Hollywood's New Diversity

Hollywood has a tough time with its siblings.

Back in the early days of film, there wasn't a lot of competition for the entertainment dollar. At the turn of the last century, Vaudeville was happening but it wasn't a mass media. Radio, the first true mass media, didn't really get rolling until the 30s and then they competed, and won, against vaudeville, not the movies. Of course there was live theater, but in terms of mass audiences, it didn't compare. There was little reason to get upset with any of these competitors. Hollywood made a ton of money, matured and then ossified.

It wasn't until the 50s that Hollywood met a sibling rival, television. In 1946, 100,000,000 movie tickets were sold weekly. By 1950 that number had plummeted to 60,000,000. Today, a good year in tickets sales is 1.2 billion. Remember that's a year not weekly. Things have certainly changed.

When TV first burst on the scene, the Hollywood studios did everything they could to make sure their 'product' never made it to TV. For those who know their movie history this is why we now have cinemascope and even the projection format known as 1:85. Neither could be seen in television.

It was considered bad form for movie stars to become television actors. This bias lasted well into the 60s and even into the 70s. By the 80s, it wasn't television, but VHS tapes. Boy, did Hollywood fight that one. They even took it to the Supreme Court, where they lost. After they lost, they realized they could make even more money than ever before.

Then DVDs came along. And guess what? Yeah, you got it, Hollywood fought that as well. That is until they saw there was money in them darn discs.

Over time and with the siren call of glistening gelt, attitudes changed. Now the studios see the advantage of making movies, making TV shows, and finding ever single revenue stream they can whether it is television, cable, DVDs, or even video games.

In the new millennium Hollywood's fair haired son is comic books. They have built audiences, name recognition and you really don't have to story board them. They already are.

Fifty or so years ago, the comic book was shunned as trash. It was railed against in Congress. It was corrupting the very fiber of our nations' youth. Not so today. Today IRON MAN is 2008's big hit. This Christmas we have THE SPIRIT and THE PUNISHER. Marvel Comics has been cutting deals left and right to get their comic books onto the screen. Not to be outdone, DC Comics is doing the same thing. Even the smaller or boutique oriented comic book producers are all looking to Hollywood as the big brother with the big bucks to make them all rich and sell even more comic.

Yes, Hollywood has matured. Not unlike our recent national election, where voters realized diversity is a good. Hopefully, we won't forget what is important. For Hollywood, it is good stories told with intelligence. For politicians it is good ideas executed with intelligence. In either case, we benefit when they do their jobs right.

Garen has been sitting in the dark for more years than he cares to admit. He has been a film exhibitor, booking consultant and reviewer. You have seen him on NE Cable or CN8 or some other Boston station.  More likely you heard him pontificating about films on FrugalYankee.com, NPR, New Hampshire Public Radio, WTKK, WRKO or any number of other stations he's been on, but one thing is certain, he loves, and knows, film.