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The fall of Hollywood

Film industry is in transition as we speak. Terms such as blockbuster, star power and even cinema experience are in danger of becoming obsolete. According to Peter Dekom, whom Premiere considers one of the 50 most powerful people in Hollywood, audiences not filmmakers- are now the ones deciding the way motion pictures should be scripted, produced and distributed.

When did the Average Joes overpower the Almighty Studio Executives? The answer lies in one of the main reasons behind the success of movies: distribution revenues.

1. Once Upon A Time In America

In the early days of film making, the industry quite resembled a production line. The writers made up stories, which then were budgeted by the Accounting office, scheduled by Administration and shot by a usually unknown director in a time period which could be as short as two weeks. Studios would then sell the prints to distributors who earned money by selling movie tickets to the public.

Everyone was happy.

But then studios started closing their doors.

Turns out some movies were better than others, mainly because they had the "It" girl or boy of the moment or showed a different view of the world (remember "Intolerance"?). Therefore, executives were pressured to make better, greater and riskier productions. With the progression of technology, motion pictures slowly became the multimillion dollar business they still are today.

According to Nash Information Services, ticket sales reached an all-time high of 1.61 billion in 2002 but have steadily dropped since. Star power, franchises and special effects, once the heart and soul of blockbusters, proved to be useless in productions such as Mission: Impossible III and Bewitched both 2006 domestic box office bombs.

Two things had happened: audiences got smarter and Internet came along.

2. The Passion

In early July 2008, Peter Dekom gave a seminar to students of the University of Southern California about the critical state of the industry. During the lecture, Dekom emphasized that the major task of the new filmmakers is not to shoot the perfect script but to find a way to sell the idea of cinema to the next generations.

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry states that children watch a daily average of three to four hours of television. From an early age, girls and boys are learning how to read stories visually which translates in a need for a faster pace in productions. In other words, an hour long "Gossip Girl" episode is converted into


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The fall of Hollywood

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The fall of Hollywood

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