Dr Paul Allen

It was an interesting, unpredictable year for movies. The ominous spectre of AI sparked lengthy writers’ and actors’ strikes that debilitated the industry for more than a third of the year. A seemingly organic meme ( #Barbieheimer ) led to   box-office gold   for two movies that likely wouldn’t have been as big without the bizarre dynamics of social media   pseudoevents . Faith audiences propelled a movie about child sex trafficking to become   one of the biggest box-office hits of the year . Meanwhile, in the face of  several costly flops  and mounting accusations of promoting  woke propaganda , Disney CEO Bob Iger promised to  return the storied studio to its “roots” and prioritize quality storytelling over “messaging. ” Things are shifting in Hollywood. Audiences are showing signs of  superhero movie fatigue  ( thank goodness ), while “ brand movies ” (movies based on toys, video games, or Taylor Swift) are poised to further blur the lines between advertising and entertainment. The

Brett McCracken You can understand where a culture is at by paying attention to its hits. What in pop culture is resonating with masses of people right now? This question isn’t only interesting to ponder; for Christians, it’s instructive for mission. Pop culture sensations have explanatory power—revealing the loves, longings, pain points, and paradoxes of the populace we’re called to reach with the gospel. Surveying the pop culture landscape of summer 2023, four big sensations stand out: two movies ( Sound of Freedom  and  Barbie ) and two musical artists (Taylor Swift and Oliver Anthony). Each pair represents our cultural fragmentation in microcosm, its polarities indicative of widening cultural divisions. I’ll consider each of the four “hits” first on its own terms and then as duelling “pairs” that, I argue, map onto contemporary cultural tensions. Taylor Swift We knew Taylor Swift’s Eras tour would be big. But few expected it would be so jaw-droppingly big that  it would significant