On 21st Century Stars, Social Media, and the Death of Hollywood
The modern Movie Star is The Influencer—The Pauls, The Kardashians, The PewDiePies, The D’Amelio’s of the world. Is it even a contest who drives youth culture more—and thus the culture of the future—between a Jake Paul and Timothée Chalamet or a Charli D'Amelio and Jennifer Lawrence? The star of the smartphone, The Influencer, has more cultural cachet than the native star of the big screen, The Movie Star.
In every aspect—from production to distribution, to reaction, to fan-star interaction the art of The Influencer could not be more different than the art of a Movie Star. The Influencer creates and distributes their own content through the same device you and I use, their content is much more spontaneous and organic—particularly compared to the rigidity of a film’s production. Finally, The Influencer has a natural tight two-way relationship with their fans. The Influencer quickly creates and immediately distributes their content directly to their fans. Fans can then immediately react to the Influencer’s content. The Influencer can then respond to the fans’ responses—back and forth they go—building a more intimate kind of connection. In terms of pure mechanics, the internet is a much more interactive medium than film and allows for a much cheaper and more efficient mode of content production, distribution, and iteration.
On the other hand, The Movie Star is just one component, albeit a key one, of a massive production. The films with the same cultural weight of the biggest Influencers—that is the films that Movie Stars actually star in—take several years, several thousands of people, and several hundred million dollars to create and distribute. Since these films are so costly—both in terms of money and manpower—they must be as close to as a guaranteed hit as possible. As a result, most new films rely on decades-old tropes, decades-old stars, and decades-old brands.
