Superhero Films Dominate
Maybe this should be titled “Marvel Studios” dominates? Taking the Sony Pictures-co production “Spider-Man: Far From Home” out of the picture, the Disney division had eight releases earn over $1 billion worldwide. The last two “Avengers” films earned over $2 billion. “Avengers: Endgame” is now the highest-grossing film ever worldwide at $2.7 billion. And it wasn’t just Marvel racking in the cash, as Warner Bros. saw “Aquaman” earn $1.1 billion and the R-rated “Joker” cross the $1 billion as well. Culturally, despite Martin Scorsese‘s personal opinion, “Black Panther” earned a Best Picture nomination and “Joker” could make it a club next month. There is no genre more popular across all quadrants. And the fervor doesn’t appear to be dying down anytime soon.
Social Media impacting Hollywood
As social media exerted its influence culturally, studios and networks turned their attention away from review comments and IMDB boards to focus on the instant reaction on twitter and facebook. An intense reaction that has often not been accurate of ticket-buying interest in a movie or, on the flip side, is strong enough to renew or “save” a beloved TV series. It also told Paramount they needed to completely scrape their original design for the familiar star of “Sonic the Hedgehog” to something more fan-friendly and has kept the potential for a Zack Snyder cut of “Justice League,” forever known as #ReleaseThe SnyderCut, alive. The latter is also an example of how intense the fandom has gotten overall online this decade. Kelly Marie Tran was driven off twitter by nasty fans who didn’t like her character in “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” “GoT” fans demanded HBO reshoot the final season of the show and an unforgiving “cancel culture” saw numerous stars dismissed for one reason or another. There were positives, however, networks had their stars live-tweet during new episodes with, for instance, talent such as Kerry Washington and Viola Davis making it a staple of watching ABC’s “TGIT (Thank God It’s Thursday) Shonda Rhimes show block. Stars also used twitter and Instagram to market their films either through previously discussed collaborations (Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, for instance) or simply interacting with each other on a regular basis (see the very vocal cast of “The Avengers”). And while the beginning of the decade saw shows and stars counting their facebook likes, the end of it was about who had the most followers on Instagram (Ariana Grande and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson are #2 and #3 at the moment).
Documentaries Win
While many over-analyze box office attendance for both studio and independent features, one major growth sector this decade has been in documentary films. Five of the top-grossing documentary films of all-time are from this decade and hits such as “RBG,” “Apollo 11,” “Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” “Free Solo,” “Searching for Sugar Man,” “Three Identical Strangers” have often “saved” the art-house summer box office. Throw in the demand for non-fiction projects on streaming services and the popularity of networks such as NatGeo (a key component of Disney Plus), Hulu, Showtime, CNN and Netflix and it’s never been more lucrative to be a documentary filmmaker.
#OscarsSoWhite
It was the perfect combination of social media reaching an influential crescendo, a heightened political climate and an Academy membership that was, frankly, rightly shamed. Originally created by activist April Reign, the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag began to bubble up on Twitter after not one actor of color was nominated for the 88th Academy Awards in January of 2016. In fact, it was the second straight year no PoC had been nominated in those categories. Moreover, in this period directors such as Ava DuVernay and critically acclaimed films such as “Straight Outta Compton” were eye-brow raising snubs. It was a strange disconnect for an Academy that had crowned “12 Years A Slave” Best Picture and Lupita Nyong’o Best Supporting Actress just two years earlier. More importantly, the hashtag put the spotlight on an Academy membership that needed to seriously diversify itself. Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the AMPAS president at the time, put forth a plan to double the number of women and diverse members by 2020. The result has been an increase in worldwide membership that has swelled the organization to over 9,300 members in the three years since (a massive increase) and a more international perspective (not necessarily what April might have expected, to be frank). And, of course, the threat of that hashtag rearing its ugly head again.
#MeToo
Harvey Weinstein’s fall was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to victims coming forward to allege sexual impropriety in the entertainment industry. The term “Me Too” was originally conceived on MySpace in 2006 by Tarana Burke, but over a decade later it became the name of a movement that defined the decade. Victims used the term to come forward with their own stories and it led to an era of accusations (of varying degrees) against notable public figures such as John Lasseter, Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose, Roy Price, Kevin Spacey, Andrew Kreisberg, Bryan Singer, James Toback, Brett Ratner, Danny Masterson, Russell Simmons and Morgan Freeman, among others. The movement also spread to politics (John Conyers, Al Franken), sports (Larry Nassar), fashion (Terry Richardson) and music (Dr. Luke, Michael Jackson, R. Kelly). It also was felt in workplaces far and wide across the nation and, in many respects, the world.
Diversity takes a major jump
Seemingly token in its efforts for most of the century, the combination of public pressure, the explosion of streaming content and both the #MeToo and #OscarsSoWhite movements found Hollywood hiring more women, People of Color and LGBTQ talent in front of and behind the screen. There are more LGBTQ characters on television than ever before and for the first time more women and PoC directing episodic television than white men. However, women still only account for 31% of all directing hires for television overall and on the film side, the number of female directors remains embarrassingly low. PoC and women have become the priority for all writing room hires and, as the decade ends, a push is now being made for more diverse hires in behind-the-scenes creative roles as well as opening educational opportunities to learn those skills.
