From the deeper, richer characters of TV writing to its trouncing of dwindling box-office receipts, the small screen is overturning a decades-old myth: that cinema is the superior genre
For decades, television found it difficult to shake its reputation as cinema’s poorer cousin. Sure, television was exciting – as the box in the corner of your room, it had a familiar intimacy that was hard to replicate – but it couldn’t hold a candle to the money, the glamour, the flat-out star power of the movies.
How distant that now seems. The international box office is in the midst of a worrying drought. Thanks to production delays caused by Covid, this summer has seen roughly half the usual amount of movies released, and it is showing on the bottom line. The lack of blockbusters has meant that the top movie in the US in early September was Top Gun: Maverick, a film that came out back in May.
