Jake Ures is a cinematographer who lives in Los Angeles.
For years, Big Tech’s growing dominance over Hollywood has meant lower-quality movies and TV shows. Now, with Netflix and Paramount Skydance fighting over Warner Bros. Discovery, audiences are left with little say in the matter.
The lead actors in today’s blockbuster films are celebrities, not movie stars. That’s not their fault: the industry has reduced actors to stewards of profitable intellectual property, robbing them of the opportunity to connect with audiences and shine.
In 2022, Netflix will release over 120 seasons of television. Churning out half-baked shows for niche audiences seems to be yielding diminishing financial returns — but the model’s corrosive effect on film and television may be impossible to reverse.
In the golden age of New Hollywood, creators were given huge sums to take big risks, and it paid off. But movies have come under the control of hedge funds that specialize in risk management. The result: boring, predictable cinema.