In Hollywood and DC: Blame the Boomers
They held on too long. Until foes came they couldn't comprehend
I’ve been thinking of unravellings lately. If things seem extra super-unstable here in Hollywood, it’s because we have the pleasure of living through several concurrent societal unravellings. The Great Vanishing of life as we know it is not just for Hollywood. But let's start there.
The writers strike may be over, so now we can return to our regularly scheduled meltdown. Put simply, the legacy studios have successfully painted themselves into a corner where they lack the funds to compete with the streamers for projects, and have damaged (probably irreparably) the income streams that might have fueled their comeback: the cable bundle and the theatrical system. They damaged them through a combination of bad strategic choices (competing directly with or taking product away from their revenue drivers) and uninspired creative vision (all tentpoles, all superheroes, all the time.)
The legacy studios may yet bounce back…