Tag: capitalism

SCMS Presentation: The Political Economic Roots of Hollywood Strikes, 1950-2023

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Abstract This paper investigates the timing of labour strikes in Hollywood. The occurrence of strikes, such as the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes in 2023, can make sense when we have the hindsight to piece together the historical details of what created rifts between labour and management. But was 2023 a particularly fragile year for contract … Continue reading SCMS Presentation: The Political Economic Roots of Hollywood Strikes, 1950-2023

The political economic roots of Hollywood strikes, Part 3

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[ Missed earlier parts of this series? Find Part 1 here and Part 2 here ] Around the time of this post, SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) produced a tentative agreement in their 2023 negotiations. The SAG-AFTRA National Board approved the tentative agreement, and recommends for the ratification of … Continue reading The political economic roots of Hollywood strikes, Part 3

The political economic roots of Hollywood strikes, Part 2

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Missed Part 1? You should start here. Around the time of this post, the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) produced a tentative agreement in their 2023 negotiations. The WGA Negotiating Committee, the WGAW Board and WGAE Council all voted unanimously to recommend the agreement on September 26, 2023. As … Continue reading The political economic roots of Hollywood strikes, Part 2

The political economic roots of Hollywood strikes, Part 1

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On May 2, 2023, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike after failing to reach an acceptable agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the trade association that negotiates for the film and television interests of the major Hollywood studios. While many of the disagreements between the parties – … Continue reading The political economic roots of Hollywood strikes, Part 1

2022 – Book – The Political Economy of Hollywood

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I have recently published a book, titled "The political economy of Hollywood: Capitalist power and cultural production". It is the most comprehensive publication of my political economic research on the Hollywood film business. The book contains new and updated empirical research on the Hollywood film business, both domestically and internationally. Notably, I retrieved a large … Continue reading 2022 – Book – The Political Economy of Hollywood

Making culture rational … with power

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A survey of academic writing on the business of culture will show that authors seldomly restrain themselves from making predictions or giving recommendations to the hypothetical economic actor. This offering of future-oriented arguments to an audience should not be surprising. The disciplines of economics, business, management studies and public policy teach people to theorize market … Continue reading Making culture rational … with power

Hollywood’s mantra: “Nobody knows anything”

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Your movie turned out the be a flop? "Nobody knows anything". You mistakenly believed consumers wanted to see a movie set in the 1920s? "Nobody knows anything". You thought your casting decisions were going to be loved by all? "Nobody knows anything". "Nobody knows anything"–this was the opening line of Adventures in the Screen Trade, … Continue reading Hollywood’s mantra: “Nobody knows anything”

Why Scorsese is right about corporate power, Part 2

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Missed Part 1? Read it here. Part 1 introduced Scorsese’s argument in his Harper’s essay, which was about much more than Fellini. The first part also explained how we can connect Scorsese’s essay to the drive in the Hollywood film business for major film distributors to differentially accumulate, i.e., beat a benchmark that is relevant … Continue reading Why Scorsese is right about corporate power, Part 2