Ever since Hollywood was founded at the
start of the 20th century it has always been a business first and
everything else second. The talent is aware of this as a basic level – they
make money, have unions and go out on strikes – but they've always mistaken their
value to the rest of society.
They truly believe at some basic level that
they are artists firsts and business should always be a secondary
consideration. They've always fought with the heads of studios, executives and
the people who only consider their precious films and TV a commodity that they
are using to generate revenue for their business – a business that, despite
what the talent thinks, is not a vital industry to Americans. They don't
need it the way they need food or shelter or clothing or anything else.
It's something they want to see if they
have free time and that they don't want to pay a fortune for.
The talent has never truly understood where
they fit in society and because they are all far wealthier than the average
American they either don't comprehend or don't care how little their product
matters to anyone besides themselves, the critics who review their work, the
people who is responsible for promoting and the studios who finance it. To them
their product and its artistic purity means more to them then whether it makes
money for the people who invest in it or if the people who they are ostensibly make
it for actually want to pay for it. Because they get paid regardless of
those factors – far more than most of their audience will make in a lifetime –
that's the least of their concerns and therefore should be irrelevant to
everybody else involved. Business doesn't work that way and never has.
I've recently come to think that the reason
Hollywood believes it is more important not just in America but the world at
large has to do with the fact that, ever since Fox News and every major
Republican politician I know of has made a talking point of attacking them,
they believe that the right must be afraid of what they have to say. Combined
with their natural distaste for Republicans that dates as far back as Nixon and
their already inflated sense of self-importance they've come to believe that
the entire country revolves around them.
They seem unwilling or unable to accept a
basic truth: the right only cares about what they say or do as long as helps
them maintain their power. They are
essentially just another in a long line of straw men argument Republicans have
used to help win over working class voters since the 1970s. They are just a
means to an end and anything that they can do to help them maintain their power
is welcome. And in the past decade in particular Hollywood has been more than
willing to give them ample material to hold on to their power.
It's no secret that Hollywood has been
struggling immensely in the last decade for multiple reasons, some of them
beyond the industry's control, some of which almost certainly has to be the
responsibility of the talent. How much their political posturing in the last
decade has been a result of the industry's economic shortcomings is impossible
to quantify; how much their own labor stoppages did to affect it is not. But
for Hollywood, all of this has been irrelevant. They've always thought that
regardless of their own actions they should be allowed to carry on exactly as
they always have, no matter how much the industry is shrinking and suffering do
to the bad economic times. Their needs must always come first; their projects,
their royalties, their salaries. And if the industry can't afford
to make it because so many studios are being forced to merge or have to deal
with political headwinds, well, that's the corporations fault not theirs.
Hollywood has to be aware how much revenues
are shrinking, how many businesses are being forced to merge, how much the
internet is taking over their world and shrinking their opportunities. But they
don't seem to comprehend that these are decisions made of economic necessity
and certainly not anything they had to do with it. And even if they did realize
that they seem unwilling to acknowledge that they have no real power to fight
the tide. They're not an industry that
the government is going to bail out like it did the auto industry and the
financial industry after the economic meltdown of 2008. While they may think
that because they are activists and say the right things they have more
influence they do, none of that counts for political or economic power, which
are the only two things that can help them in this situation. And they
certainly can't count on the masses of Americans for support in their time of
need – which is the point of this article.
I've been vaguely aware of how during the
last year there has been a corporate battle for Warner Brothers and its holding
by bigger companies, first Netflix, then Paramount. The industry has been fighting tooth and nail
to stop this with all the power they have – which is to say they've been
posting on social media and protesting, doing everything they can to convince
us that if either deal happens it will be the first domino that will trigger
the apocalypse that will destroy the world as we know it. I haven't weighed in on this for a very basic
reason.
I couldn't care less. I know that as
someone for whom TV and movies is a vital part of his life, both professionally
and personally I should feel something – anger, despair, frustration at how
capitalism is destroying anything. I feel absolutely nothing. At all.
And if you asked ten, a hundred, even a
thousand people about this, I'm pretty sure none of them would be aware of this
deal or why it bothers Hollywood. And even if you could explain why, I'm
willing to argue every single one of them would say the same thing: "So
what?"
