I don’t think ideas are the problem, it’s that new forms of distribution are causing the industry to panic. Producers are making safer bets (sequels, remakes, franchises) so original ideas, which tons of people have, aren’t getting funded.
Also worth noting that producers these days are less Hollywood and more Wall Street, they don’t really understand movies so they make calls based on numbers and precedent that let them estimate profitability.
It hasn’t been decades. Maybe 15 years, though. It’s coincided with the ubiquity of streaming.
Before Netflix was everywhere, a movie could bomb in theaters and still make up the difference on the back end. Kevin Smith’s Clerks and Mallrats are great examples of movies that absolutely cleaned up on DVD sales. Comedy Central using advertising money and licensing Office Space for 20 hours per week is part of why the producers trusted Mike Judge enough to make Idiocracy.
But steamers don’t pay nearly as well as direct-to-consumer home video or as well as advertising-supported licenses. So producers are disincenrivized to do mid-budget movies or take chances on new IPs, because if it doesn’t do well in theaters then they’re not making the money back.
You’re also having a problem that the new forms of distribution don’t seem to replace the revenue of old forms. A lot of people hoped that they could replicate HBO’s approach to streaming, but it turns out that it doesn’t work well if every streamer tries to be premium cable.
And if you raise prices too much, people stop paying.
I don’t think ideas are the problem, it’s that new forms of distribution are causing the industry to panic. Producers are making safer bets (sequels, remakes, franchises) so original ideas, which tons of people have, aren’t getting funded.
Also worth noting that producers these days are less Hollywood and more Wall Street, they don’t really understand movies so they make calls based on numbers and precedent that let them estimate profitability.
But this has been the case for decades.
It hasn’t been decades. Maybe 15 years, though. It’s coincided with the ubiquity of streaming.
Before Netflix was everywhere, a movie could bomb in theaters and still make up the difference on the back end. Kevin Smith’s Clerks and Mallrats are great examples of movies that absolutely cleaned up on DVD sales. Comedy Central using advertising money and licensing Office Space for 20 hours per week is part of why the producers trusted Mike Judge enough to make Idiocracy.
But steamers don’t pay nearly as well as direct-to-consumer home video or as well as advertising-supported licenses. So producers are disincenrivized to do mid-budget movies or take chances on new IPs, because if it doesn’t do well in theaters then they’re not making the money back.
You’re also having a problem that the new forms of distribution don’t seem to replace the revenue of old forms. A lot of people hoped that they could replicate HBO’s approach to streaming, but it turns out that it doesn’t work well if every streamer tries to be premium cable.
And if you raise prices too much, people stop paying.