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Hollywood is on strike because CEOs fell for Silicon Valley’s magical thinking

latimes.com

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Re: Hollywood is on strike because CEOs fell for Silicon Valley’s magical thinking

#131

Post by floren »

WalterBright wrote: post #80
theptip wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My impression was that Netflix came along with up-front pay packages because taking a residual-heavy deal was not attractive back when streaming was unknown. No mustache-twirling required, just a business model that made sense then and is no longer equitable. The other point is that extras are getting full-body 3D scanned for a day’s pay, licensed in perpetuity. That is an existential threat to the profession; no act…

If Hollywood wants to full body scan me so my likeness becomes famous forever, I'm all for it. Fly me down, give me a day pass to Disneyland, and I'm good.

[flagged]

Re: Hollywood is on strike because CEOs fell for Silicon Valley’s magical thinking

#132

Post by lotsofpulp »

taeric wrote: post #126
lotsofpulp wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their net income trends look awful, especially taking into account inflation and the rest of the economy. https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/DIS/disney/net-inc... https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/WBD/warner-bros-di... https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/PARA/paramount-glo... Comcast, Sony, Netflix, Apple, and Amazon seem to be the other big players, and Netflix seems to be the only pure media co…

Again, though, you have to find a better reason than TikTok and friends to explain a slump that seems to have started at the same time as the pandemic. Were there choices made during the pandemic that are hurting them in other ways? Almost certainly. But I'm not seeing how that is true for the claimed competition being what is hurting them, as these things existed pre pandemic, but only started really factoring in af…

Population wide taste change can take years.

I am just looking around at the differences in how I the people I know spend their time.

I have 8 to 13 year old nieces and nephews that have zero interest in watching movies or tv shows when they come over. You would literally be punishing them by taking their YouTube or video games or TikTok away and forcing them to watch a 100min movie with you.

Re: Hollywood is on strike because CEOs fell for Silicon Valley’s magical thinking

#133

Post by Turskarama »

bagacrap wrote: post #121
Turskarama wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a two speed economy. If you're in the low speed part earning less than the median then you're already in recession. If you're in the high speed part you will be in recession when you stop being able to extract money from the low speed economy.

As seductive as that story is, the data doesn't bear it out. Hourly workers have made huge gains in the last three years at the expense of salaried workers, and flyover states are turning the tables on coastal states. Look at: real hourly wages and unemployment figures.

I have some fairly big gripes with the way inflation adjustion is calculated. Mainly: I don't think it properly covers the difference between discretionary vs non discretionary spending across different income levels.

Ultimately, if you're poor, the only weightings that _actually_ affect you are (in order) food, housing, transportation, and energy. Everything else including healthcare ultimately doesn't become part of the equation, because you can't afford it.

It doesn't matter if cars are cheaper if you can't afford to buy one anyway, it doesn't matter if drugs are cheaper if you can't afford your prescription anyway, and it doesn't matter if restaurants are cheaper if you can't afford to eat out anyway.

Pretending like the price of consumer electronics (which can be a big one off spend, but amortised over the several years they last are fairly small) or plane trips matters at all to the spending power of poor people is laughable.

Re: Hollywood is on strike because CEOs fell for Silicon Valley’s magical thinking

#134

Post by taeric »

scarface_74 wrote: post #129
taeric wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, the last full year was already back to 60% of the pre covid. This year is already on track to be back to 90%ish, if not back at growth. Such that the dip is clearly more attributable to what happened in the year 2020. None of the supposed "competitors" listed originated that year. So, again, I'm not sure that is showing the evidence of competition to big budget entertainment.

Typo. I meant 2000.

But 2022 still had a lot of hangover effects from the pandemic, is my view. Especially with this year on track to possibly be back at 2010 levels.

I don't deny that they are facing some problems. But I'm not willing to buy that it is the existence of instagram/tictok/etc. I have little doubt those could be involved. I have doubts that they are, though.

