I ventured out this evening to meet a couple friends for coffee...headed out to Brentwood (in LA, not NorCal) expecting to find a quiet coffee shop setting given the Oscar ceremonies here in town (made me think back to being in SF in 1995 when the 49ers were in the SuperBowl...best time to head out to get errands done!)
But as i approached the coffee shop on San Vicente, I could tell the place was packed...what was the deal, nobody cared to see Helen Mirren (it's like watching my mom being nominated for an Oscar) when for her role as "The Queen"? oh wait, must be fact everyone planned to go home and condense the 4+ hour telecast in to a couple hours thanks to Tivo?
No, me thinks that the commentary in GigOm re: the decline of Hollywood may be close to the mark. While I wouldn't attribute all of the shift to social networking yanking the masses out of the theaters, I do believe that the Internet and the plethora of choices users have to be entertained and informed -- and to be so entertained and informed on their own schedule -- has reduced the need for the galvanizing force of the major motion picture at your local theater or the 'must see' TV show on a Thursday night.
And I'm certainly no Einstein for coming up with the notion that the social media onslaught has turned everyone in to a budding journalist, Internet star, etc. (disclaimer: guilty as charged!), but I don't attribute the decline of Hollywood to this phenomenon. Forces are converging -- bandwidth, familiarity, ease of use, mobile, on demand, etc. -- that enable consumers to call the shots...and that means if they don't want to race down to wait in line at the MegaUberCineplex across town to watch "The Queen" versus waiting for it to be available for digital download then so be it.
Or better yet, if they decide to pass on Helen's portrayal altogether to instead create a mashup of their own via Jumpcut to post on their Myspace site then so be it even more!
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