I believe the cynicism would be when a studio chooses demographic and marketability over art.
There is no "best" art (sorry, high art world), but there are absolutely choices you can make for marketing rather than artistic reasons.
I like Robert Zemeckis and Ron Howard films, but they're boring ideas, well-executed. And I have a sneaking suspicion that given their copious directorial output and uniformity of end product... some of those choices were made for monetary rather than creative reasons.
Nobody says "I want to make a mind-bending Dune film, get me Robert Zemeckis!"
> "there are absolutely choices you can make for marketing rather than artistic reasons"
That is fair. I believe it's also the case that when evaluating art, it's easy to conflate those reasons with one's own POV and demographic biases.
In other words: Forrest Gump is cynical pandering to Baby Boomers... but [this-year's-Marvel-superhero-movie] is an artistic gem, and The Dark Knight or Black Panther got robbed at the Oscars, etc.
That's an odd way to characterize it, IMO. Like if someone wanted to argue that Zemeckis makes substandard movies because he wants to profit from it, I should be able to argue that the Leanardo DaVinci painted substandard art because he profited from it. 100 years from now, nobody will care if Zemeckis made money, because he'll be dead. The legacy is what remains. The art is what is left behind, and what is left behind is better preserved if more people like it. I would argue that the value of art is not a pure measure of quality, but more like the product of quality and outreach.
There is no "best" art (sorry, high art world), but there are absolutely choices you can make for marketing rather than artistic reasons.
I like Robert Zemeckis and Ron Howard films, but they're boring ideas, well-executed. And I have a sneaking suspicion that given their copious directorial output and uniformity of end product... some of those choices were made for monetary rather than creative reasons.
Nobody says "I want to make a mind-bending Dune film, get me Robert Zemeckis!"