As David Denby noted in a 10.4.12 New Republic piece, the basic strategy of corporate zombie studio execs is to primarily (only?) greenlight films that are not “execution dependent.” Brand-name franchises, movies based on board and video games, remakes, comic-book fantasies but never (or almost never) movies that have to be good to be successful.

In short, the Disney zombies who gave the go-ahead to Captain America: The Winter Soldier (4.4) did so believing it would more than likely turn a handsome profit even if it turned out to be a numbing, eardrum-killing CG suffocation device like The Avengers. Now that it’s clear the new Captain America flick is good enough to win the admiration and allegiance of a comic-book-movie hater like myself, will it make even more money than if it turned out to be shite…or will it make no difference? Do fanboys go to these films no matter how poorly reviewed? Does anyone care if a comic-book movie is a diamond in the rough?

More to the point, will the thinking of zombie execs be affected even slightly by this welcome surprise? I think not. All the evidence indicates it doesn’t matter to them. That’s why I call them zombies. They have no heart, no soul, no feeling for Movie Catholicism — for the legend of movies as not just rides but hugs and sermons and spiritual turn-ons, and movie theatres as churches. They don’t give one infinitesimal fuck if a movie is good or dull or ghastly — they just don’t want it to lose money.