Clash of the Titans: Hollywood v. Tech
If the pandemic has highlighted anything, it has proven that capitalism creates a society of work and leisure, often connected through an intermediary of commerce driven by money and markets.
According to a study conducted by Onepoll, at the height of the pandemic, the average person streamed eight hours of content a day, which is equivalent to a full-time shift or an eight-hour workday.
As crazy as this seems, it should come as no surprise that people are spending the same amount of time participating in leisure activities, such as consuming content, as they would be working. Clearly, there are a few caveats here given the nature of isolation, the stay-at-home orders, and the subsequent reactions people have had to spend time at home during social distancing, but if this data indicates anything, it shows that as a society, we have become sponges for content.
With streaming services and the industry at an all-time high, databases like Netflix have revolutionized the way film and television can be consumed; rather than providing a conventional schedule of content, essentially what Netflix and the streaming industry have allowed for is the creation of personal databases, paving the path for users to save content to a queue and watch it at their own convenience.
The idea of digital intake, or the consumption of content and digital information through the screen continues to pose a threat to the film industry. Tech companies and the film industry are both competing for screen time and hours consumed — these are only a few of the same metrics companies are using to analyze their data.
The number of platforms used to consume content continues to grow by the day, with the likes of Twitch, Youtube, and Instagram TV all competing for viewership. Movies like Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and other interactive programs are also innovations within the realm of digital intake that provide a possibility for how people are going to be digesting content in the future.
Video-game services like Fortnite also provide concerts, which have opened a floodgate of possibilities that can solve a lot of the real-world problems of having to physically go to a space in a market that has predominantly relied on concrete environments such as venues.
As we enter the realm of the digital age, it can feel extremely overwhelming to be confronted with so many tools and different options. Not to mention there’s a lot of controversies as we continue to break away from these centralized intermediaries, but just by taking a look at the data, it can be argued that the monetary response is certainly leaning towards the tech figures and video game services.
In 2020 alone, video-game sales in North America reached a whopping $180 billion dollars, while Hollywood box-office revenue earned about $2.2 billion dollars — a 40 year low after setting another record low in 2019 — tech sales reached $406.8 billion dollars in revenue last year. Not to mention, opening weekends at the Hollywood box office have not seen the amount of success as they once did — A Quiet Place 2 set the record for 2021, earning $19 million dollars opening day, the highest-grossing opening day at the box office since Bad Boys for Life(2020).
While these financial figures are susceptible to change in 2021, the pandemic could have been, quite possibly, the final nail in the coffin for the Hollywood box office; are the days of $100 million dollar opening weekends a bygone era?
If so, how do these technological advancements pave the way for a new coming generation of thinkers, makers, and creatives, given the contingent nature of the world today?
