End of the Blockbuster Era

Previously I've mentioned that it's pointless to http://riskman.typepad.com/perilocity/2006/02/restoration_blo.html game the political system to preserve Hollywood's profits, when they're partly based on blockbusters that may go the way of Restoration spectactulars. It turned out George Lucas also thinks the era of blockbusters is over. Maybe Lucas saw the data Chris Anderson has been posting on his blog, and which he summarizes as:

Meanwhile, the fraction of total box office that comes from the blockbusters (top 25 films) has been steadily falling, even as the cost of making those films (expressed here as a percentage of total box office revenue) has been rising:

Maybe Hollywood should get a new business model and stop risking their entire business on a model that no longer works; that would certainly be less risky for the rest of us than forcing us to use crippled computers just for Hollywood's advantage.

-jsq