Power Surge
Conglomerate Hollywood and the Studio System's Last Hurrah
Format:Hardback
Publisher:University of California Press
Published:7th Jul '26
Should be back in stock very soon
“[An] impressive work . . . an entertaining pop history"—The Wall Street Journal
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.
“A history of the mergers, blockbusters, and indie hits that built contemporary Hollywood.”
* Kirkus Reviews *"Smart, well-researched history . . . Throughout, Schatz ably balances board room machinations with insightful critical analyses of the period’s most influential films. This is a must-read for cinephiles."
* Publishers Weekly *“Offers a rich and balanced view of the modern film industry.”
* Library Journal *“Reveals that the latest version of Hollywood is exacerbating the worst aspects of the so-called Golden Age . . . Schatz is thorough and largely non-judgmental in describing the inner workings of this diabolical dream factory.”
“An impressive work...Power Surge makes for a dense but rewarding narrative with its cast of CEOs and filmmakers who strut across—and occasionally fall off—the stage. There are tales of visionary ambition that, more often than not, don’t pan out…an entertaining pop history.”
* Wall Street Journal *“Power Surge looks at the shifts and mergers that led to films like 'Batman,' 'Pulp Fiction' and 'Do the Right Thing' — and how that era came to an end.”
ISBN: 9780520415805
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
552 pages