Hollyweird is on Fire
Globalization and Big Tech, Hollywood’s New Masters
By Red Bottoms
I just had the pleasure of speaking with Sally O’Malley about a topic dear to all our hearts, and that’s entertainment. The big news is that there’s a new sheriff in town, and his name is – Globalization/China!
Meet the New Boss, Quite Different than the Old Boss
Hollywood, or Hollyweird as Ms. O’Malley calls it, has dealt with some seismic shifts in the last couple of years. But by far the biggest news is that the world’s foremost entertainment machine no longer caters primarily to the US audience but rather to that of the Asian Giant China and other countries. The simple reason is that like China, with 1.411 billion people, China is a super huge market, more than four times the size of the US base.
So, our movies are made to cater to Chinese/Globle audiences, but there‘s an 800 pound gorilla in the room, and that monster’s name is Globalization. The details are spelled out in a shocking article published in the New Yorker entitled “When Hollywood Met China”. Very simply stated, any movie that deviates from the Party Line is simply banned, and without access to the titanic Chinese market, it’s almost impossible for movie makers to make a profit. Very effective censorship, to say the least. No big money project has the slightest chance of succeeding without the approval of Hollywood’s new masters in Beijing.
New US Ownership and Attitudes
From cable to digital, Big Tech like Amazon Studios and Apple TV, have taken over Hollywood and everything’s changed. Scientology, Hollywood’s own weird religion, has been taken down through scandal. Big companies like Miramax and societal trends such as the “Me Too” movement have altered the sexual dynamics in Hollywood.
The old studio system in California is gone, and the classical Marilyn Monroe technique of “Sleeping your way to the top” maybe over and done. Indeed, actors of all genders and sexual orientations actually have to sign contracts promising not to have sex with their co-workers or bosses! Oh the joy is gone!
The Yellow Rose of Texas
What provided the actual spark that started the latest California megafire? Who knows? But things have been tough in the Golden state lately, and in fact upwards of 150,000 people have been displaced, and there’s more. Slowly but surely, it’s become apparent that movie makers no longer have to be based in California to thrive. The newest possible headquarters – Texas. From the standpoint of billionaire boys like Elon Musk, low regulation, union-free states such as Texas are ideal locations.
Musk is steadily moving his space-based businesses as quickly as he can. Will the entertainment business follow?
A Changing Attitude Towards Sex Workers
Yes, the audience has changed and so has the money and the control. It must be that Hollyweird’s globalist overlords have a different attitude towards sex workers than did the old Christian Fundamentalist bosses. In the globalization days of yore, Hollywood condemned the sex industry, but now they suddenly love it.
Take Charlize Theron’s 2004 performance in “Monster”, for which she won an Academy Award. The story was about a sex worker turned serial killer. The cause was the post-traumatic stress syndrome she experienced due to being raped repeatedly by her customers. But then fast forward to 2020’s “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande”, which featured Emma Thompson as a woman who hires a young sex worker named Leo Grande. And its marketed as sex positivity and body positivity for women.
The New Entertainment Gestalt
Our Ms. O’Malley reports that she feels like a yo-yo! Big Tech and predatory capitalism, whether of the US or global varieties, are total game changers. As citizens of the United States are we prepared? Predatory capitalism waits for no one. How do we know were on the right side of History? Whoever tells the stories rules the world. So that begs the question, who is telling the story now? It’s no longer the post world war II generation.
Article link below
When Hollywood Met China | The New Yorker