Hollywood was at the pinnacle of success, with the highest box office figures in cinema history. Movies were an obsession, igniting a passionate community around the globe excited for new releases, rallying around the superheroes of the big screen. Foreign markets for Hollywood releases were as lucrative as they were stateside. And theater owners everywhere clamored for the latest films for the biggest studios. Hollywood was invulnerable. Then, suddenly, it all fell apart, becoming a nightmare that threatened financial ruin.
This is happening right now in 2020. But history repeats itself. This also happened in 1946.
In the 1940’s, Hollywood was at the top of its game, riding high from wartime propaganda cinema. America’s economy was booming but the whole world was reeling from the horror of the war. The industry aided in the war efforts as combatants (stars enlisting for duty), propagandists, documentary or newsreel filmmakers, educators, fundraisers for relief efforts, or entertainers and morale boosters. Films were realistic but also provided escapist entertainment, reassurance, and patriotic themes, all best exemplified by Casablanca, a romantic story of self-sacrifice and heroism. Advances in film technology (sound recording, lighting, special effects, cinematography and use of color) meant that films were more watchable.
But with the end of the war, the certainties of war-as-it-is-being-waged and the life-and-death struggles that dwarf all other considerations into unimportance are gone. Here instead is the long hangover from the costliest conflict in human history so far, and the sudden dreadful knowledge that as the dust settled, everyone had to reckon with their own part in it, no matter which side they’d been on, or however much they’d fought or lost. Society was pessimistic, desperate and disillusioned. Fear was palpable over atomic annihilation. Anti-semitism was rampant, along with racism against returning black veterans. Women found themselves in the center of a storm about social priorities and their place in a patriarchal world. Sounds like 2020 once again.
Americans found themselves eager to resume their lives. Consumerism became the passion of the day. The baby boom began and new attitudes about leisure time took form in mini golf and bowling. People wanted cars and a nicer environment to raise families; there was a mass migration away from the cities to the suburbs. Going to the movies in the suburbs was considered too expensive and inconvenient so Hollywood created drive in theaters so families could go together and avoid baby sitting costs. In 1948, there was 820 drive-ins; a decade later the number was over 4000.
So 1946, following the end of the war, was Hollywood’s most profitable year in the decade, with all-time highs recorded for theatre attendance. The American film industry seemed to be in an ideal position. Full-scale mobilization had ended the Depression domestically, and victory had opened vast, unchallenged markets in the war-torn economies of western Europe and Japan. Furthermore, from 1942 through 1945, Hollywood had experienced the most stable and lucrative three years in its history, and in 1946, when two-thirds of the American population went to the movies at least once a week, the studios earned record-breaking profits.
But a year later, receipts were off by nearly 8%. Inflation and labor unrest boosted domestic production costs and as important foreign markets, including Britain and Italy, were temporarily lost to protectionist quotas. By 1948, the 18,000 movies theaters in the US were in trouble. A federal antitrust suit against the five major and three minor studios ended in the “Paramount decrees,” which forced the studios to divest themselves of their theater chains and mandated competition in the exhibition sector for the first time in 30 years. The new theater owners resented the studios for their ironclad rules of exhibition. A decade later, one third of those movie theaters were gone.
Downsizing quickly became the order of the day in Hollywood, and with the layoffs came a reduction not only in the number of films made, but in the types of films produced. The arrival of television also threatened the local cinemas as consumers chose to embrace the convenience of the box in their living room, watching movies at home. And creative talent bristled at the black of creative freedom by the studios.
There are obvious parallels to today. The streaming wars threaten to siphon viewers from theaters, leaving blockbusters as the only true box office draw. The battle between the theater owners and the studios over release windowing has only worsened during the pandemic as studios are forced to dump their biggest movies into VOD distribution, upsetting the exhibitors who need to draw people back in after Covid is over. The constant struggles between the major studios, talent agencies and the WGA is upending the entire system. So where does that leave us? And while we’re still in this together, as well as when the pandemic is over, what type of entertainment does society want to see?
Let’s look to the past for those answers.
After WWII, we saw the birth of several cinema genres and themes:
Film Noir – these introspective film thrillers about complicated heroes who don’t “give a damn” about anything. These were darker, more cynical films, pessimistic about the world, with dark plots and untrustworthy femme fatales. It might be counter intuitive that audiences would go dark here – but these films tapped into an audience that was looking for this type of experience -thought-provoking or perverse stories reflecting the psychological and social problems besetting returning war veterans and others adapting to postwar life.
Westerns – the Marvel movies of the days, these films were the ultimate representation of the battle between good and evil.
Sci-Fi & Horror – this genre was born out of fears over nuclear war – but it was also fun escapism to offer at drive-ins and matinee shows. For some, the audience wanted to wallow in the despair and paranoia of the time period and for others, they wanted to forget the news and enjoy these B-Movies.
Teen-Oriented Films: With the explosion of roll and roll in the 1950’s, a new younger market of teenagers took movie theaters by storm, opposed to the older generation’s love for nostalgia. And Hollywood took note, incorporating rock and roll music into the soundtracks of film, and exploiting the market’s non-conformist attitudes.
Rebellious Anti-Heroes: Young people wanted new and exciting symbols of rebellion, embodied by stars like Marlon Brando, James Dean, and Paul Newman.
After the financial recession of the 1970’s, audiences sought out a combination of heavy hitting social commentary films, alongside popcorn flicks as evidence by Taxi Driver & The Godfather sitting next to Jaws and Star Wars at the multiplex.
So to think what could be cinema in 2021 and beyond – especially through the lens of documentary:
Escapist Docs: Fun, popcorn docs where we can rally around a iconic person, event, or strange circumstance. These can be big epic sports docs like The Last Dance, tragicomic docs like Tiger King, or straight up comedy docs that are meant to make people laugh. Music docs where we can celebrate the communal experience of a concert (which not everyone is ready to do yet0 or an ode to an artist who is bigger than themselves. As the line between fiction and nonfiction for audiences continues to blur, we see these escapist docs attracting audiences beyond traditional doc fans, and more into the mainstream.
We will see the birth of new documentary genres as well, like romance docs, capitalizing on the love for the romance novel genre, popularized by book clubs overseen by Reese Witherspoon and other stars. Its virtually untapped in documentaries. Additionally, we will see these genres being further capitalized on:
Horror Docs: Like the birth of the genre after WWII, audiences are constantly looking for scares and documentary has not yet really mined this genre for similar real life scares. Look for an explosion in these types of films, both mining people’s own paranoias about being locked up and end of society or just as a way for people to look at their own lives and realize its not that bad.
Gen Z Docs: With the big moments of adolescence being sidelined by the pandemic (prom, graduation, etc), the Gen Z audience will seek realistic portrayals of their age group to connect back to their generation.
Aspirational Docs: Escapism can also be aspirational and we will see the rise of happy documentaries, projects that can appeal to the hopeful side of the pandemic by making people smile.
Serious Docs: Like the 70s, when big adult dramas were the rage, tapping into serious topics, we will see an explosion in documentaries that are analyzing the dramatic themes that have been even more exposed during this time – failures in leadership, social commentary films that explore the divide in America and across the world, films that explore dark places humanity can go. Hard-hitting investigative documentaries that will blow topics wide open. Filmmakers aren’t afraid to tackle serious topics during this time, and the more traditional documentary audiences will still seek these out.
Where will the genre go from here? And how will it continue to be innovated? Will more scripted elements bleed over to doc? Will people return to the cinemas to see a documentaries or will they only show up for event movies like Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings? Or will they continue to stream on platforms like Netflix, DOCUMENTARY+, and HBO Max? Only time will tell.
