Why the Hollywood studios no longer matter

Marshall Fine  :

Does Hollywood discriminate?
To which the answer is a qualified yes: Yes, Hollywood discriminates. And it’s disturbing to note that race and ethnicity still plays a part in commercial considerations.
But it may be even more alarming how much the Hollywood studios discriminate against intelligence and quality.

 Look at the list of studio movies that are set to come out this summer: “The Avengers,” a “Spiderman” reboot, “Dark Shadows,” “Battleship,” “Men in Black 3,” “GI Joe: Retaliation,” “The Expendables 2,” “Total Recall.” It’s a fanboy’s wet dream of remakes, sequels, comic-book movies, comic-book remakes, comic-book sequels and TV-show remakes.

Indeed, it is safe to say, at this moment in the second decade of the 21st century, that Hollywood doesn’t figure in the discussion about making films of quality. The studios are irrelevant in that arena. To them, quality is what happens by accident while they’re playing it safe aiming for a mass audience.

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