The Roman Empire and the Hollywood Strikes
A collapse of the Hollywood system isn't inevitable, but it's certainly likely.
There is a trend on TikTok right now, where women are asking their boyfriends, husbands and male friends “how often do you think about the Roman Empire?”
While I know this is a silly trend, I am not joking when I tell you that I’ve thought about the Roman Empire, particularly the fall of the Roman Empire, about a hundred times this week in relation to the American dominance in film, TV and entertainment.
Here’s my 2:12 second TikTok about the Roman Empire and how Hollywood is heading for a similar fate.
My awareness was heighten after I attended the All In Podcast Summit at UCLA where I listened to the brightest people talk about capitalism (and a case to reform,) AI, investing, war, technology, business, politics, gene therapy, energy, chess & poker (particularly why women must learn to play games of strategy,) higher education, Coinbase, social issues & “luxury beliefs” (as explained in “Troubled” by Rob Henderson) content creation from the YouTube phenom Mr. Beast (182M followers) and how we may need to redefine what it means to be human.
To my surprise, the Hollywood strikes were barely mentioned (even though Gwyneth Paltrow was a featured speaker). Entertainment may be the center of my universe, but it’s not the center of everyone else’s. It’s my belief that a collapse of the Hollywood system as we know it is not inevitable, it is certainly likely. The strikes have been a catalyst to that change and I hope that brighter minds prevail and we rebuild stronger.
What do you think of my take? Download the app and leave a comment. This is why I switched to Substack, I want to hear from you.
While change in the business landscape of Hollywood is inevitable (heck, the strikes are happening specifically because change has *already* occurred, and the business side wants workers to ignore the changes and just keep trucking along with contracts/agreements drafted for a previous era) I don't think the lack of the greater public playing attention to Hollywood labor markets is a sign of anything. I think that has always been the case. No one outside of the film/tv world has ever had any idea how Hollywood works, what the etiquette is, etc. So when talk of contract re-negotiations arises, anyone not directly embedded has little understanding of the issues at hand. To them, film/tv just gets made, somehow, and they're not fretting over that actually stopping in any significant way, even if they kind-of understand that this could happen at a level where they'd eventually notice.
And Paltrow may be a product of Hollywood, but she hasn't had any skin in the labor market game for quite some time. If anything, her critics usually point out how completely out of touch she's been to anything resembling practical considerations for "normal" people.
Say it isn't so! I don't want to see the "Hollywood Sign" turn back into a reference to a real estate development instead of the beacon of a globally beloved platform for creativity that it has become. I grew up in this "town", and my Great Uncles worked the studio back lots and were making talkies, radio shows, and movies. The show must go on even if it is streamed on YouTube!