Cinema Isn't Dead.
Every twenty years or so, somebody with a very serious face declares that the movies are dying.
They said it when television arrived. They said it when the VCR arrived the head of the MPAA actually told Congress the VCR was as dangerous as a serial killer, which is the kind of thing you can only say with a straight face if you've never been to a birthday party with a camcorder.
They were wrong every time. Not because Hollywood saved itself. It actually never does. Someone, or often, something always breaks in and saves it.
I spent the better part of a year tracing a hundred years of Hollywood history for a documentary: the collapses, the panics, the comebacks, and the pattern that fell out surprised me.
Here’s the documentary in full:
The Groundswell Nobody's Reporting
Here's what surprised me after I hit publish:
The comments weren't arguments.
They were relief. Hundreds of people, filmmakers and fans alike, saying some version of the same thing: thank you for not writing the eulogy. It turns out there's an enormous audience that is exhausted by the cynical death mantra. The endless "cinema is over" content does get clicks by lowering the casket. But there are thousands of film lovers and filmmakers starving for grounded optimism. Not naive optimism. The kind with receipts.
And the receipts are everywhere right now. Self-distribution isn't a consolation prize anymore. It's a business model. A YouTuber put an indie horror film in theaters and packed them. Word of mouth travels at internet speed. Independent film isn't dead, it just stopped waiting for permission.
What a Video Store Clerk Can Teach a Small Business
Here's the part I can't stop thinking about, because I see it every week in my day job.
The pattern isn't really about Hollywood. It's about what happens to any industry when the people running it get comfortable: they stop taking swings, the work gets safe, and the audience quietly stops caring. And it's always the hungry outsiders. The ones who couldn't get in the front gate, who figure out the new tool first and eat the incumbents' lunch.
Right now, video is that tool for small business.
The companies winning attention in Central Pennsylvania and beyond aren't the ones with the biggest budgets. They're the ones telling specific, human stories on camera while their competitors are still running the same safe template everyone's learned to scroll past. It's the Hollywood cycle in miniature, playing out in Harrisburg, Camp Hill, York, and just about everywhere else.
That's the philosophy behind my “non-hollywood” video production work to: specific beats safe. It's true for a $400,000 indie comedy like Napoelon Dynamite, which grossed over $46M) and it's true for a ninety-second brand film.
“THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR MAKING THIS VIDEO!!!! I have gotten so sick of Youtube thumbnail after thumbnail yelling at me: “Hollywood is dying” - “Why it’s all over for Hollywood” - “Why movies suck now” - blah, blah, blah, blah.....None of these content creators showing any awareness of the history or the big picture. And all of them only aware of the moment they are currently in, or worse: Only interested in posting ragebait videos.
It’s so great to finally see someone place all of this into the larger context .
I have subscribed and will share to anyone I know who cares about film.
Take care and wishing you much success in everything you do.”
The Ending Is the Good News
The documentary ends in a full parking lot, at a movie theater, watching a film that Hollywood had nothing to do with. I won't spoil the rest, but if you've been feeling depressed about the state of movies, or honestly about the state of anything that feels locked up by people who stopped taking risks, the last three minutes are for you.
The gate never opens willingly. But somebody always finds the side door.
Watch the full 45 minute documentary for free: → THE RISE AND FALL AND RISE AND FALL OF HOLLYWOOD
Luke Covert runs Covert Film, a video production company in Harrisburg, PA, and occasionally spends a year making documentaries about why the movies refuse to die. His feature film TURBO COLA won both Film Threat’s “Indie Feature Film of the Year” & “Indie Comedy of the Year” in 2023.