Still not 1 billion grossing movie

By doing what?  Including more minorities?  I'm sure that's made your life so much more difficult, I can see why you're so upset.  It's not going back into the bottle as long as screaming youtubers and those brainwashed by them continue to see what they want to see, instead of what's actually there.   

It does change the narrative, though.  It forces people like you to invent a new explanation as to why these movies are failing or succeeding.

Kind of a non-sequitur here, but you know what's funny?  I've never seen a Toy Story movie and I saw Lightyear in the theater.  I thought it was fine, probably because I've never seen a Toy Story movie.  See, I understand people's disassociation with it on the grounds that it didn't feel like a Toy Story movie.  Anyone who avoided it because of THE MESSAGE or whatever, I don't really understand where they're coming from, and I never will.               

Can you explain what this has to do with anything? I need to understand what point you're trying to prove here. Wait, is it that Hollywood shouldn't hire Cubans to play Cubans, they should just stick with Italians playing Cubans? The ol' "Nobody ever thought it was racist before," defense? This isn't exactly a hot topic for me, and it has zero to do with the conversation, but I disagree with you nevertheless. Pacino makes a better Cuban than John Wayne made a Mongol, that's for sure.  


Anyway, as far as hip hop culture goes, it's often entwined with the 'gangster' culture, which explains the allure of a story like Scarface to that culture. Anything else you need help with?

I would say the number one reason why Lightyear and Strange World did so poorly is because the marketing was by and large very ineffective. Most people I ran into (online and in person) didn't know what to make of Lightyear - is it a movie based on the action figure of Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story? Is it the reverse? Why does the toy version sound nothing like Chris Evans and the movie version sound nothing like Tim Allen? The storyline also looked pretty uninteresting and not much justifies something that resembles feeling "toyetic". Controversy surrounding two female characters kissing was just the icing to the cake for some people.

Strange World looked very bland, the trailers presented nothing to really get people intrigued, and the movie itself was fairly nonsensical. The subplot of the son character being into boys (controversy that came closer to release) was, from a storytelling point of view, the least of the movie's issues, as the characters just were not engaging enough, the conflict didn't excite, and every time it was at the bat, the jokes kept missing the ball.

The Dial of Destiny underperformed in large part due to its big budget. If you do the math, it cost more than the original trilogy combined (even when adjusted for inflation). To make matters worse? The set-up presented in the trailers didn't create enough interest. The "hook" of Indiana Jones being older and going on perhaps one last adventure was already done with the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull years prior. Had it been made for a smaller budget, it may have performed better at the box office.

Barbie was a financial success for a few reasons. The first is that it was set to open on the same day as Oppenheimer, which lead to the internet fascination of "Barbenheimer", where people would pay to see both movies on the same day. The second is commercial appeal, Barbie is still a successful brand. The third reason, I think, is because of the strikes the filmmakers were not able to explain their intentions for the picture that completely to the trades, which sparked conversation amongst movie goers who went to see it and walked out with polarizing views on it - feminist propaganda, or satire? The variety of perspective sparked many conversations. The fourth reason I would say is that Barbie was the first "girl movie" that was a major studio release in a long time. Such movies still are made, but most go to streaming to air on television, but Barbie came along with the same kind of budget and marketing strategy as any of the other tentpoles coming out and was unapologetically a "girl movie". Female viewers could finally claim something as their own and argue that it was made for them. (not to say men cannot enjoy Barbie)

Uh... should I bother pointing out that the largest self-identifying ethic group in Cuba is WHITE?  You thought most Cubans were black?!  No wonder this argument made no sense from the beginning.     

I think you have to be pretty fit and active to fight crime every day, thus an overweight superhero would seem odd (though fortunately enough plenty of overweight people do get represented in the roles of their loyal friends and compatriots, ie the Ned character in the new Spider-Man trilogy and Rebel Wilson in Wonder Woman). Is there any reason an athletic black person can't fight crime?

The Black Panther persona is passed from monarchs in an African state. Are there trans Asian monarchs in Africa?