Because I've been over this a couple of
times and I really can't see how this will affect the live of the average
American or anyone who doesn't work in Hollywood. And just to be clear all of
the people it will affect – they already make more money in a month then
most of us will in a lifetime. They're not going to starve any time soon. And
the world will not suffer because there are fewer movies or TV shows coming
from fewer sources. The industry might but I fail to see how it will affect
American politics or the price of gas or bring about peace in the Middle East.
Earlier this year I discussed the
difference between a necessity and a convenience. In the case of
movies and TV I can't call them either. Even for me it is as best an indulgence, something that
makes your life richer in some way but that if you had to, you could live
without.
That, I hate to break it to the industry,
is what every single film, TV show or anything else does, is to the average
American. Some of us are glad its here, many of us will utilize it, but none of
us really need it. If the apocalypse that half of the films and TV shows are
telling us is inevitable does come, the last thing most of us are going
to care about is that we'll never be able to see the most recent spinoff of The
Walking Dead or hear Chris Hardwick explain what it meant for the story.
Sadly this is true even coming from yon author.
I don't think I could survive an apocalypse but I don't think my first
priority would be that I'd never be able to see the most recent season of Slow
Horses.
So when I read as I did last night about a
town hall that the industry had about how much this merger was going to be a
death knell for it my first reaction was: did they all drive limos to get to
this meeting of the people? Because increasingly every time I hear Hollywood
taking swings at the evil corporate overlords I'm honestly getting out of touch
conservative vibes from them. Oh lord, these studios are merging. How will I
ever be able to sell my limited series adaptation of Anna Karenina with
Vronsky as a biracial transgender and Anna throwing herself in front of a Tesla?
Ever since the 2024 election I've
increasingly come to believe that Hollywood has lost the narrative thread of
their own behavior. They've completely failed to convince the masses that a
white billionaire that they spent much of the thirty years prior to his
running for President was a complete monster who was against everything that
good people stood for. They still hold
some kind of belief that they are like the average American, making 20 million
dollars a year with a crowd of paparazzi and social media following their every
move. And they can't seem to get why so
many things are bad in the world, even though they've been wearing pins and
ribbons on red carpets and shouting out causes when they receive awards. You
know, like you and me.
Very few people in the industry are willing
to admit they have failed in their mission and even fewer are willing to blame
the public directly for their failures. So they've turned their ire on the
corporations and studios which have made it possible for them become wealthy
and famous in the first place, saying with a straight face that you shouldn't
trust billionaires (Colbert) and that millions of people are watching us
(Kimmel) That raw numbers have made it very clear this is not the case – just
6.7 million people watched Colbert's final episode – have done nothing to
convince them of the belief that the people are with them. In truth when Kimmel
or any late night host says that they have millions of views on the internet, I
get serious vibes of POTUS claiming how big his crowd sizes are.
But the difference between them is, ten
years after he entered the arena, the President's followers have made it clear
they will still show up to vote for him or vote against his perceived enemies.
That is a staying power that I just don't see in the industry for anyone during
this same decade. If the masses were on the side of Hollywood, as so many of
the talent insists, there would be some mathematical proof of it in the ratings
or the revenues or the box office to back this up. Everything that I've seen during
this period only indicates that this is not the case.
Hollywood is a business first and anything
else second. Those who argue otherwise are also in a business and have a
different set of standards then the bosses do. Part of the problem with the
talent is that most of them seem to believe the latter far more then they
listen to the former. If they'd been more willing to do this, their industry
almost certainly wouldn't be in the economic trouble its in.
So no, I don't feel sorry for those people
in Hollywood worried about the health of their industry. That is, as they say, a rich person problem
and its not one that the majority of America has. You'd think considering how
much time they've claimed to talk for the average American they'd have realized
this. But considering how many of them were willing to move to another country
after the 2024 election and how many still talk about it, I think they'll just
be fine. They'll still be getting
royalties from those evil corporations, after all. That's why they went on strike
during 2023, right? So that they could get their fair share like every other
working stiff who gets money from a TV show they made in 1998 that no one watched.
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