"Prince's book pushes us to reconceptualize the interactions of economics and ideologyÉ. It evokes and invokes the richness of filmmaking practices--both mainstream and alternative--even as it gives a harsh and perhaps tragic image of a cultural form, the cinema, losing its specificity and even identity in the vast synergistic networks of control at the end of the twentieth century."—Dana Polan, Film Quarterly

"Prince resists standard views of the period as one dominated by the blockbuster mentality of Lucas and Spielberg and by the ideology of the Reagan administration. He argues that 1980s Hollywood was not monolithic but diverse. During the 1980s, the film industry reinvented itself to accommodate the new 'delivery systems' of cable and home video. Corporate conglomeration of the 1970s went in reverse as corporations restructured."—Choice