There's a great book called Movie Brats about the then big up and coming names. Lucas, Spielberg and others get chapters. The most interesting part I found was how many of them didn't know the cost, or the profit of the movie they made. Then Spielberg and Lucas created blockbusters, and it was obvious.

I saw a similar thing during the Wii era. A Don't executive claimed his consoles were selling really well and bet you couldn't find it in shelves. Penny arcade looked and found the PS3 in every store they visited. Some bad been there a while. The Wii couldn't be found at all. The big thing was, I don't think the executive was lying. I think he was being given false numbers. He was suffering the same thing as the directors before the blockbuster.

Streaming doesn't give out real numbers. New movie brats have arrived, and they're just as blindfolded as the previous ones.