There's a family somewhere of a teenaged girl, prepubescent boy, busy working dad and loving mom.
And I say 'mom', not mum, because this family isn't Australian or British. They're American. The girl wants to borrow the car on the weekend. The dad likes to play golf. The mom knows where all the oven mitts are stored. They have an SUV and a dog. They're not as worried about terrorists as the government wants them to be but they're careful. They're a lot more terrified of pedophiles. They know Iraq's all about oil but they don't really care, they're just pissed off gas is getting so expensive at the pump.
They might not know it, but they're the most powerful family on earth when it comes to shaping culture – not just in America, but everywhere from Amsterdam to Zanzibar.
How? You have to understand the term 'family' as a political concept rather than a group of blood relatives living in the same house.
The above description is mythical. It's the reason for almost everything that goes on in Washington because most of the people in America live in that mythical arrangement and thus form the biggest voting bloc for any political party.
Just like that mythical group has the most voting power, they have the most buying power when it comes to culture. And among the products entered into the ether of culture, movies are one of the most expensive.
When they cost upwards of $100 million to produce (and as much again to market) the people who invest in and make them have to ensure a lot of people see them.
They have to make them appeal to the broadest possible group, and the most represented group in the western world as a number is the mythical family.
The reason the US studios they don't make films specifically for black or gay or Muslim audiences is simply because there aren't enough people in those groups to ensure the studios return on investment. Or there are too many subcultures and the marketing wouldn't be able to target them effectively.
As movies get more expensive, they have to aim more broadly in economic terms. That means not including anything the mythical middle American family wouldn't get or agree with.
In Australia we're more urbane – most of us live in the cities. In America most of the population lives away from large cities and they're more conservative in their outlook. As a society they're much less accepting of gay people, black people in power, women in power and other concepts that have come of age in the last thirty to forty years.
So the bigger the film, the more it has to stay on that middle American straight and narrow to appeal to those people. If it's misdirected and doesn't get all those audiences, urban populations alone aren't enough to return the outlay of so much money to the studios and distributors.
And we all know the power of the movies. Along with commercial music publishing, movie production sets the tone for culture in all corners of the developed world. I often wonder if those studio executives and directors realise how much power they're holding in their hands.
But that's not where the buck stops. As the saying goes, we all work for someone, and the bosses of those Lamborghini-driving suits and producers are the mythical middle American family, looking at the marquee above the box office every Friday and Saturday night, making or ruining careers
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