The Slow Death of Hollywood • Hacker News Board

Re: The Slow Death of Hollywood

#171

Post by softwaredoug » Thu, Jul 11, 2019, 1:23 AM UTC

jedberg wrote: post #133

> There’s much less of a market, and much less information circulating, even though we have the internet and much better mechanisms for moving information to one another. I think it is because of the internet and better moving information that there is a lack of a market and the "slow roll" doesn't work anymore. If a movie is bad, most people will know after the first day. Also, back in the day you'd just show up at…

Gotten to the point where the research has gotten too stressful. Feels like there’s a lot of pressure choosing the best movie to invest 2 hrs of my life!

Now I find it more relaxing to go based on just the trailers and enjoy the bad ones when they happen.

Re: The Slow Death of Hollywood

#172

Post by keithwhor » Thu, Jul 11, 2019, 1:24 AM UTC

sytelus wrote: post #165

There have been counter arguments that Netflix and Prime Video has in fact saved Hollywood. If you want to make a movie in hollywood, you have to know people who will fund you. You need big connections, close friendships, strong referrals. Even then terms are often not favorable to artists, budget cuts could happen at whims and non-established artists have little freedom. It's like a startup scene but how things used…

> It's like a startup scene but how things used to be done before YC.

Jeebus. Things aren't better or worse after YC, they're just different. YC is the same kind of content farm as Netflix. It's not that YC can't produce great startups, it's that so many "dumb money" investors rely heavily on YC as an initial signal that it's (1) more difficult to succeed if you're not YC and (2) if you are YC and fail (statistically likely), you are blackmarked in a pretty terrible way. Many businesses take multiple iterations to succeed.

YC was great when it had 30 great founders in the same way Netflix was great when it first aired Black Mirror. We have to find more robust funding models for promising teams (in all verticals) that don't get compromised by immediate cashflow requirements. Or else we end up with a Miley Cyrus Disney-Ending Black Mirror episode that... we... liked... but what happened to the dystopian horrors we thought we were paying for?

Re: The Slow Death of Hollywood

#173

Post by softwaredoug » Thu, Jul 11, 2019, 1:25 AM UTC

dade_ wrote: post #9

Or the slow death of both. After Mad Men and House of Cards, I just kept Netflix around but not usually impressed since anything I found that was any good got cancelled on the second season. I had no idea this was intentional until reading this article. So I cancelled when they raised the price and shared an account with a friend since I rarely used it. They raised the price again and he cancelled, but I don't miss i…

I remember when SyFy got a bad reputation for canceling their best shows. Seems a bold assumption that a paying customer base wouldn’t notice...

Re: The Slow Death of Hollywood

#174

Post by Merrill » Thu, Jul 11, 2019, 1:29 AM UTC

"How many films are released each year?" https://stephenfollows.com/how-many-films-are-released-each-...

The graph shows "Hollywood Wide Releases" at about 100/year for 1995 to 2016. The rate is almost constant.

"All Other Releases" go from about 170/year in 1995 to 640/year in 2016. The increase is roughly linear, with a major dip during the great recession of 2008-9.

Other graphs show that theater admissions are roughly constant over the period.

Re: The Slow Death of Hollywood

#175

Post by scarface74 » Thu, Jul 11, 2019, 1:30 AM UTC

Retric wrote: post #160

scarface74 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s not the point. Disney will soon have their own streaming service with a much better library.

That’s likely to present a problem. Disney has a lot of depth in their library, but are unlikely to drastically reduce DVD/Blueray/etc sales by including the full thing. Meanwhile customers are going to be disappointed unless they have full access to their entire catalog for a very low monthly fee. They may leverage the thing to surpass Netflix’s 150 million customer base. But, it’s far from a forgone conclusion at t…

Disney has a lot of preexisting deals that they are waiting to expire. But they have said that as deals expire, they will be bringing everything to Disney+.

