MTV brought music videos into this world, then replaced them with The Hills. As such, we might expect their now nearly decade-old foray into film production to be equally shoddy.
But it is not.
Sure, they’ve had their share of crap…
Pootie Tang
Crossroads
The Fighting Temptations
But they also made…
Election
The Wood
Better Luck Tomorrow
The Original Kings of Comedy
Save the Last Dance
Orange County
Tupac Ressurrection
Napoleon Dynamite
Blades of Glory
Their batting average critically is probably no better or worse than most production companies, but that’s the thing. It’s MTV. It should suck balls. The generation that grew up with them is used by now to turning up our noses up at them. But they’ve held their own.
A low opinion of MTV might also suggest a blunt-force financial strategy along the lines most Hollywood studios which says, “Make dumb movies that make a lot of money.” But only two of their films have broken $100 million domestically (Blades of Glory and The Longest Yard).
MTV Films’ business plan seems to be much more like that of an independent arm of one of those Hollywood studios. “Make movies that don’t cost a lot of money, but have an audience large enough to make that money back. They can be smart, too, if you like.” They’re kind of like Teen Paramount Vantage (also owned by Viacom).
Of course, they’re also behind the upcoming Friday the 13th and Warriors remakes, so what the hell do I know?
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