Jul
Hollywood based out of California in US is one of the biggest industries in the world. Entertainment sector around the world is controlled more by Hollywood movies than anything else in the world. To throw some numbers at you, Hollywood ticket sales in US in 2007 brought in $9.7 billion, and $100 million opening weekends are quite common in this industry. The Hollywood movie industry is so popular that all around the world people buy magazines and read tabloids to find out about the stars, television is full of it and a good part of the world revolved around it. 
But have we ever tried to understand why Hollywood became so big? Ofcourse the glamour and entertainment factors apart, the strategy has also played a major role in it. Hollywood has and will always be an all encompassing industry which absorbs every entertainment sector into it and starts churning money out of it! I will try and explain this argument below.
Novels: Novels can be considered one of the first form of entertainment for mankind. People have been and will always remain addicted to books. The book publishing industry is huge and amazing but Hollywood has even absorbed this into itself. Lord of the Rings, Da Vinci Code, Harry Potter and other innumerable successful books have been converted into multi-million grosser movies by Hollywood. The industry takes what is available and grows it many times in magnitude!
Comics: Now this is something we do not even have to discuss! Most of the blockbusters in the past few years have been comic strips, including Wolverine and X-Men Series, Transformers, Batman, Spiderman, Superman, Ironman and many many such movies. The whole point being that the comic industry started for the entertainment of masses, the characters became popular and then Hollywood took up these characters and made millions from them. The industry again absorbs and creates.
Television Series: The league of tv series and hollywood is quite different, yet every successful serial usually becomes a movie for sure. One of the latest examples can be Sex & the City. Past examples are StarTrek, X-Files and I am sure there will be many many more. Television series run only through advertisements while movies are a completely different ball game. The simple concept seems to be to absorb anything which people like and would be willing to pay the ticket price for and convert it into a movie! The television series stars and producers will only be happy to leave dependence on advertisements and get a chance to be on the big screen.
Video Games: Now this is where the movie industry becomes even doubly interesting. Most successful movies take out games and make lots of money from it, examples are innumerable – Star Wars, Spiderman, Lord of the Rings, amongst others. But the tables have been reversed when a movie was made out of a game! Max Payne an enormously popular third person shooter game was converted into a movie and even made a good amount of money. Just absorbing the concept and converting into a movie and making money.
Music Industry: Though the movie industry does not have any story plot for Hollywood but music artists rarely stay away from another chance at glory. Jeniffer Lopez, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan ….. the list can go on and on. The industry absorbs the factor people are crazy for and converts it into a movie for the audiences!
I think the point to learn is how Hollywood easily absorbs anything which is popular and makes money out of it. The main method of making money in Hollywood is by selling movie tickets and this is where they strike. Hollywood targets anything people are fond of and will shell out money for and converts it into a movie. It is truly one industry to rule them all. What do you think?
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7 Responses to “Hollywood – One Industry to rule them all”
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^Dammit, my next article was gonna be based on this
Interesting article, although I feel that this phenomena has been going on since movies started and isn’t a new trend, and its an indication of the widespread integration of all entertainment media in a whole.
I think the concept of tie-ins should also be explored.
Also, the merchandise – they make huge business.
The brands, too – while say for example- Rocky, Rambo, Bond etc. which have been promoted by the entire industry irrespective of personal rivalries. I remember once seeing a documentary on Fox Television where Arnie was wearing the tee – “Balboa is my Hero”. Its difficult to imagine that in any other place.
Another factor is that Hollywood gets promotion from some of the most popular sports leagues (which are massive brands in themselves) in the world – NHL, NBA etc which are watched by millions across the world.
nice read shubham !
Max Payne is my favorite game and i also like the movie.*,.
i love to play Max Payne all day long, it has lots of action in it.,’~