"Nobody makes movies bad on purpose"
About this Quote
The intent is part empathy, part self-defense. When your filmography includes earnest, expensive spectacle, you live under the constant suspicion that you’re trolling taste. Emmerich reframes even the loudest, most implausible blockbuster as the result of sincere choices made under pressure: scripts rewritten mid-flight, effects pipelines, notes from ten stakeholders, the necessity of hitting a release date that was set before the ending worked. “On purpose” is the key phrase, because it shifts blame away from individual craft and toward the messy ecosystem that manufactures consensus.
The subtext is also a quiet critique of the internet’s moralizing. Calling a movie “bad” now often implies ethical failure: disrespect for fans, for culture, for cinema itself. Emmerich’s point isn’t that we should lower standards; it’s that we should retire the conspiracy theory of intentional incompetence. In a business where everyone is trying to make something that lands, failure is usually just ambition meeting physics.
Quote Details
| Topic | Movie |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Emmerich, Roland. (2026, January 16). Nobody makes movies bad on purpose. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/nobody-makes-movies-bad-on-purpose-137349/
Chicago Style
Emmerich, Roland. "Nobody makes movies bad on purpose." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/nobody-makes-movies-bad-on-purpose-137349/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Nobody makes movies bad on purpose." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/nobody-makes-movies-bad-on-purpose-137349/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.





