The entertainment industry’s epic problem – No new superstars.

I grew up in a small city of Vadodara in the state of Gujarat. Barely any American movies would release in the city back in late 90s, due to the successes of the massive Indian entertainment industry. Yet I clearly remember my uncle had a Tom Cruise poster on his wall from the movie ‘Top Gun’. I’m sure you know which one I’m talking about, you’ve seen it too. That was the impact of global superstars back in the day, they were household names in houses who did not even speak English.

This is not a complaining post about entertainers of my childhood and yours. I want to put my curiosities out for a discussion. I was recently having a conversation with my friends where one sentence led to another until someone asked “When was the last time you were excited for a superstar’s new movie coming out? Not a multi-starrer superhero flick”. Nobody had an immediate answer. And we are a group of movie-tv enthusiasts.

Every generation chooses their icons. Movies were the primary source of entertainment and culture for people like you and me if you grew up before the internet. Understandably you and I had our movie stars on a pedestal. The younger generation has grown up with influencers, streamers and content creators. Naturally they chose the best of the lot such as Mr Beast, Logan Paul, and Speed to name a few. These are extremely hard-working individuals who provide regular entertainment to their audiences by doing multiple things. They have earned their fortunes by standing out in an extremely competitive segment.

Here is the problem with this new influencer-economic-model. Their successes make money only for their extended team. The old school model of superstars appearing in movies and TV, were making money for a huge chain of people involved in the entertainment business. Movie theatres and TV networks sprung out all over the world in the last century because everyone was making money. Cities like Los Angeles and Mumbai became what they became because entertainment industries set up bases there. Countless occupations like entertainment lawyers, agents, and have set up successful businesses because of movies and stars. Those successes are hard to imagine out of these new-age icons. It is very doubtful if their audience will buy tickets to watch them, because their audience is used to watching them for free on Youtube.

Disney, a giant of global entertainment industry was known for coming up with future stars such as Selena Gomez, Zac Efron, and Zendaya. They have not been able to deliver a new batch of icons. Teenage sensations like the few mentioned above created massive economic opportunities through merchandizing now that seems to be fading too.

As I mentioned earlier, this is not a ranting post. I wish to understand this transition of the entertainment business economics because it is going through a tectonic shift. One more important behavioral aspect that needs to be talked about is that now there are more entertainment creators than ever in the history of mankind. People always wanted to be famous and popular, but now they have an opportunity through social media. A huge number of people who used to be the audiences, are now thinking like creators. And one creator does not become a fan of another creator easily, even if the other is staring in movies.