Pete: Have you seen the Gentlemen?
John: No, is it any good?
Pete: Ya it’s class! It’s a Guy Ritchie movie.
John: Who’s Guy Ritchie?
Pete: He’s the lad who made ‘Snatch’ and ‘Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels’.
…
Now Guy Ritchie has made other films since Snatch and Pete has seen those other films but he didn’t list them to John.
Why not?
Because those films didn’t have the same impact as Snatch. Snatch was a worldwide phenomenon, Arthur was not.
The flops are quickly forgotten.
Objection! Maybe they were just describing their earliest work?
To that I would point to David Bowie. You don’t remember Bowie for his earliest work, you remember him for his best work.
Why?
Maybe it’s easier than changing one’s mind.
If you want to view George Lucas as a great filmmaker then you have to remember Star Wars & Indiana Jones and ignore the fact that he also made Howard the Duck.
It’s good news for the creator as it shows audiences have a confirmation bias and to earn a good reputation not everything you produce has to be a hit.
Thomas Duggan 