This article is from WeChat public account:All Media School (ID: quanmeipai), author: All media pie, head Figure from: pixabay
How long has it been since you went to the cinema?
With the improvement of the domestic epidemic situation, it seems that the days when closed entertainment venues such as theaters and theaters are gradually opening are getting closer.
But in the United States across the ocean, the film and television industry still does not see much light. Earlier, the much-anticipated Disney’s “Mulan” hastily withdrew after the premiere. Warner’s “Thunder Shazan 2” and “Flash” and other movies also announced the adjustment of the schedule, and such as “small Films such as Mermaid were also forced to temporarily stop production.
In the face of the current predicament, Richard Janes, an Emmy-winning Hollywood producer, even sighed: “Hollywood’s original power structure, display platform, and products have been uprooted. The following year Here, we will usher in a completely different situation from the past 20 years.”
Medium and The Verge articles compiled by the all-media group in this issue will give you an overview of the power changes in Hollywood and the opportunities and challenges facing the current situation.
A brokerage company with a big power
In the 1980s, Hollywood’s brokerage company controlled actors, screenwriters, producers, studio sales, music rights, etc., and it was called “one hand covering the sky”. But now, the power of brokerage companies has fallen, and the structure of Hollywood has undergone tremendous changes.
First of all, many large brokerage companies are sold to hedge funds, and the main goal of hedge funds is to make profits, which means that they will promote revenue growth at all costs, and also force brokerage companies to touch the entertainment industry more.
Today, the operating space of the brokerage company is more restricted, and the top Hollywood writers (screenwriter) began to fire their brokers in order to Regain dominance from the brokerage company. In the past, brokerage companies tended to “span class=”text-remarks” label=”Remarks”> (screenwriter), directors, producers and other practitioners “360 degree packaging” “text-remarks” label=”Remarks”>(360 Packaging)Sell, and earn the intermediary difference from it. In order to make their profitable space larger, brokerage companies often try to compress the remuneration of writers.
Streaming companies such as Netflix have further broken the dominance of brokerage companies. Global distribution, a large streaming audience, and clear data-driven decisions have taken away many of the brokerage’s bargaining chips at the negotiating table, and their once creative trading tools have begun to fail. Compared with professional lawyers and managers, brokers What additional value can the company provide?
At the same time, due to the impact of the epidemic, there was no audience to listen to the concert, a large number of games were canceled, and these were originally an important source of profit for the brokerage company.
As the power of the brokerage company falls, new questions also arise. Who is in control of the power now? Some of them are transferred toThe hands of distributors, such as those of streaming media, but the more practical power is transferred to the producers.
So, Why can producers seize these opportunities? The reason is simple: content needs. Consumers are used to adding a lot of content to the playlist every month. Netflix, Hulu or Apple TV+ must produce more originals.
Facing a lot of content needs, websites, studios and streaming companies don’t have the right teams or time to produce content as they used to. This time they need Hollywood producers who can find content and develop it quickly and comprehensively This content, and won the trust of investors. This is a huge leap for many producers who are deeply immersed in the rules of the old world. Although many producers will become nothing like the 1990s, there will always be fresh blood or those who are familiar with the rules of the game. “Cannon” can win, they can establish partnerships with filmmakers and screenwriters, establish their own small studios, and produce and distribute their own content, thus helping the platform to fill the “appetite” of the audience who will never be satisfied. .
In a sense, Hollywood will increasingly trust producers, and producers will become more and more independent. If you see a former agent working with a creative producer to build a studio, in fact Don’t be surprised. The content industry is constantly evolving to meet the needs of consumers. At the same time, there will be huge turbulence on the platform side. It has long been boldly predicted that in the next year, many movie theaters may go bankrupt.
Movie theater is going to die or be reborn?
Cinemark CEO Mark Zoradi said in an interview in mid-April: “In the coming months, more movie theaters will slowly open, and then gradually close to the normal, in order to make big movies like “Creed” Brilliant.”
However, in reality, there is nothingAfter people’s movie theaters pay millions of dollars in rental fees, American chain theater giants AMC, Regal and Cinemark may all face unsustainable dilemmas. Even if people are told to enter the cinema in the future, there may still be many people who will choose to wait and see. It takes at least 18 months for people’s viewing habits to return to normal, and these theaters often do not have enough cash flow to maintain normal operation for such a long time.
This is not the only problem facing cinemas. During the period of home isolation, most of the audience’s attention was directed to streaming media, so many content producers also pushed more content directly to the streaming media platform, such as Scooby Doo animation studio’s new work “Scooby Dog” 》(Scoob) completely separated from the movie theater, and chose to release it on video on demand on May 15th, and then it will be transferred to streaming media Platform HBO Max.
So once the theater reopens, the theater will need to face the problem of content shortage, and the number of new movies will not be enough to cover all the big screens.
So, will the cinema end here? No, they will be reborn.
(Quentin Tarantino) or Martin Scorsese(Martin Scorsese) and other top filmmakers are in a frantic battle, while many filmmakers still express their expectations for their works to appear on the big screen, rather than directly enter To the web theater. For Hollywood geniuses, the film release is always a gold ticket,
A change in law also changes all thisAs possible, publishers such as Warner Bros., Disney, Lionsgate, and even Netflix, Amazon, and Apple all have the opportunity to own their own cinemas.
