Why Has TV Become So Good While Movies Have Become So Bad?

It's long been agreed by critics that we're in a new golden age of television.  From The Sopranos to 30 Rock, the quality of the writing and production has never been better.  So why are movies getting worse?

First, they are getting worse.  It's not something I've been consciously aware of, but my movie consumption has been dropping year-on-year for a long time.  The folks over at Moki, a movie and TV search engine, have an answer to a question I didn't know I had: yes, they're getting worse.

They did a bit of number crunching and they found that, indeed, over the last 20 years, movies have been getting worse.  The basic trend is towards more polarizing movies (some people like them, some don't) and movies with generally lower reviews.

From Moki - Visual Evidence That Movies Are Getting Worse

Of course, it's hard to objectively measure things that are inherently subjective.  It's a bit like asking is art getting better or worse - but movies are art as well as commerce.  And it may be the commerce part that is making movies worse.  (I don't believe in the idea that society is somehow in permanent decline and that our art is a reflection of that).

It's long been known that movies suck, at least in the money-making department.  Hits are hard to make and hard to predict and they can cost a ton of money to promote.  And that trend has been increasing.  Despite several efforts by movie studios to rein it in, the average cost of a blockbuster movie has been rising dramatically.

And the bigger the bet becomes, the more conservative the bettor gets.  And so Hollywood has shifted from risk-taking to careful nurturing of reliable movie franchises.  (Nurturing defined as using until thoroughly exhausted, and then trying again like Star Trek, Spiderman, and Superman.)  And sequels, prequels, and remakes are, more often than not, not as good as the original.

So if that explains why movies are getting worse, why is TV getting better?  Because the economics in TV are flowing the other way.  The cost of making good TV is going down thanks to digital production and distribution.  Furthermore, while a movie is often a one-shot deal, good TV builds over time, so the first episode is cheap and it only gets expensive when a series becomes a hit.

So even as risk-taking gets more expensive with movies, it has gotten cheaper with TV. The result: more risk-taking and better results.