There is critical acclaim, and boatloads of money, waiting for anyone who can successfully capture the essence of their generation. The makers of “We Are Your Friends” bet big that they could do exactly that. And they failed. Miserably.

The electronic dance music-centric film starring Zac Efron and Emily Ratajkowski earned only $1.7 million at the box office, coming in at 14th at the end of its opening weekend on August 30. Though the film only cost $6 million to make, millions more were spent marketing it, rendering it a colossal failure.

The creators failed to understand two things: One, the best way to make sure your generational movie makes money is to wait until that generation has grown up. And two, if you’re going to sell a modern movie to a modern crowd, you better make sure that movie is relatable to that specific audience.

The first is so obvious it’s shocking a major studio like Warner Bros. Pictures would back a movie like this. EDM is a prominent characteristic of our generation, which makes it an easy choice to build a movie of our times around. But in retrospect, things that seem universally popular can actually be polarizing in the moment.

Many people love EDM, but others can’t stand it. Just like how in the 60s, the hippie movement appeared universally popular, but a quick look at the singles chart for 1967 reveals the highest charting single for a hippie band was “Light My Fire” by The Doors, who actually hated most hippies, only at No. 6. The movement was far from universal.

This is even more apparent in film. One of the most successful films ever, relative to its budget, is George Lucas’ “American Graffiti,” which earned $140 million when released in 1973 on only a $777,000 budget. Its success came from how it captured the 1950s/early 1960s culture as a more innocent time. Those who were children during that time flocked to the movie to escape the culture of the 1970s. Both those time periods had comparable mixtures of goods and bads, but everything looks bright with the shine of nostalgia.

An even more recent example of this can be seen with “Straight Outta Compton,” which has earned $141 million and counting by presenting gangsta rap as pure revolution, ignoring some of its more unsavory and problematic details.

The type of movies that paint a sentimental view of current times virtually never find that kind of success. 1992’s “Singles” sought to capture the grunge era during the grunge era and only made $18 million, not becoming a cult classic until years later when Nirvana and the rest had faded into the cultural canon.

The only way to ensure a modern movie is successful with those it represents is to make it unsentimental and realistic. 1969’s “Easy Rider” didn’t earn $60 million because it just showed a bunch of hippies on cool motorcycles. It’s because it showed those hippies fail in the end, as the dark underbelly of a nation’s youth swallowed up the very dreams that youth promised.

“We Are Your Friends” was superficially modern. It could never even find the success of “Spring Breakers,” which made it to $31 million and instantly became a cult classic, because it pulled no punches in showing how a generation’s supreme dedication to having a good time can lead to a corrupting selfishness. Because when we go to see a movie about ourselves, we don’t want to see a few nice things we like, we want to see ourselves. Nostalgia is for grown-ups.

Mark DiBona is a senior television, radio and film major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at mdibona@syr.edu and followed on Twitter @NoPartyNoDisco.

Published on September 7, 2015 at 6:27 pm