The Paramount Act (Paramount Decree) passed by the US government in 1948 stipulates that neither production companies nor distributors can legally own movie theaters The promulgation of the Paramount Act promoted the separation between commercial and independent films. Under the protection of this Act, chain theaters such as AMC, Regal and Cinemark and independent movie theaters were born. Nowadays, the distribution channels of movies are more diversified, and the ownership of production companies cannot restrict public access to content. The production company can shoot something, upload it to YouTube, and get a million views in a week. As a result, the Paramount Act will be terminated, and the US Department of Justice has made corresponding requests to the federal district courts.
Future movie theaters may be injected with large amounts of money, become entertainment centers, and provide unprecedented quality experiences. Amazon will acquire one of the three giants AMC, Regal and Cinemark, and provide special screenings for Amazon Prime members. They will compile screening content based on the viewing data of Amazon Prime members near each movie theater, and conduct precise marketing directly to the audience on their own platforms before the large-scale movie promotion of the movie theater and streaming media. In this way, Amazon does not have to rely solely on blockbuster to win.
This will provide consumers with more choices and at the same time allow more filmmakers’ works to have the opportunity to be shown on the big screen, although these works may only be played in a small area in the community interested in the film. But it is still possible to test whether a large-scale distribution is necessary.
Amazon can also introduce game streaming media Twitch into the cinema. With the development of e-sports, cinema screens can also play e-sports content. Audiences can watch players from all over the world playing at the same time.
For Disney, the suspension of theme parks and cruise ships and the suspension of sporting events have dealt a heavy blow to them. Opening a retail store into a movie theater is a good choice. Everyone who has been to Disneyland knows that, Whenever you end a game, you will see a beautifully decorated gift shop, which is often very attractive to children. Disney can also create such an experience in a movie theater, such as placing its own goods at the exit and letting the fairy tale characters welcome you at the entrance and exit. This experience will go far beyond watching “Undersea” with a 55-inch LED surround sound TV at home general mobilization”.
As a disruptor of the music industry, Apple has been working hard to maintain an important position in the film and TV fields, and also has huge control in the music industry. In December 2018, Apple acquired Platoon, a small music technology startup company (the company mainly helps independent artists to finance, distribute and promote their works), Cooperate directly with its singers, bands and songwriters to publish and sell their works, so the stage of the cinema can be used by Apple to support and promote live concerts, which will bring a different experience.
Traditional filmmakers may be worried about these changes, but in fact it is not necessary. The cinema will generally get better. Although a large number of movie theaters may go bankrupt because they cannot provide an excellent experience to urge the audience to leave their living room, and there is no diversified business model to pay rent and employee salaries. However, due to lower marketing costs and more powerful data analysis, the remaining movie theaters can arrange more movies. In addition, filmmakers can even publish high-quality movies on platforms such as Amazon, or filmmakers and distributors can rent a movie theater for a short period of time, and get all the box office revenue during that period, which is entirely possible.
At the same time, independent films are back in the hands of producers, so independent producers must become real entrepreneurs to build brands, connect audiences, and develop strategies. If they can do this, the distribution network of the streaming platform willLet them get the attention they deserve and earn more energy and trust for these independent producers’ future projects.
In addition to the big environment, there are these obstacles to resuming work
In the past few weeks, resuming work has been a hot topic in Hollywood, but before resuming work, Hollywood’s own problems have also been discussed.
First of all, the most direct problem comes from the lack of insurance. When the delay in filming caused millions of dollars in loss, the filmmaker may not be able to afford the cost, and now the insurance company has included the epidemic situation in its actuarial model and hopes to exclude it from insurance payments as much as possible. So in the next few months, what we are most likely to see is not big production, but some small-cost movies.
For producers, they need to persuade top actors to restart their work while developing a health and safety plan. It may be more difficult to persuade these big guys to restart work than to make a safety plan. Because these top actors clearly realize that they can’t wear masks while working, and must have close contact with other actors, they are not easy to believe that the crew can quickly return to normal. Those who have already signed up have no choice, but for those who have not yet been tied to movies and TV shows, they may be more willing to wait.
In addition, the Hollywood union usually decides a series of matters, including how many people the crew needs to hire, which often makes the producer very frustrated, because so many people are not actually used, but due to the union regulations, the crew must get To hire, this means cost increase.
Finally, working hours are also a problem. Most film crews do not have their own lives at all after shooting. They work 12 to 18 hours a day, sometimes 6 days a week. Lack of sleep will also bring down the level of the immune system.
A variety of issues are indeed profoundly affecting the prospects of Hollywood. Re-observing Hollywood on the current time scale, the decline of the brokerage company, the rise of the content industry, the rebirth of movie theaters, the change of film and television technology, etc., seem to indicate that it is entering a completely new stage. But in any case, there are some things that are always the same, as Richard Janes said: “No matter where you are in the world, it is time to innovate and be busy.”
Reference link:
1. https://medium.com/swlh/prepare-for-the-death-rebirth-of-hollywood-f3853aacbee0
2.https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/8/21252328/tenet-christopher-nolan-release-date-warner-bros-disney-mulan -paramount
This article comes from the WeChat public account:All Media School (ID: quanmeipai), Author: All media sent