"It begins and ends with money. It's absurd in this day and age when we need so much money for education, health, for people, that a $100 million dollars can be spent on a film. It's obscene"
About this Quote
The subtext is class anger, but also a kind of betrayed intimacy. Turner isn’t an outsider heckling the red carpet; she’s a veteran who benefited from the machine and still finds its numbers hard to justify. That insider status sharpens the critique: she’s calling “obscene” what many in the business treat as normal overhead. The word choice matters. “Absurd” suggests comedy, waste, a mismatch between means and ends. “Obscene” shifts it into moral territory: not merely inefficient spending, but spending that feels indecent when placed beside unmet public needs.
The context is a culture that constantly asks ordinary people to accept austerity - underfunded schools, healthcare rationed by insurance, social services stretched thin - while celebrating blockbuster budgets as a sign of ambition. Turner punctures that logic by making the comparison unavoidable. A $100 million film isn’t just “expensive”; it becomes a symbol of misaligned priorities, of a society comfortable with extravagance as long as it’s packaged as entertainment and profit.
Her intent isn’t to scold audiences for liking movies. It’s to name the quiet bargain: we tolerate excess because it’s fun, and because we’ve been trained to treat public good as optional but spectacle as inevitable.
Quote Details
| Topic | Money |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Turner, Kathleen. (2026, January 17). It begins and ends with money. It's absurd in this day and age when we need so much money for education, health, for people, that a $100 million dollars can be spent on a film. It's obscene. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-begins-and-ends-with-money-its-absurd-in-this-78802/
Chicago Style
Turner, Kathleen. "It begins and ends with money. It's absurd in this day and age when we need so much money for education, health, for people, that a $100 million dollars can be spent on a film. It's obscene." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-begins-and-ends-with-money-its-absurd-in-this-78802/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"It begins and ends with money. It's absurd in this day and age when we need so much money for education, health, for people, that a $100 million dollars can be spent on a film. It's obscene." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-begins-and-ends-with-money-its-absurd-in-this-78802/. Accessed 8 Mar. 2026.
