The Atlantic

What Caused Hollywood's Summer From Hell?

The blame for the industry’s horrendous last few months lies with a decades-long shift in the economics of making movies.
Source: Paramount

Hollywood is heading into the season of horror after a summer from hell. The past few months were the worst box-office summer in more than a decade. This Labor Day weekend’s haul was the lowest in nearly 20 years.

To explain the bad news, movie executives are trying out fresh excuses (blame … Rotten Tomatoes?), while journalists are rehashing familiar criticisms (people are bored with sequels!).

Both of these explanations are wrong. The subtler truth is that the domestic movie market is in a slow, decades-long structural decline. To lasso

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