Re: Hollywood is on strike because CEOs fell for Silicon Valley’s magical thinking

#135

Post by brucethemoose2 »

DriverDaily wrote: post #34
brucethemoose2 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The studios burned through lots of money for the streaming boom, and the investors want returns from their burned money right about now. At the other end, streaming services are stuffed with content. I have no proof, but I suspect viewers will learn than the back catalog is pretty good.

They’re stuffed with content, but much of the content is of poor quality. The good stuff everyone has seen, and you can attract new viewers with a new show that is good.

> The good stuff everyone has seen

I disagree. Tons of good stuff flew under the radar over the years... I have a huge backlog to work through just flipping through ranked stuff on Reelgood.

Re: Hollywood is on strike because CEOs fell for Silicon Valley’s magical thinking

#136

Post by taeric »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #132
taeric wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again, though, you have to find a better reason than TikTok and friends to explain a slump that seems to have started at the same time as the pandemic. Were there choices made during the pandemic that are hurting them in other ways? Almost certainly. But I'm not seeing how that is true for the claimed competition being what is hurting them, as these things existed pre pandemic, but only started really factoring in af…

Population wide taste change can take years. I am just looking around at the differences in how I the people I know spend their time. I have 8 to 13 year old nieces and nephews that have zero interest in watching movies or tv shows when they come over. You would literally be punishing them by taking their YouTube or video games or TikTok away and forcing them to watch a 100min movie with you.

I also have kids in that range. And by and large, I agree that they would be distraught to not have Netflix/YouTube/etc. However, I also know that blockbuster movies are still raking in the money, as I have family insisting on seeing Barbie this week. Super excited about it. Kids also wanted to see the Mario movie.

And if you have kids in that range, I am willing to bet that you are also in the demographic of people that generally have a natural slowdown in going to movies and things. Turns out, having kids in this age range is a full time job.

None of which is to say you are wrong. I'm just not sold on the evidence, yet. Turns out, there is still plenty of big budget entertainment out there.

Re: Hollywood is on strike because CEOs fell for Silicon Valley’s magical thinking

#138

Post by [deleted] »

WalterBright wrote: post #80
theptip wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My impression was that Netflix came along with up-front pay packages because taking a residual-heavy deal was not attractive back when streaming was unknown. No mustache-twirling required, just a business model that made sense then and is no longer equitable. The other point is that extras are getting full-body 3D scanned for a day’s pay, licensed in perpetuity. That is an existential threat to the profession; no act…

If Hollywood wants to full body scan me so my likeness becomes famous forever, I'm all for it. Fly me down, give me a day pass to Disneyland, and I'm good.

[deleted]

Re: Hollywood is on strike because CEOs fell for Silicon Valley’s magical thinking

#139

Post by soundsgoodtome »

taeric wrote: post #5

I support the strikes and hope it comes to a good conclusion; but this feels a touch forced, honestly. I get that it is in vogue to blame silicon valley, but hollywood has a littered history of killing their goose, as it were. For fun, consider that if netflix had stuck to the DVD model, they could still be profitable. You don't need a special license to buy a dvd and rent it out to anyone. Just as you don't need a s…

Why don’t we reduce this down a bit? Hollywood studios are businesses. Businesses exist to create value for owners. Hollywood talent is expensive. AI tends to be much less expensive. Hollywood studio execs believe they might be able to replace expensive talent with cheap AI, thus creating more value for owners.

Seems pretty straightforward to me.

Re: Hollywood is on strike because CEOs fell for Silicon Valley’s magical thinking

#140

Post by xiphias2 »

DriverDaily wrote: post #34
brucethemoose2 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The studios burned through lots of money for the streaming boom, and the investors want returns from their burned money right about now. At the other end, streaming services are stuffed with content. I have no proof, but I suspect viewers will learn than the back catalog is pretty good.

They’re stuffed with content, but much of the content is of poor quality. The good stuff everyone has seen, and you can attract new viewers with a new show that is good.

I have a feeling that they are optimizing for view length (binge watchers) instead of commercial value of views.

If I watch only 3 Netflix movies or 1 serie in a month, I should be getting 10 times more budget per movie / serie than a person viewing 30 Netflix movies / 10 series. Sadly this doesn't happen.

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