George Lucas has criticized Hollywood's reliance on test screenings and focus groups. The Star Wars creator said studios give too much power to audiences instead of filmmakers. He also described artificial intelligence as inevitable progress that makes filmmaking easier.
Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney in a $4 billion deal in 2012. In a recent interview with A Rabbit’s Foot, he argued that audiences do not know what they want to see.
“I don’t like focus groups,” Lucas said. “The audience doesn’t know what they want to see. If they don’t like a character, that’s interesting, and as a filmmaker I want to find out why. But when the studios hear that, they take the wrong message.”
He added that movies should be guided by emotional storytelling rather than fan input. “You go to the movies because the stories move you emotionally,” Lucas said. “Art is an emotional medium.”
On AI, Lucas compared its arrival to the shift from horses to cars. “Artificial intelligence means it’s much easier for us to make movies,” he said. “There’s nothing you can do about it. That’s progress, it’s the future.” He noted AI could also help identify fakes and hold users accountable.
