So, what if it\u2019s true that Hollywood as an industry is more or less done?\u00a0 Suppose that there won\u2019t be ten or twenty somewhat-good movies coming out every year anymore.\u00a0 What if instead there are a couple of decent mini-series by Netflix and Amazon and maybe one or two summer \u201cblockbuster\u201d fantasies and all the rest is just low budget dreck?\u00a0 How would that affect the entertainment habits of the population?<\/p>\n
Well, let\u2019s think about what the population is.\u00a0 Currently the populace is divided into several different divisions.\u00a0 But overall, there is a demarcation into two larger groups.\u00a0 First there are the boomers and GenX contingents.\u00a0 They both grew up when entertainment was big business and they are used to paying for entertainment that they consider \u201cgood.\u201d\u00a0 They would go to a good movie or buy a music album if they consider it worthwhile.\u00a0 These are the people who are most distressed by the current state of American entertainment.\u00a0 Someone my age looks at television or what is currently considered good cinema or popular music and is horrified by the low quality and overall stupidity of the art.<\/p>\n
The second grouping is everyone younger; millennials and the Zoomers.\u00a0 For the most part these people don\u2019t buy music or pay for movies.\u00a0 They stream everything and are willing to watch and listen to low quality content if they can pay next to nothing for it.\u00a0 Not being part of this group I\u2019m not completely sure whether this strategy is a byproduct of their poverty or whether they simply don\u2019t care what kind of entertainment product they consume.\u00a0 Nevertheless, the outcome either way is that the future will be determined by this paradigm.\u00a0 Entertainment businesses will not be making the kinds of profits they made from the boomers and GenX from the new kids.\u00a0 Okay, that\u2019s what we are seeing.\u00a0 Entertainment will become mass marketing of the lowest common denominator at the lowest price.\u00a0 In other words; garbage.<\/p>\n
But that will not be the whole story.\u00a0 The bell curve is a fact of nature.\u00a0 Most of humanity is very average, and lately that average seems to have sunk a bit.\u00a0 But the right side of the curve exists.\u00a0 There is a segment of the population that is intelligent and they need entertainment that isn\u2019t always the lowest common denominator.\u00a0 And they tend to be more prosperous than their less intelligent brethren.\u00a0 And whereas they will join with everyone else to celebrate whatever moronic pop star or whatever mindless video game happens to be in vogue this month, they will occasionally need something more nutritious for the mind and soul.\u00a0 And how will this work?\u00a0 After all there isn\u2019t a pipeline for intelligent entertainment.<\/p>\n
What I think will happen is organizations; whether corporate or individuals, will spring up to curate what\u2019s out there and arrange for venues and opportunities for these people to enjoy this better entertainment together.\u00a0 Now maybe the \u201ctogether\u201d isn\u2019t physical.\u00a0 Maybe they\u2019ll be doing this over the internet with chat functions used to allow the patrons to share their reactions to the content.\u00a0 But I think renting a theater to play old movies (or new movies that have been made expressly for a specialized audience) would make perfect sense.<\/p>\n
The power of the internet to connect smaller but focused groups is already very well known.\u00a0 What still needs to happen is for a larger group of intelligent people to coalesce around a commercial entity that is willing to provide them with entertainment that exceeds the lowest common denominator on a consistent basis.\u00a0 But I think it will happen.\u00a0 Some day soon, the not-stupid will band together and find out just how strong they are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So, what if it\u2019s true that Hollywood as an industry is more or less done?\u00a0 Suppose that there won\u2019t be ten or twenty somewhat-good movies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,5,239,551,237],"tags":[3697,4883,3272],"class_list":["post-33051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-current-events","category-movie-reviews","category-music-reviews","category-reviews","tag-entertainment","tag-lowest-common-denominator","tag-revitalizing-the-culture"],"yoast_head":"\n