When is the last time you got legitimately excited about a new movie or TV show? When you had a moment where the idea of seeing the premiere genuinely got your energy level up? If you’re like me, it probably happens a lot less than it used to. My reaction, more often than not, is ‘Meh.” And a lot of people are having the same reaction. TV audience levels have been declining for years, and the number of movie tickets sold are down considerably over just three years ago. Not many people seem to be excited about what Hollywood is putting out.
So, why is this happening? Is Hollywood in some sort of creative dry spell? Far from it: I think we are in a feast of riches. Most summer blockbusters aside, the movie studios have released some great movies over the past few years (in all genres), and television is in the middle of a golden age with dozens of great and highly entertaining shows. A core reason for declining sales and viewers, I think, is that we as a culture have lost something: scarcity.
We used to have four TV channels. One newspaper. Hardcover books, paperbacks, and magazines. No computer, no Internet, no home video, no video games. So when a new movie came out, or it was the new “fall season,” it MATTERED. It was a real event for people, and when it was truly new and different, when it was a movie like Star Wars, or a TV show like Twin Peaks… it captured our imagination and made us excited. Not just because it was so new and different, but because there was NOTHING ELSE to compare it to. It was unique. There was only ONE Star Wars, though rival studios quickly tried to copy its success. There was only one Twin Peaks, because it was lightning in a bottle – the mix of the right talent, bonth on and behind the camera, to make an exceptional experience (and the copycats came out for that as well).
Now… Well, we are basically DROWNING in ways to spend our time. On my desk in front of me now is a laptop, an iPad, and an iPhone. Using just these three devices, with a combined weight less than a recent hardback book I bought, I can access thousands of videos, web pages, books… not to mention the 6500 songs and dozens of movies already on them that I can listen to or watch at any time. And with the advancememt in mobile devices We now carry the equivilent of a thousand Libraries of Alexandia around with us, in the palm of our hands.
There is no more scarcity of content, there’s an abundance, and… well, such abundance has changed us. We no longer HAVE to see a movie the opening day… we can always watch it later, cheaper, on our cheap high-definition TVs. And when you have two hundred channels on TV, and the ability to record any program and watch the entire season in one sitting… You don’t have to catch the newest “hot” show when it debuts. And many marketing companies still don’t get that things have changed, and the old ways of promotion don’t work when content is constant and the percieved value of that content is low.
(Though some savvy marketing types have been paying attention to how social media can be used as part of their campaigns – chatting “real time” about a show as it happens is one of the few compelling reasons to watch something live.)
Supply and demand has hit content, hard. Movies, TV shows, magazines, books… the value of all these things is the value that we “assign” it with our interest and our dollars. And prices are dropping, a lot.
The smart creative types know this, and approach the situation in different ways I personally think James Cameron as a writer and director is WAY overhyped and overrated, but the fact that he only does one movie every 8 years or so makes whatever he creates an EVENT. George Lucas, on the other hand… well, he’s more merchandiser than man, now. He’s contributing to the abundance by selling Star Wars in any way he can… and while doing so, he makes the original film he made much less “special.” Now, it’s just another product to sell. That’s his perogotive, of course, but he’s diminshed something that was very valuable to a lot of people by doing so.