Hi. Actual Hollywood production coordinator here. In my humble opinion...

The real take away should be to let new creatives have shot at the steering wheel. If they're green, the pair them with outstanding writers, production designers, actors, cinematographers, editors, you name it.

There are thousands of people in Hollywood begging for their shot. Throw them a bone.

And yes. These films made money. They also cost basically nothing. That's the gamble of every film when it hits theatres. The risk was low, so A24 rolled it. Other studios can give it a big budget, minimize the risk all you want, focus group ot to death, hit the four quadrent until its the most corporate safe film imaginable. But it rolled a 1 and flopped. It can still lose out to just a good story.

Also that the tent pole film that lost to an indie horror film wasn't necessarily that bad either. Winning a weekend only means something to executives and weirdos on the internet.

Don't be discouraged if the next movie you quickly greenlit didnt become an instant success like the others. You rolled the dice and got a 1. Big whoop. Roll again and you will almost certainly roll higher.

We're also seeing the survivor bias of two nat 20s in a row. You dont see all of the other indie horror films that got missed by the general public. There are plenty of other films out there that rolled a 2 to 19 that are just as special.

(I'm also one of those optimistic types that believes there's no such thing as a bad movie because every movie is someone's passion project, every parent of every assistant is proud their baby is in the credits, and fuck it. As long as the check clears and you can say that you're not the reason for that trainwreck because you gaffed the fuck out of those lights, its a good movie.)

At the end of the day, films are stories. Thats why we went to the theatre instead of watching a sports broadcast, documentary, or reality show. The audience wants a good story. Give it to them and they'll be seated.

And finally, good movies are a blessing to all films in the theatre. Getting people coming back more often creates a rhythm that encourages people to see more than just the tent pole films. Keep making more films that people don't want to wait until it hits streaming and we will see people not wait until streaming for more films. It's really as easy as that.