Hollywood Math and Aftermath ─ The Economic Image and the Digital Recession

Hollywood Math and Aftermath begins by exploring Hollywood's fictional numbers in normal circumstances - the period stretching from about 1970 until the onset of the Great Recession in 2008 - and then traces some of the consequences of economic collapse. The first half of this book explains the math and the second half traces the aftermath.

Introducing each section with a case study, J.D. Connor first justifies his hyperattention to Hollywood finances through films when the studio was most intensively reimagining its place within the changed macroeconomy of the Nixon and Carter years with four crucial examples-Performance, The Exorcist, All the President's Men, and The In-Laws-each revolving around a particular economic phenomenon: extortion, renting, forensic accounting, and counterfeiting. Connor then details the industry and the representation of the industry after the recession, providing new cinematic themes to pursue-the financial crisis in Arbitrage and the housing bubble in Magic Mike. After years of stalled recovery and grinding austerity, the question these films ask is: how is any society possible at all? J.D. Connor's Hollywood Math and Aftermath proves a stimulating and original take on the relationship between economics and the Hollywood film industry since the 1970s.