“Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant.” —Cary Grant.
What is happening to Hollywood these days? Whether it’s the Weinstein scandals of 2017, Will Smith at the Oscars in 2022, or the Diddy trial in 2025, the entertainment industry seems to face a never-ending cycle of legal and moral scrutiny. American cinema is suffering an identity crisis. So, what went wrong?
Movies are no longer “made”; they are excreted. Sequel after sequel, we get the same tired formula of an unintelligible multiverse with glowy lasers, CGI effects, and zero storyline. Where is the passion? Where is the storytelling? Where are the larger-than-life actors that everybody wants to imitate? Hollywood, a name which once evoked glamour, creativity, and self-expression, has now been replaced by something far inferior: hashtag activism, harassment lawsuits, and an embarrassing output of low-quality, cash-grab reboots.
Photo by CottonBro
“Hollywood’s death reflects a wider malaise within American society.”
Hollywood’s death reflects a wider malaise within American society. Economic strain, such as high unemployment and rising cost of living, means that people are less willing to spend money at the theater. Entertainment is becoming politicized, which negatively affects how and which films are produced for the mainstream market. Hollywood has forgotten its purpose entirely, which began about 100 years ago. The 1930s are called the “Golden Age” of Hollywood, because they saw the rise of the standard “studio system” for making movies. For the first time ever, early cinema acquired its identity from the charismatic performances of its superstars. As movies started to feature sound, these new “talkies” soon became the signature style of American culture and entertainment. From 1930 to 1945, Hollywood studios produced over 7,000 movies, an average of 500 films a year. At the peak of the studio era, there were a staggering 80 million movie admissions a week, which was 60% of America’s population.
