The Repercussions Of Hollywood's Decade-Long Narcolepsy

Midway through a routine 1942 programmer shot on the backlot of Warner Brothers and certain to be immeasurably improved forthwith with that certain Touch Of Esther, Humphrey Bogart bitterly sighs, “I bet they’re asleep in New York. I’d bet they’re asleep all over America.” Well, they’ve certainly been asleep in Hollywood since 9/11/01. As I wrote a while back, Hollywood essentially wrote this decade off, creatively. And the repercussions for such narcolepsy are mounting.

First up, Ryan Vlastelica of Market Hubs asks, “Are curtains coming down on movie theaters?”

Hollywood is able, at the end of most Decembers, to proclaim the previous year its most successful ever. While true, at least on the surface, it masks a long-term problem: People just aren