I don't think Hollywood is going to end, nor that its future is bleak. Odds are it will just evolve into something different. After all, even though Hollywood is "pretty dead" right now, that's more because of the pandemic and government-imposed restrictions and not because moviegoers are tired of going to the movies. Personally, I'm eager to go back to the cinemas. A 2020 report on the entertainment industry, for example, shows that in 2019, all segments of entertainment--movies, tv, and streaming--all grew at impressive rates and that kids loved going to the movies.

With that said, I think Hollywood, or movie-making in general, is going to be firmly split into two camps with Studios and Big Blockbusters dominating theaters on one side and the Auteurs and Independent Films making inroads in streaming.

We saw a bit of this in 2019. That year, we had nine traditional blockbusters enter the billion-dollar club. Avengers: Endgame even making it to 2.7 billion. If look at these movies, with the exception of The Joker, most of them were studio-led. Not to say that this is a bad thing, most of these movies were entertaining and regardless of the quality, moviegoers went to the theaters for them. But they are not as groundbreaking, edgy, or thought-provoking as those where the director was the one with the final say.

In contrast, movies like Marriage Story and The Irishman, which were groundbreaking, edgy, and thought-provoking were technically streaming films and only released in theaters so that they could qualify for awards season.

So, post-pandemic we're probably going to see this trend continue. And I don't see anything wrong with that. There are movies that are more suited to viewing in theaters where we can get swept up with the excitement of the crowd, while others are better suited at home where we can contemplate our personal experience better.

Another possibility is that movie makers and movie goers will be more platform agnostic in the future. With today's tv shows being produced with the same scope and production values as movies shown in theaters, and streaming content generating buzz like big blockbusters, it's possible that there will come a day when it wouldn't matter if a film was shown in theaters, on tv, or in streaming.

Sure, film directors and actors are complaining about this at the moment (no one wants to be "demoted" to streaming), but that's more like fighting against the tide. For example, as a moviegoer, I would like to have the choice of whether to watch a film in theaters or stream it in Netflix. Or maybe I want to watch it in theaters on release day and stream it the next day. Hollywood being a business, I think this is a model that they will adopt soon.