How Disney Ruined Hollywood
Independent filmmakers have a chance to hit the spotlight through streaming services.
The world is changing day by day and with that means companies must develop with the times and follow how people are consuming products. Due to many major closings of movie theaters and entertainment complexes around the modern world from the pandemic and their high prices, the media landscape is moving digital.
We can see the shift to digital releases with Disney+ and HBO Max. Disney+ released Pixar’s Soul and a live action Mulan to their platform and garnered some major subscribers to their platform. HBO Max released Wonder Woman 1984 and had nominal success on the platform, but a large rush in subscribers on the opening day of the film. No matter the success that is becoming of these releases they are the start of what is to come for the industry. In this case, the first company to develop a winning strategy in producing films straight to their platform and in creating a winning marketing plan will win the streaming wars.
Now I know what you’re asking, How is Hollywood ruined? Well the short answer is;
No one has a chance anymore.
The graph above depicts the highest grossing movies of all time as of February 2021. The Walt Disney Company owns or has partial ownership in 15 of the 20 top grossing movies of all time. Along with that 16 out of 20 of these films are a part of multi-movie franchises. These statistics help point out the production companies in Hollywood are looking for content that is able to become a franchise, not cinematic art for the enjoyment of audiences. The shift in focus for Hollywood has made it harder to become successful as an independent filmmaker if they are unable to master word-building and pass the strict censors of media today.
This being said, Disney has created a problem for other studios with their Marvel Cinematic Universe project. The repeated success of their line-up in movies and now TV-series have pushed other companies to look into creating a similar byproduct. However, such as the major flop of the ‘Dark-Universe’ by Universal Pictures, we may be able to see a chance for independent filmmakers to take over streaming services. As Universal Pictures moves their major projects in the ‘Dark-Universe’ line up to, Blumhouse Productions, a production company known to produce movies with low budgets and high critical success, we may see the same actions happening for streaming services.
Disney+, Netflix, and Hulu have been able to create remarkable TV series on their platform, but only Netflix and Disney+ have made an effort to produce original movies to a great success. Also, with streaming platforms being a new medium of entertainment, no studio is reigning over the “streaming box office.” This means that streaming platforms are in need of content to produce and beat out each other for the subscribers on the platform.
So for independent filmmakers, the ability to create a low budget film that is able to become a franchise may be able to be picked up by streaming services as they look for new content for the growing audience on their platform. As we see the fall of Hollywood and even movie theaters I would like for all of us to now focus on helping smaller filmmakers have their shot in giving us new classics for us to watch on our couches and an opportunity to restart the landscape of movie making.
I enjoyed researching and looking into the different ways the box office is affected by these major companies. Please clap and respond with what you would like me to cover next.