“Game of Thrones” Cultural Impact
It wasn’t just the fact the finale for “Game of Thrones” set an HBO record of 19.3 million viewers in the U.S. alone. It wasn’t that millions of fans were furious that who they wanted to sit on the throne at the end of the series wasn’t who they expected it to be. George R.R. Martin‘s literary creation sparked a fire in the collective fandom that was simply unexpected. It also launched the career of a generation of new stars such as Emilia Clarke (“Solo: A Star Wars Story,” “Me Before You”), Sophie Turner (“X-Men”), Kit Harrington (“The Eternals”), Maise Williams (“The New Mutants”), Gwendoline Christie (“Star Wars”), Jason Momoa (“Aquaman”), Natalie Dormer (“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay”), Rose Leslie (“The Good Fight”), Alfie Allen (“Jojo Rabbit”), Richard Madden (“The Bodyguard,” “Rocketman”), Pedro Pascal (“Narcos,” “The Mandalorian”), Nathalie Emmanuel (“Fast & Furious 9”) and Dean-Charles Chapman (“1917”), among others. That’s quite a legacy.
“Peak TV” Still Hasn’t Peaked
With over 500 original scripted TV shows available on television or streaming services in 2019, the narrative boom that FX chairman John Landgraf christened “Peak TV” in 2015 hasn’t slowed down…yet. While a number of cable networks have retreated to cheaper reality options, the advent of Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Hulu, Disney Plus and even Facebook hasn’t slowed down the content boom. And that figure only accounts for English-language productions. While many of the programs are hit or mess, the ones that have hit have changed the perception of what episodic content can channel in the creative community. Moreover, the bigger story is how many writers, actors, directors, craftspeople, etc. this era has put to work not only in the United States but Canada, Australia and the U.K. The economic impact is significant and if it crashes – as some feel it inevitably will – the consequences will not be pretty.
WGA and Agencies Conflict teases new Union battles
The standoff in 2019 between the Writers Guild of America and the Association of Talent Agencies found thousands of writers firing their personal agents in an unprecedented show of union support. The battle is over “packaging,” a situation where a writer brings a project to an agent and the agent then finds notable talent from their own agency to “package” it for a studio or network. The agency then insists on an additional fee in the deal and/or long term compensation in the project as defacto producers. Money that the studios or networks could use for the actual talent or the costs of the productions themselves is given to agents whose work is often minimal. Meanwhile, the WGA’s contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers is set to expire in early 2020. The WGA has not struck since 2008-2009 having narrowly avoided a walkout in 2014. The question
Donald Trump
Trump’s shocking electoral college victory isn’t why he’s a significant part of the Hollywood narrative over the past decade. Sure, major stars campaigned heavily against his candidacy, but his election made him the first President who came from “television” (you could argue that was Ronald Reagan, but the former two-term POTUS truly made his name on the big screen first). As the long-running host of “Celebrity Apprentice” he proved not only a television star but a reality television star could ascend to the White House. Trump’s 14-month or so campaign also benefited from a ton of free coverage of his rallies because the corporate-owned cable news networks were making a killing in ad sales thanks to the high ratings whenever he spoke. Of course, the industry was devastated by his electoral college win and his administration has taken steps to make things more difficult for a town that won’t justifiably keep attacking him (foremost by the recent decision by the Department of Justice filing a motion to end Paramount decrees which have been in place for decades to stop studios from owning their own theaters). Trump or his supporters have clashed almost non-stop with the entertainment industry but there was nothing bigger than the “Roseanne” debacle. ABC initially ignored star Roseanne Barr’s questionable public comments to cash in on his supporters rallying behind her highly-rated revival. That was until she made racist tweets that became the last straw for the Disney-owned network. Many presidents have influenced Hollywood during their tenure, but few have been inescapable as Trump has been.
Mini-Major Distributors Come and Go
The theatrical distribution business is constantly finding new players on the board. Some disappear, most are acquired and some merger with their competitors to survive. This decade saw Open Road release a Best Picture winner (“Spotlight”), change its name to Global Road and then fade away with few realizing it was even gone. Broadgreen and Bleeker Street debuted in the same year, but only the latter has survived. Despite millions of investments, strong marketing materials and a film that earned $36 million at the box office (“A Walk in the Woods”) Broadgreen was out of the self-distribution game within 24 months. STX has had a rocky road, but also some $100 million hits along the way. Relativity failed spectacularly under the “leadership” of its co-founder Ryan Kavanaugh who saw his company file for bankruptcy not once, but twice between 2015 and 2018. The profitable CBS Films was a victim of Sheri Redstone winning the Viacom CBS merger and Annapurna simply couldn’t pull off a coherent marketing and distribution team under Megan Ellison‘s leadership. That prestige player is now a partner in United Artists Releasing, yet another iteration of MGM which always seems to survive somehow thanks to a popular gentleman named James Bond. Oh, and of course, there was the aforementioned fall of The Weinstein Company. The end of the decade saw new players such as 101 studios trying to fill in the gap, but with streamers inserting themselves in the marketplace is there enough lower budget quality project to distribute? Ponder.
A24 creates a brand
Speaking of indie distributors, no company made more of an impact in just eight years than A24 Films. The New York-based production and distribution company released the landmark Best Picture winner “Moonlight” and a slew of films that have become touchstones for under 30-year-old moviegoers. Their impressive taste led to this audience turning “Lady Bird,” “Spring Breakers,” “The Witch,” “Heredity,” “Eighth Grade,” “The Disaster Artist,” “Ex Machina,” “The Lobster” and “Room,” among others, into art-house hits. The imprint of the company is so strong that many people in the industry can immediately guess what an “A24 film” is and they’ve successfully jumped into television with HBO’s smash “Euphoria,” Hulu’s “Ramy” and TruTV’s Emmy-nominated “At Home with Amy Sedaris.” They also have a legion of young movie fans (under 30) who follow their releases with an intense fandom rarely seen for a movie studio. Their imprint is so impressive that with the right star, their artistic marketing aesthetic and enough critical love, A24 can pretty much guarantee an $8-10 million gross in less than 500 theaters. That’s remarkable.