I was watching a video by ItsaGundam and he was talking about the current state of comic books and he mentioned how they always say now that comic books are for everyone (which a lot of other IPs and video games say that too). He said they always were for everyone which I agree somewhat but I would say that it isn't for everyone, but anyone who is interested can get into comic books.
I think Marvel and DC comics should be a great lesson in how not to market/run a business. I would also throw Star Wars and gaming companies into the mix. Ahaus7 said once that video games should have never started to pander to extreme minorities and the same could be said for the rest of them.
I can remember a few years ago when I first heard high ranking women in comics who instead of talking about how much they loved comics or what they read growing up talked endlessly about diversity and how they didn't see people that "looked like them". Also Star Wars loves to hire men and women who seem to be clueless about Star Wars and if you look at their social media, you can almost always find the usual "down with whitey" nonsense.
What do you think? Is it accurate to say these things have always been for everyone? Also, do you think at some point these industries will realize that it is idiotic to market to people who don't like the product?
Of course they've always been for everyone. The "issue", such as it is, is that such things have been niche because most adults and kids either have the capability or desire to do other things in their spare time and they happen to have more of a desire to do those things for w/e reason than to engage in various "geek" interests.
That's a good question, but I think there's an even better one: To what end are media corporations (i.e. print, digital, film, gaming, etc) making things that lose money?
A perfect example is Youtube. The website causes Google to spend way more than it will ever get back on it. If their goal was to make money out of it they would have pulled the plug or sold it off to be someone else's problem years ago. Youtube's real value isn't as a money generator, it's as a narrative manipulator. Billions of people go to Youtube and for a huge percentage of them, that's their primary source for news, entertainment, opinion, idea, thought, and everything else that follows. Google controls the flow of information those people receive and it can alter, edit, and control what people see. That is youtube's value.
I'd say another example would be Marvel. Their comics are clearly not money-makers, but their value--woke rot aside--comes from their reservoir of stories to exploit for movies and related content like toys, sponsorship deals, games, you name it. It does not matter how much the comics sell, just that the troglodytes churn something out that can be smelted down and refined into something usable for Disney's other endeavors.
This is my very general idea and I'd say applies more at the conglomerate level. It will probably break down when you get to smaller outfits, especially ones that are independent.
Good points.