domestic box office has only grossed $1.95 billion this year and sold only 180.9 million tickets.
In 2023, total domestic box office grosses totaled $8.9 billion and there were 829 million tickets sold. In 2022 total domestic box office grosses totaled $7.4 billion and there were 705 million tickets sold. The last time box office grosses topped $10 billion domestically was in 2019, where grosses reached $11.2 billion. It was also the last time ticket sales topped 1 billion with 1.2 billion sold.
Before Covid, the last time domestic grosses were below $10 billion was 2008. However, in 2008 ticket sales still reached 1.3 billion.
(L-R): Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan, Brie Larson as Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers, and Teyonah Parris as Captain Monica Rambeau in Marvel Studios’ THE MARVELS. Photo by Laura Radford. © 2023 MARVEL.
As for studio executives being glorified accountants, there might be something to that. However, they are not very good accountants as many of these executives have way overspent on their films and not recovered the costs in revenue.
The most obvious example is The Walt Disney Company. Box office analyst OMB Reviews reported that Disney lost over $1 billion from its theatrical releases in just 2023 alone. He stated, “Right now, I’m saying Disney has lost over a billion dollars this year in just their theatrical releases.”
He went on to assert that Disney’s losses are “close to $1.5 billion … just in the last year 2023 and just based off of theatrical with the numbers we currently have available.”
In fact a recent report from Caroline Reid at Forbes indicated that The Walt Disney Company has not even recouped the cost of purchasing Lucasfilm with the films its released at the box office.
Reid revealed that Disney spent $567.3 million on The Force Awakens. However, because they filmed in the United Kingdom the company received a significant tax return, which reduced the net cost of the film to $475.1 million.
Similarly, Reid reported the net cost for The Last Jedi was $319.5 million. The Rise of Skywalker’s cost was $448.1 million. Rogue One cost the company $247.8 million and Solo cost $287.2 million.
Daisy Ridley as Rey in The Force Awakens (2015), Lucasfilm
Reid then comes to the conclusion that The Force Awakens had $559.6 million in profit, The Last Jedi had $346.8 million, Rogue One had $281.5 million, and The Rise of Skywalker had $89 million. Solo lost $90.7 million.
That means all combined the films only generated $1.186 billion in profit. Reid notes this is “$2.8 billion short of the purchase price of Lucasfilm.”
Daisy Ridley as Rey in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), Lucasfilm
What do you make of Depp’s comments regarding Hollywood?
I think Johnny Depp will be much happier continuing to do independent films in the future. Hollywood may pay more, but the studio interference on people’s visions being subject to censorship, forced ideology and lack of artistic talent, integrity or vision is as staggering as it has ever been. It would overall be a much better place to go to work on films without a doubt.
It’s interesting to hear Depp’s takes now that he’s out of the Hollywood prison. Maybe he and other actors shunned can form a parallel industry.
Are you SURE about the caption on the first picture?