As with most simple recipies "just make a good movie" is unfortunately neither sufficient nor always the best path. Word of mouth on movies is far more likely t

As with most simple recipies "just make a good movie" is unfortunately neither sufficient nor always the best path. Word of mouth on movies is far more likely to have a negative impact on theater going decisions than positive impact (if your friend says it sucks, you are far more likely to switch from go to no go than you would be to switch from no go to go if the same friend said it was awesome). In practice, what this means is that because positive word of mouth is so minimally impactful studios need to focus on high marketing value films rather than high story value films, because high marketing value films cause potential audience members to see a trailer or an ad and say "I'll totally go see that!" Yes, negative word of mouth can and will reduce the number who actually go see it, but final viewership is higher if you start with a huge population saying "I'll totally see that" than if you start with a "meh" response to the initial ads and try to grow viewership through word of mouth about how awesome your film is. Given these observations, Hollywood has made the rationally and financially correct but unfortunate for audiences decision to focus on marketability over enjoyability. These economics are quite different for entertainment as a service providers like HBO and Netflix, with the obvious results in quality of output.