While the films released in 2016 haven't been near as bad as what movie goers had to endure in the theatres last year, poor box office performances have lead several critics to speculate that Hollywood has hit the twilight of its prominence in the entertainment industry. With the rise of Netflix, viewers can access any movie they want for a monthly fee that costs half as much as a movie ticket. But streaming companies aren't the only culprits taking part in the pouch of viewership from the world of cinema. Once looked down upon for its perceived inability to generate quality onscreen entertainment, television, thanks in large part HBO and AMC, has been able to put to getter countless serial dramas -- "Game of Thrones", "Breaking Bad", "The Sopranos" -- that not only boast high production values, but have been able to attract actors and actresses who have built their careers from the foundation of motion picture. Indeed, this is the age of television, but does that mean Hollywood is necessarily dying?
The Golden Days of Hollywood are gone. That's certain. Today, if you were to make a trip to Los Angeles, what little that remains from the era of Rita Hayworth and Humphrey Bogart has all but been erased. As rich as the history of show business is in the City of Angels, Los Angeles is a place that seems more eager to forget itself as it continues to strive occupy a place amongst the highest annals of memory. While I myself am not familiar with classic films, when someone mentions names like Katharine Hepburn or Gregory Peck, the nostalgia that wells up in my heart causes all my blood to evacuate until suddenly, within the empty chambers left behind, I feel that we have lost something that we can never recover. Nowadays, beyond Meryl Streep, its hard to name a actor or actress that possesses the talent to surpass the heights that were reached during Old Hollywood.
That said, Hollywood has held up in fine fashion, and while it may no longer have Clarke Gable and Vivian Leigh to showcase on the big screen, there is plenty of talent to be appreciated and proud of. From the behind-the-scene accomplishments of Martin Scorcese, Francis Ford Coppola and Woody Allen, to immortalized performances delivered by the great Anthony Hopkins and Peter O'Toole, there is plenty of cinematic accomplishments in our time that are worth remembering, and still more yet to come. So is Hollywood dying? While a decline in box office profits is a cause for concern, this does not directly translate into a deterioration of writing, directing and acting. In fact, fiscal stats not withstanding, there has been no shortage of quality entertainment in the movie theatres this past year from "The Nice Guys" to "Finding Dory".
Perhaps what these results are indicative of is that production companies need to start exploring strategies that can help them reach viewership beyond the confines of a theatre when a new movie is released (some films are being directly released on Netflix). Hollywood isn't quite dying, but like all things in this world, if it wants to survive, it will have to adapt and evolve. Should the day come when the sun sets on Tinseltown, count on Hollywood to fight to retain as much light as possible to remain a shining beacon of entertainment excellence.
