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Vandy Prof. says The Force just isn't with Hollywood this year

wonderwomanfilm.com

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (OSBORNE)  --  A Vanderbilt researcher says not even the planned December release of a new Star Wars film will likely save Hollywood from a down year at the box office.

Vanderbilt Cinema and Media Arts Professor Seth Kim says the summer of 2017 was one of the worst in years for the movie industry. He says one reason for the poor performance was the surprising lack of big summer blockbusters.

“And that’s not to say that there weren’t any blockbusters cause there were quite a few. It’s just that there weren’t any sort of tent pole films with a sort of big releases that people look forward to and kind of come out in droves for.”

Kim also says that the growing strength of streaming services like Netflix and Hulu is cutting in to Hollywood’s business, and although there were exceptions, he says this summer’s films just weren’t all that good.

Kim says one Vanderbilt colleague has even suggested that the current political chaos may be a factor.

“With so much mayhem going on in the nation’s capital perhaps a lot of people just didn’t want to see things getting destroyed in the cinema as well.”

Kim says Hollywood was hoping that new technologies like 3D and IMAX might turn things around, but that’s just not happening.

“My call would be that the industry sort of still insists that on that you know if it’s not broke then why fix it, even though it may actually be broken.”
170906_vandy_prof_on_bad_movie_summer.mp3
Use this link to listen to the complete interview with Professor Kim.

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