Is Hollywood a Risky Business? A Political Economic Analysis of Risk and Creativity

Is Hollywood a Risky Business? A Political Economic Analysis of Risk and Creativity
McMahon, James. (2018). New Political Economy. No. OnlineFirst. 13 April. pp. 1-24. (Article - Journal; English).

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Alternative Locations

http://www.capitalaspower.com/2018/09/mcmahon-is-hollywood-a-risky-business-a-political-economic-analysis-of-risk-and-creativity/, https://www.econstor.eu/handle/10419/182476

Abstract or Brief Description

This paper seeks to explain why Hollywood’s dominant firms are narrowing the scope of creativity in the contemporary period (1980–2015). The largest distributors have sought to prevent the art of filmmaking and its related social relations from becoming financial risks in the pursuit of profit. Major filmed entertainment, my term for the six largest distributors, must discount expected future earnings to present prices with the forward-looking logic of capitalisation; and uncertainty about where creativity in cinema is going can produce financial uncertainty about the future earning potential of new film projects. Conversely, a degree of confidence in the expected future earnings of Hollywood cinema can increase when the art of filmmaking and broader social world of mass culture are ordered by capitalist power [Nitzan, J. and Bichler, S., 2009. Capital as power: a study of order and creorder. New York: Routledge]. For the period of 1980–2015, major filmed entertainment lowered its risk relative to the period before, 1960–79. This historical process of risk reduction is the effect of major filmed entertainment making the wide-release strategy (a.k.a., saturation booking) more predictable through an aggressive implementation of the blockbuster style and the high concept standard.

Language

English

Publication Type

Article - Journal

Keywords

capitalisation creativity film distribution Hollywood risk

Subject

BN Power
BN Region - North America
BN Business Enterprise
BN Capital & Accumulation
BN Culture
BN Distribution
BN Ideology
BN Industrial Organization
BN Institutions

Depositing User

Jonathan Nitzan

Date Deposited

17 Sep 2018 23:05

Last Modified

02 Oct 2018 10:09

URL:

http://bnarchives.yorku.ca/id/eprint/554

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