Living In The Age Of Crashing Hollywood Empires

(ANALYSIS) As a rule, I am not a fan of sequels — other than movies that complete a cycle of stories that exist in some existing form of literature (think “The Lord of the Rings”).

I am also not a fan of live-action remakes of classic animated films.

In other words, I don’t get to go to the movies much these days.

Let me stress that I will pay to see “Casablanca,” “Young Frankenstein,” or “Lawrence of Arabia” on a big screen. If “Interstellar” shows up on an IMAX screen within 100 miles of me, I will be there.

Now, we all know that for folks like me there are exceptions to these rules — the kinds of exceptions that created the cash-machine “franchises” that ruled Hollywood after “Jaws.” (Come to think of it, I might pay cash to see a remastered cut of “Jaws” on a big screen, but not “Jaws II”).

As a 70something guy, I will admit that I went to a theater, with a small degree of excitement, to see “Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens.” I still haven’t seen “Star Wars: Episode XI — The Rise of Starwalker,” not even a chopped-up version on free television. I’m not alone. (I would also buy the first two years of “The Mandalorian” on DVD or iMovies, but I don’t think Disney allows that.)

Yes, that was a lot of “Hello Boomer” sharing in first-person voice. But it’s all linked to today’s topic and some new questions about the future of entertainment culture in America (and, thus, the world).

To read the rest of Terry Mattingly’s piece, you can visit Rational Sheep on his Substack page.

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Terry Mattingly is Senior Fellow on Communications and Culture at Saint Constantine College in Houston. He lives in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and writes Rational Sheep, a Substack newsletter on faith and mass media.