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A timely investigation into the rise of Peak TV and the perfect storm that caused a rapid decline in Hollywood work
When Hollywood writers and actors went on strike in 2023, they drew attention to the rapidly changing nature of film and television production. In Boom to Bust, media industry experts Miranda Banks and Kate Fortmueller combine economic and cultural analysis and interviews with industry workers to capture the lived experience of Hollywood in crisis. Tracking major disruptions of the preceding decade—including the transformation of streaming services into studios, the overproduction of series during Peak TV, as well as #MeToo and COVID—the authors explain how the conflicting interests of studio executives, creative workers, and workers' unions compelled a renegotiation of the terms of work. Grounding readers in the history of Hollywood labor negotiations, the authors provide a road map to make sense of Hollywood’s present—and what comes next.
“[A] deeply researched, clearly delineated primer on how the film and TV industry dug itself into a financial hole.”
Kate Fortmueller is Associate Professor of Film and Media History at Georgia State University and author of Below the Stars: How the Labor of Working Actors and Extras Shapes Media Production and Hollywood Shutdown: Production, Distribution, and Exhibition in the Time of COVID.
Contents
Introduction
1. Tech Matters: Economics and Data
2. Distribution and Deal Disruptions
3. Cultivating Creativity
4. Work Convergences
5. (Not) Safe for Work
6. Humans Matter: The Dual Strikes of 2023
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Glossary
List of Interviews
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index