Waldy Cabral

Writing For The Social Sciences 

Nathan Fetherolf

October 30 2024

In Freddie Deboer’s “What Will It Take For Hollywood To Grow Up,” we see how the evolution of adult movie culture has been adjusted into being more childlike and audiences specifically children are consuming these adults that are merely being produced by different companies such as Marvel and Disney, as well as the movie culture ultimately getting rid of the “divide between children’s and adults entertainment” throughout the American movie culture in the 21st century. In Addition, Freddie deBoer delivers a problem between both children/adult audiences versus the million-dollar franchise movies that are produced by big companies like Disney and Marvel which are responsible for publicizing graphic and violent content to children audiences and losing sense of developing movies and shows with complex but yet entertaining narratives curated and delivered to specific audiences. Deboer also gives a perfect example when he mentions, “Its unavoidably relevant that the narratives driving so many of these movies were developed by comic book creators who were producing stories written for children, marketed for children, and sold to children.” He gives us this example to show us how things have changed now since children audiences now are consuming entertainment that involves violence, sex, foul language because companies arent developing these movies like Deadpool who is supposed to be intended for mature audiences is now intended for both children and adults because of the way these companies washed this character down into being kid friendly in the comics. Since children nowadays are consuming lots of media through their devices, adult movies are subjectively limited to what they can say, or scenes they are allowed to produce since it can potentially be viewed by younger audiences. Adult movie consumers argue that it has lost the way it was once narrative and complex(thematically). They want their movies to gain back what it lost when it was original and genuinely entertaining. In contrast movie companies are merely focused on what next big titles they can produce that will only benefit them financially, which leads to many of these companies losing originality. The strongest part of these companies is that no matter what they produce or release, they will have both audiences (children and adults) consuming their content no matter what. The strongest part of adult audiences is that they arent enjoying these films because of originality being lost and how there is no sense of separation into what children and adults consume. Companies would be better if they listen to their audiences and step away from only focusing on the box office rates and revenue. One pragmatic solution that can be made is having films with the intention of separating both audiences and producing original films that we once had before.