How 2019 marked the end of movie nerd YouTube channels
I don’t know how many of you watch “nerd” movie channels, or ever did. But for those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about. I’m talking about stuff like ScreenJunkies, Collider and all their auxiliaries like SchmoesKnow.
These are the people that were made fun of by RedLetterMedia in their NerdCrew videos which funnily enough they don’t do anymore.
They were pillars of the YouTube film community. In fact, back when I was first getting into movies in the early 2010s, they were the majority of content. Until the video essay boom came into fruition circa 2015, and of which is now the primary style of video.
They would make dozens upon dozens of videos and podcasts talking about the latest trailer for a Marvel movie. They would speculate about what would happen in the next Star Wars movie. They would react to trailers and over-exaggerate. They would fully embrace all things that Funko Pop nerds embraced.
2019 was the height of all of this. The MCU’s Infinity Saga came to a close with Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home, and the Star Wars Sequel trilogy wrapped up later in the year with The Rise of Skywalker. The hype for these movies were unbelievable, even if one of them disappointed and left everyone with a bitter after-taste.
Then the pandemic happened and all nerd movie news stopped. There was nothing to react to, there was nothing to hype. Wonder Woman 1984 came out, but nobody liked it.
The following year was a little bit better thanks to the hype machine surrounding Spider-Man: No Way Home. But still, the views that these nerd channels were getting dropped significantly. Check out the difference between the reviews on Fandom Entertainment's channel for Endgame and Spider-Man: No Way Home. The drop in audience is remarkable. And that’s for the big reviews. The day-to-day content that these channels posted are down significantly, and in the case of Fandom Entertainment (of ScreenJunkies), they have stopped producing daily videos. It’s a YouTube channel on life support.
Collider is an empty shell of itself, they canceled all of their nerd panels and only do generic press junket videos.
It’s simple really. These things ended. Interest in the MCU has dipped since Endgame (with the exception of Spider-Man). Star Wars has stopped making movies, and the TV shows have been of mixed quality. People moved on. These channels aren't needed anymore.
The era of the 2010s movie nerd YouTube channel is over. The only ones staying alive are ones that relied more on personality rather than farming content. I’m talking about JeremyJahns, Chris Stuckmann, and Mr. Sunday Movies. Their audience stayed around because their audience liked their personality.
I'll toss Cinema Therapy your way.
I find their analysis much more enjoyable than any trailer hype video ever was.
I think when you look at the remarkable quality decline in the content they all once thrived on and combine that with the long drought of fresh content caused by the pandemic, it's pretty clear what happened. The hype machine simply dried up. There was nothing to feed it, and what little came out turned out to be disappointing, to put it mildly.
People moved on to other things besides cinema and television to occupy their spare time and discovered they weren't really missing anything. Once that decades old habit was broken, for most people it doesn't simply start up again. It'll take some stellar new franchises and many years for it to build back up, if it ever can. Now there is more competition than ever from video games, audiobooks, manga, tabletop, and countless independent creators to compete for everyone's attention.
So red letter media then are anti-nerds?
When i saw their first nerd crew episode came out, I had no idea they were parodying actual video channels, but still got most of the jokes because i had colleagues and family who fit the bill (sans mic).
In any event, yours is An interesting commentery. I’ll add that both the nerd channels and the movies are part of a cultural stream of man boys who are hopefully matiring somewhat, myself included.
Edit: clarity
Probably still pretty nerdy. Though unlike other YouTube channels, they actually have an interest in film outside of the superhero and space stuff.
But they have consistently made fun of other Youtubers in many videos.