From the CEO:

https://www.digitaltrends.com/movies/disney-plus-tv-shows-mo...

During an investors’ meeting, Disney CEO Bob Iger claimed that every single movie in the Disney catalog will arrive on Disney Plus “at some point fairly soon after launch.” Previously, Disney only released its most popular animated films on home video on a limited-time basis in order to make them feel more special. However, the so-called Disney “vault” is going to vanish when Disney Plus arrives.

On day one.

https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/disney-plus-lineup-sho...

Re: The Slow Death of Hollywood

#176

Post by mc32 » Thu, Jul 11, 2019, 1:36 AM UTC

TylerE wrote: post #125

magduf wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>But Hollywood have always done this - recycling old ideas in new wrapping. Yes, but I think it's safe to say that there were a lot more original movies a few decades ago than there are now. Hollywood used to take more risks. >According to Wikipedia, Aladdin grossed "$923.7 million, against a production budget of $183 million". So despite you and your nephew, Disney seem to manage OK. Exactly. People are bemoaning th…

> Yes, but I think it's safe to say that there were a lot more original movies a few decades ago than there are now. This is false. Sequels and book adaptions have dominated the top 10 every year for decades and decades.

Right. Movies don’t come out of thin air. They all need inspiration whether a book, a story, news item, etc. Its not writers making movie scripts ala SNL sketches.

Re: The Slow Death of Hollywood

#177

Post by ilaksh » Thu, Jul 11, 2019, 1:39 AM UTC

With decentralized technologies we can have the large networks/platforms without the monopolies. Just imagine that Ethereum 2.0 comes out supporting many transactions. Then create a dapp that integrates video somehow, maybe with something like BitTorrent.

Re: The Slow Death of Hollywood

#178

Post by kingkawn » Thu, Jul 11, 2019, 1:45 AM UTC

A friend teaches English in south east Asia. His younger students refuse to watch any movies from before ~2010, saying they are too old and slow. I think the focus on remakes is an attempt to capture this market that would otherwise not bother watching older content.

Re: The Slow Death of Hollywood

#179

Post by Retric » Thu, Jul 11, 2019, 1:46 AM UTC

scarface74 wrote: post #175

Retric wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s likely to present a problem. Disney has a lot of depth in their library, but are unlikely to drastically reduce DVD/Blueray/etc sales by including the full thing. Meanwhile customers are going to be disappointed unless they have full access to their entire catalog for a very low monthly fee. They may leverage the thing to surpass Netflix’s 150 million customer base. But, it’s far from a forgone conclusion at t…

Disney has a lot of preexisting deals that they are waiting to expire. But they have said that as deals expire, they will be bringing everything to Disney+. From the CEO: https://www.digitaltrends.com/movies/disney-plus-tv-shows-mo... During an investors’ meeting, Disney CEO Bob Iger claimed that every single movie in the Disney catalog will arrive on Disney Plus “at some point fairly soon after launch.” Previously,…

Movies are only one piece. The Disney also has a lot of TV content and even a 67% ownership share in existing streaming service Hulu.

I mean if their existing streaming service is firmly in edit: third place and they are looking to add a second that’s just not a great sign.

Re: The Slow Death of Hollywood

#180

Post by dehrmann » Thu, Jul 11, 2019, 1:51 AM UTC

barry-cotter wrote: post #167

paulddraper wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He told us he didn't want to see it because they(Disney) were just taking a 2D movie that he'd already seen and are just doing the same thing again Interestingly, the original Aladdin is no longer available for sale. Netflix, Amazon, Google Play, Walmart....whatever. You either need to buy a disc from a garage sale, or pirate it.

Not just an Aladdin thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_Vault > The "Disney Vault" was a term used by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment for its policy of putting home video releases of Walt Disney Animation Studios's animated features on moratorium. Each Disney film was available for purchase for a limited time, after which it is put "in the vault" and not made available in stores for several years until…

Except "Song of the South." Disney doesn't talk about that one.