Devil’s advocate argument: the article cites directors like Colin Treverrow and Damien Chizelle as the types of budding filmmakers who may have a harder time jumping as quickly from smaller budget projects to big budget studio pictures. I would argue that neither director was ready for the leap...
I haven’t seen Color Purple yet so I can’t really comment on it except to say that it doesn’t seem like there’s any earthly reason for it to have been made with a $100 million budget. That means it needs about $300 million to break even, more if they spend lavishly campaigning for awards season...