Superheroes, Diversity & BTS Activism: Looking Back On The Decade In Hollywood

Superheroes & Reboots

The first major trend of the last ten years in commercial cinema is the complete domination of the market by the superhero movie. If there is a superhero, there’s a movie about them, or one in development. The popularity of superhero movies this decade has even been described by the New York Times as “Hollywood’s Comic Book Age”. Out of the 15 highest grossing films of this decade, six of them are superhero movies.

The colossal outpouring of superhero movies has been met with some disdain, however. Martin Scorsese, most recently, sparked controversy after he said that Marvel movies are “not cinema” and compared them to “theme park rides”.

Similarly, there has been a barrage of Star Wars movies since the Walt Disney Company acquired the Star Wars franchise in 2012, which have met with varying levels of success.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Last Jedi are both in the top 15 grossing films of this decade, while Solo: A Star Wars Story was a comparative flop, and signalled that even the most dedicated fans could get brand fatigue. With three new Star Wars films lined up for 2022, 2024 and 2026 there doesn’t seem to be any sign that this trend will be stopping

Hollywood also developed a love affair with reboots, remakes and revivals this decade – giving us all a serious case of deja vu. Sometimes with a female or a more diverse cast, the reboots were often hit or a miss in different circles. And some developed, whether rightfully or not, a huge deal of internet controversy, like Ghostbusters. 

Social Media & Activism 

Social media has become a huge influence on what decisions are made in Hollywood. Internet buzz, now more than ever, can boost or bury a film before it’s started its theatrical run. 

At the same time, so-called “hashtag activism” has led to massive changes in Hollywood.

The #OscarsSoWhite movement was originally started by April Reign in 2015 in response to the all-white slate of acting nominees at the Oscars. When the 2016 Oscars rolled around, and they still didn’t have a single non-white nominee, the hashtag started trending again. The movement got so much media attention that the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences made unprecedented changes to voting rules and membership, trying to include more diverse Academy voters. 

In 2017, Moonlight, a film that centred on the romantic relationship between two Black men, directed by Barry Jenkins, a Black man, won Best Picture, over the twee La La Land. This was seen as a massive win for diversity at the Oscars. But, of course, La La Land was accidentally announced as the winner by Faye Dunaway.

Since that moment, strides have been made towards diversity in front of and behind the camera. It seems that Hollywood has woken up to the fact that diverse content, characters and creators can be commercially successful. Crazy Rich Asians and Black Panther have become the exemplar of that, the former making a $US238.5 million worldwide gross and the latter being the ninth highest grossing film of this decade, earning $US1.346 billion at the global box office.

#MeToo, first coined by Tarana Burke in 2007, gained mainstream notoriety in 2017 after Ashley Judd and other victims came forward with sexual harassment claims against Harvey Weinstein. The movement had a chain affect, taking down numerous Hollywood heavyweights and predators in Hollywood and beyond.

The movement has in turn changed who’s getting hired, what stories are being told and how people are getting treated. Notably it’s led to an increase in females in leadership positions and female directors getting the chance to direct studio films. 

Streaming Wars & BTS Change

Once upon a time Netflix was the only streaming service. It looks like the 2020s are about to be an all-out war as everyone chooses their streaming fighter: Disney+, Apple TV+, HBO, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, AT&T TV, Netflix and many more are going head to head.

This year alone, writers on mass fired their agents under the encouragement of the Writers Guild Of America, Disney acquired 21st Century Fox, and assistants fought for fair wages with #PayUpHollywood. The effects of these behind-the-scenes actions and the move of independent film increasingly to subscription video-on-demand services remain to be seen, but are set to affect the way the industry looks – and what content is being created – well into the future.

The Future?

What will these next ten years bring? Who’s to say. But we’ll be eating popcorn and reading the comments.