A new map of Hollywood: the production and distribution of American motion pictures

Allen Scott

Regional Studies, 2002, vol. 36, issue 9, 957-975

Abstract: Scott A. J. (2002) A new map of Hollywood: the production and distribution of American motion pictures, Reg. Studies 36, 957-975. In this paper, I offer a reinterpretation of the economic geography of the so-called new Hollywood. The argument proceeds in six main stages. First, I briefly examine the debate on industrial organization in Hollywood that has gone on in the literature since the mid-1980s, and I conclude that the debate has become unnecessarily polarized. Second, I attempt to show how an approach that invokes both flexible specialization and systems-house forms of production is necessary to any reasonably complete analysis of the organization of production in the new Hollywood. Third, and on this basis, I argue that the Hollywood production system is deeply bifurcated into two segments comprising: (1) the majors and their cohorts of allied firms on the one hand; and (2) the mass of independent production companies on the other. Fourth, I reaffirm the continuing tremendous agglomerative attraction of Hollywood as a locale for motion-picture production, but I also describe in analytical and empirical terms how selected kinds of activities seek out satellite production locations in other parts of the world. Fifth, I show how the majors continue to extend their global reach by means of their ever more aggressive marketing and distribution divisions, and I discuss how this state of affairs depends on and amplifies the competitive advantages of Hollywood. Sixth and finally, I reflect upon some of the challenges that Hollywood must face up to as new cultural-products agglomerations arise all over the globe, offering potential challenges to its hegemony.

Keywords: Motion-picture industry; Cultural economy; Hollywood; Agglomeration; Regional development; Globalization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002
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DOI: 10.1080/0034340022000022215

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