What Happened to Movies and Why Miniseries Are Winning
Hollywood evolution from silent film to streaming chaos
What started with silent eyebrows, is somehow ending with 3,000 streaming services fighting over your monthly $9.99, while still showing you ads.
Gee, a lot has changed in movies and TV shows over the decades, hasn’t it?
So, here’s a rundown of Hollywood (and the world) in cinema, movies, and television.
The Silent Era (1890s–1927)
Hollywood wasn’t always Hollywood (as we know it).
In the early days, movies were made wherever a camera could be cranked and light was decent.
Then someone realized Los Angeles had the perfect combo of cheap land, great weather, and zero Edison patent lawyers.
The real Hollywood was born.
Silent films ruled. There was no dialogue, just title cards, exaggerated facial expressions, and the occasional live pianist trying to keep up with the car chase.
Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Mary Pickford were megastars without saying a word.
🌍 Globally: European cinema flourished, too. France’s Pathé and Gaumont were early giants, and German expressionist films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari pushed visual storytelling to new heights.
The Golden Age of Hollywood (1927–1948)
Then came The Jazz Singer in 1927, and everything changed.
Sound entered the picture. Literally.
This era was all about glamour and control. The Big Five studios (MGM, Paramount, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, and RKO) owned everything.
And I mean everything, from the actors, to audiences, to the theaters.
Movies were shot on backlots under strict moral codes. And stars? They were molded, renamed, and carefully managed like highly attractive livestock.
Movies were big, romantic, and melodramatic. Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, The Wizard of Oz. The kind of stuff you watch on a rainy Sunday when you want to pretend you live in sepia tone.
🌍 Globally: Soviet montage theory revolutionized editing, while Japanese cinema began its rise with filmmakers like Ozu and Mizoguchi.
TV Arrives (Late 1940s–1960s)
The panic begins…
After WWII, television started creeping into homes everywhere, and studio executives broke into cold sweats.
Suddenly, audiences didn’t have to leave their living rooms for entertainment.
Hollywood fought back with color, widescreen, and biblical epics so long they required intermissions.
Meanwhile, early TV delivered wholesome sitcoms (Leave It to Beaver), variety shows, and The Twilight Zone, which basically invented the concept of “that episode still haunts me.”
By the late ’50s, everyone realized TV wasn’t a fad. It was here to stay. Sort of.
🌍 Globally: British television surged with the BBC, India launched its national broadcaster Doordarshan, and Italian neorealism made gritty post-war films that ignored Hollywood’s gloss.
The New Hollywood Era (Late 1960s–Early 1980s)
After a decline in box office and a few corporate misfires (Cleopatra nearly bankrupted a studio), the old system collapsed, and young directors ran wild.
This is the “auteur era,” where people like Scorsese, Spielberg, Lucas, and Coppola took over.
They brought realism, grit, counterculture, and a little chaos. Films like The Godfather, Taxi Driver, and Apocalypse Nowhit hard, while Star Wars and Jaws accidentally invented the modern blockbuster.
It was messy, artistic, and thrilling. Studio execs didn’t always know what was happening, but they were making money again, so they didn’t care.
🌍 Globally: French New Wave directors like Truffaut and Godard turned film into philosophy, and Bollywood embraced technicolor musicals with stars that rivaled any Hollywood fame.
The Blockbuster & Sitcom Era (1980s–Mid-1990s)
Maybe this time was peak movie and TV.
Hollywood figured out that high-concept, franchise-friendly movies made bank. Enter E.T., Ghostbusters, Batman, and Die Hard. Studios started measuring success not by Oscars, but by toy sales.
On the small screen, network TV exploded. Sitcoms (Cheers, The Cosby Show, Friends) and procedurals (Law & Order, ER) ruled prime time.
Cable was rising, and the streaming revolution was still a blurry buffer in the future.
🌍 Globally: Hong Kong action cinema exploded with Jackie Chan and John Woo, while Latin America and the Middle East saw the rise of telenovelas with never-ending melodrama.
The Digital and CGI Revolution (Mid-1990s–2000s)
Somewhere down the line, Hollywood fell in love with computers.
Jurassic Park showed the world what real animatronics combined with CGI could do. Toy Story became the first full-length computer-animated film.
Suddenly, anything seemed possible.
Digital cameras replaced film. Editing suites went virtual. DVDs replaced VHS, and pirating movies on LimeWire became a the new teenager hobby.
TV took itself more seriously, too. The Sopranos, The Wire, and Breaking Bad turned television into the new playground for complex storytelling.
🌍 Globally: Iranian cinema earned international acclaim for its poetic minimalism, while South Korea began its ascent with genre-bending thrillers and dramas.
The Streaming Takeover (2010s–Early 2020s)
Netflix started as a DVD mail service and somehow became a cultural institution.
Once House of Cards hit in 2013, every tech company wanted a piece of the content pie. Amazon, Apple, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Peacock, and more joined the streaming war.
Chaos.
Studios became obsessed with franchises and cinematic universes. Marvel dominated theaters. Stranger Things took over the internet. Everyone had a list of shows they “need to start.”
It started getting exhausting.
🌍 Globally: Korean dramas (Squid Game), Spanish thrillers (Money Heist), and German sci-fi (Dark) proved that streaming had no borders — just subtitles.
The Miniseries Boom (2020s-now):
Can you feel the shift happening too?
Movie stars, red carpet royalty, started popping up in miniseries on streaming platforms.
And not just doing a one-off guest role. They were leading the show(s).
From Oscar-winning performances in cinema movies to leading roles in multi-episode mini-series.
What happened?
Limited series gave them film-level roles with fewer time commitments and way more creative control. That’s one thing.
And viewers loved it. Streaming shows like these seem to boom. Streaming miniseries are the new arthouse.
Big emotions. Huge talent. And a lot of trauma unpacked over a handful beautifully shot episodes.
It’s cool stuff.
🌍 Globally: Prestige miniseries also surged outside the U.S., to almost every country in the world.
So, What Now?
Is classic Hollywood done?
We’re in a weird moment. Streaming platforms have multiplied like crazy.
The 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes brought issues to the forefront, like pay transparency, streaming residuals, and fears about AI taking over.
Even the box office is confused.
One week, Barbie and Oppenheimer bring people back to theaters. The next, a billion-dollar sequel flops because no one asked for it. And it sucked.
We’re in the middle of a recalibration.
Audiences want simplicity. Studios want franchises. Creatives want freedom. And streaming services want ads.
Hollywood used to be a factory. Then it became a playground. Now it’s kind of like a startup with too many investors and not enough product-market fit.
But stories still matter.
Whether on the big screen, at home, or streamed on a phone, we still want to feel something while watching.
The business model may shift, but great storytelling refuses to die. And that’s good.
I’ll be watching.
This was a great read.