American Film in the Digital Age

Prior to being broken up by the Supreme Court in 1946, the movie industry was a vertical monopoly controlled primarily by eight studios. Ironically, today just six vertically and horizontally integrated companies have a worldwide monopoly on all forms of media. How did this vast power become so concentrated—and where do we go from here?

The American film industry has entered a new era. American Film in the Digital Age traces the industrial changes since 1990 that have brought us to this point, namely: the rise of media conglomerates, the proliferation of pornography through peripheral avenues of mainstream media, the role of star actors and directors in distributing and publicizing their own pet projects, the development of digital technology, and the death of truly independent films.

Author Robert Sickels draws straight lines from the movies to music, DVDs, video games, fast food, digital-on-demand, and more, to demonstrate how all forms of media are merging into one. He explores the irony that the success of independent films essentially killed independent cinema, showing how it has become almost impossible to get a film released without the imprimatur of one of the big six media companies—Fox, Viacom, TimeWarner, Disney, General Electric, or CBS. In the end, using recent, popular films as examples, he explains not only how we got where we are, but where we're likely headed as well.

Robert C. Sickels, PhD, is professor of American film and popular culture in the Department of Rhetoric and Film Studies at Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA. In addition to publishing numerous journal articles, he is also the author of Greenwood's American Popular Culture through History: The 1940's and is an independent filmmaker whose work has appeared in festivals around the world.