I doubt you were alive when movies were about fun. In the later 1800's and earlier 1900's, the movie theaters were places of unique spectacle and escapes. In the 1920's, "Movie Palace" type theaters began to emerge along with the earliest elements of the studio system. From about that point forward, film production was entirely centered on finding what the crowd would buy into and making it. This resulted in MASSIVE cookie-cutter type movies that constantly reused the same plot and concepts. This nearly lead to the destruction of the film industry, as, people lost interest.

By the 1950's, the studios had formed monopolies that were shutdown by the US Government (In the U.S., foreign cinema didn't take as strongly to studio system concepts). This was combined with major bankruptcies in many of the major studios, causing them to be bought out by either other studios or others with more money, particularly large banks (If memory serves, MGM is owned by a French Bank). Effectively forcing the movies to operate under tighter budgets and at the beck and call of their principal owners.

For a brief period, some main stream films were produced by a truly independent studio. Pixar started as a division of ILM, then became independent and wholly owned by Steve Jobs... And he didn't tend to mess with them much beyond putting in money and eventually getting them into Disney. They were largely free of the studio system and tend to be slightly free-er today.

Dreamworks Animation SKG, formerly the Animation Division of Dreamworks Studios is publically traded. They have stockholders to answer to, HOWEVER, they have a unique position in their corporate culture. The entire internal design of their operations seems to ward off external interference. Their animators work at the individually most effective pace and are permitted intervention into the design of the films as is artistically necessary, maintaining the freedom that allows for the production of a good film.

BUT, even these two free-spirited studios are motivated by the bottom line. If they don't make enough on a movie, it makes it harder to finance future movies. For this reason, many studios are doing sequels, as they are considered guarantees on income. Though, at present, both Dreamworks and Pixar are headed into a period of new films.

Lastly though, there is one other, less financially motivated source of cinema that may be "just for fun." Independent Cinema operates under EXTREMELY tight budgets but, are extremely free to produce what and how tehy wish to. This is technically how Starwars V was made, privately financed by George Lucas himself without any studio impact. Other more recent movies produced in the same manner are "The Perks of Being a Wall Flower" and "The Sessions", both of which have EXTREMELY sensitive topics that a major studio could NEVER get away with producing without bending to external pressures.






In short, movies have not been about fun for a long time... They've been about making money by the boatload... That said, a well made movie has to make the audience have fun, but, that normally isn't the motivation of the creator except in rare cases such as Independent Productions and some animation studios.