Power surge : conglomerate Hollywood and the studio system's last hurrah / Thomas Schatz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schatz, Thomas, 1948- Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Motion pictures--United States--History--20th century.

Motion pictures.

Motion picture industry--United States--History--20th century.

Motion picture industry.

United States.

Genre:

History

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2026]

Summary:

"From the author of The Genius of the System, the classic tale of Hollywood's first golden age, comes the story of its last. Thomas Schatz returns us to an era when a newly enriched movie industry rediscovered its creative energy, and indie went mainstream without losing its edge. Between 1989 and 2004, all the old studios either merged with other media giants or were swallowed up by even bigger diversified behemoths, leading to an infusion of money and fast-tracking the digital revolution. Yet even as CGI and piles of cash fueled a new breed of blockbusters--Batman and Titanic, Toy Story and The Lord of the Rings--an indie ethos permeated the industry. And at the crossroads of commodification and aesthetic vision, auteurs ranging from Steven Soderbergh and Quentin Tarantino to Sofia Coppola and Ang Lee became household names. Power Surge traces these trajectories, which increasingly clashed and commingled during the 1990s and early 2000s, resulting in nothing short of a new golden age--and perhaps the last gasp of the century-old studio system"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction : the genesis of a new system

Warner Bros., Tim Burton, and Batman

The first wave

In from off-Hollywood : sex, lies, and videotape and Do the right thing

Coda : holiday hits and Oscar bait

Disney hits and misses, and the animation renaissance

The new Sony/Columbia regime and James Cameron's T2

Three indie paradigms : New Line, Sony Classics, and Miramax

Renaissance redux : the return of Coppola, Scorsese, and Eastwood

Batman returns and Steve Ross departs

Spielberg's Twin Peaks : Jurassic Park and Schindler's list

The emergence of Indiewood

Triumph and turmoil at Disney

Tidal wave

Pixar and Toy story

Titanic, and other imaginations of disaster

The year of the independents and the age of Miramax

Disney's widening gyre

DreamWorks (finally) arrives

Coda : the Oscar showdown and Peter Bart's Gross anatomy

In search of the One : The phantom menace and The matrix

The third wave

Indie meets mainstream : unlikely hits and studio hybrids

Dethroning Disney : Pixar, DreamWorks, and the animation subindustry

Harry Potter and The lord of the rings : franchises for the new millennium

Course correction : the fall of AOL and Vivendi and the birth of NBC Universal

The Time Warner franchise factory

Indiewood ascendant and the desperation of independents

Disney at sea : the end of the Eisner era

Split decision : the fate of DreamWorks

Sony/Columbia, Marvel, and Spider-Man

Epilogue : franchise fever, the next wave, and the streaming era.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Online resource; title from PDF title page (De Gruyter Brill, viewed May 12, 2026).

Other Format:

Print version: Power surge

ISBN:

9780520415829

0520415825

OCLC:

1585500243

Publisher Number:

CIPO000365650

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license