The capital market is to blame for the streamer boom. The explanation for the current developments at the major studios could be that simple. Subscription services suggest to investors that revenues are supposedly secure. These are then valued at a higher factor and lead to easier access to capital for the providers. The studios were able to write off high production costs for films through their own streaming services. The correction of Netflix shares and the overwhelming success of classic blockbusters in the cinema are having an effect. The really big companies believe in the power of the big screen again. If the cinema regains its importance, that is good news, especially for independent film producers.
The station baker usually doesn't know his customers. He doesn't have any purchase guarantees either. But he knows how many of which rolls he is likely to sell. If everything goes according to plan, he can cover his costs and make a profit. If he miscalculates, it doesn't work. If all-you-can-eat flat rates become established, he will have a problem, and so will the bakeries that supply him. They can quickly reorient themselves and bake for the flat-rate providers - the big ones better than the small ones.
Independent film producers were in danger of dying out in the cinema market. The momentum for a turnaround is there. WMD has already announced it, and distributors had justified hopes of a cinema renaissance thanks to the gigantic success of "Maverick". This is by no means the end of the story.
Netflix initially occupied the "edgy" niche with its program, with a program that was otherwise only seen at festivals. Outstanding quality on the home television in large quantities. The market shook with the merger of the US major studios Disney with Fox and the launch of the in-house streaming service Disney+. In the long term, mainstream content would only be used in a proprietary way in the company's own system. Pay TV providers and Amazon Prime had already repeatedly stolen target groups from advertising-financed television channels. The vast majority of television viewers initially stuck with free TV or the established cable TV subscription models. Now things were getting really tight. The channels increasingly switched to factual, show and entertainment - with great success. At the same time, the global program reforms also devalued the film assets of studios and streamers. Anyone who has no program slots is not considered as a potential buyer.
At the same time, it became much more difficult for independent producers to create their own IPs, i.e. their own values. The market for commissioned productions was already huge, but the Netflix stock market crash gave us an idea of how little could be left if broadcasters had no fiction and streamers had no money. Under this market pressure, the cultural film heritage of an entire generation is being sidelined. Without their own productions, important impulses and social developments may not be reflected enough in film work. What remains is the commissioned program choreographed by editors and buyers according to different standards. A representative, overall social balance may only arise by chance.
This makes the decision by Warner Bros. Discovery to focus more on cinema all the more important. "Quiet please, we're filming!" could best describe this 180-degree change of course. The other studios are unlikely to give up the gigantic cash cow "box office" without a fight, and so we can enjoy the active use of cinemas, the promotion of cinema films and the increase in their value. The healthier and more popular the cinemas, the bolder the distributors, the more stable the production financing. Now the broadcasters just have to create appropriate broadcasting slots for domestic films - the so-called local content.
Your Ensider:Team