The widespread appeal of Hollywood movies is due not only to the studios’ economic power and marketing prowess but also to the formal-aesthetic qualities of the films themselves. This third aspect of the term Hollywood has changed somewhat less than the industrial and institutional aspects, in that the cinematic style and narrative struc- ture of Hollywood movies have persisted over the decades, despite the obvious need for novelty and innovation. In other words, what we call a “Hollywood movie” is much the same artifact today as it was in the late teens and early 1920s. Recent changes in Hollywood’s industrial and institutional operations threaten this formal-aesthetic stability, however, due to.
