Normally,
during economic challenging times the entertainment industry
continues to do very well. People need the diversion from their
personal challenges. Yet, in the last decade, film and television
projects have not had the ROI of previous years for three simple
reasons.
* Diversification
of venues
* Redundancy
* Lack
of leadership
The
diversification and increase of venues gives the audiences more
options, thereby increasing the competition for the audiences'
attention. With every challenge comes opportunity. They are the
flip side of the same coin. Yet, instead seeing the possibilities,
studios are using it as an excuse for failure. The increasing venues
also mean an increased need for content. However, instead of
producing a couple of hundred low to medium budget films a year,
studios have been gambling the whole pot on one role of the dice.
The former spreads the economic risks among many projects and
provides content for many venues, which decreases the gamble factor
and increases the profitability margin for both the studio as well as
the investors. The latter increases the failure rate and lowers
profitability, while opening the door for competitors. The venues
need content; they will get it from wherever they can.
The
industry used to be about innovation and entertainment with 80%
original projects and 20% remakes or rehashes. However, those
numbers have been reverse. Instead of new films the SOP has become
remaking, rehashing, and rerunning old television shows and
film--good, bad or indifferent, it doesn't matter as long as someone
else did it first it should be a safe bet. But following someone
else' s lead means that the projects are always a day late and a
dollar short.
Realistically,
how many super hero movies to they think the audience will watch?
How much gratuitous sex and violence can a film contain before it
crosses the line into porn? How many animated features, which are
little more than thinly veiled toy commercials, will parents sit
through? Could that be why the July 4 box office receipts were down
44% from 2013 to 2014 even with the rainy weather? If it was because
of the World Cup as some studio heads claim, why was June box office
down 16%?
Thirdly,
but more importantly the quality of the projects have become stagnant
due to lack of leadership. In order for any company, but especially
those industries that are so heavily dependent on the whims of the
masses, to be successful the leaders must know their industry enough
to know how to push the boundaries and have the courage to do take
those risks. Front runners don't follow trends; they create them.
That is the difference between Gone with the Wind and Transformers:
Age of Distinction, which is latest of the super hero movies.
Early
television was a new venue that became successful very quickly
because the networks and studios were smart enough to bring on the
people from film, vaudeville, and the theater, who knew what they
were doing. They had track records for producing, directing, and
acting in successful projects. The creative people created the
projects; the bean counters followed their
lead and took care of the financial details. However, the bean
counters have been pushing out the innovative and creative leaders.
In their little world of ledgers and spreadsheets, the numbers always
add up the same. In accounting, two plus two always adds up to four.
The reality is that people aren't so simple. They can't be summed up
on a balance sheet. What worked once doesn't guarantee that it will
even work once more. The failure of the leadership has been to keep
the experts doing their jobs and to keep the budgets in perspective.
Creative people don't always make good business people, nor are
business oriented people always capable of seeing past the numbers.
It is only by working together as a team that projects are
successfully produced and make a profit.
When
promoting our Paranormal Thriller-Horror feature, Never Can Say
Good-bye, I compared it to Ghost, Always, and What Dreams May Come.
I was advised by a friend to change the comparison, because all three
films were so old that no one in the industry remembers them. She
advised that I update the list to more current projects so that the
younger studio executives would be able identify with our concept.
Her advice started me researching. However, with the exception of
"The Others", there aren't any current movies that are
comparable. Even then the only things Never Can Say Good-bye and The
Others have in common are the ghost theme and the unique twist at the
end.
Part
of the issue is that the leaders don't know their industry history.
They don't know what has been done, so they don't know what can be
done. In 1946, Howard Hughes produced and directed a western called,
The Outlaws. Starring Jane Russell as the vamp Rio McDonald, Hughes
created an immediate interest and a media flurry when he shelved the
film for a year, claiming the censors said it was too racy to be
released. By today's standards, the film would be considered tame.
Most people think it was a dreadful movie, but it made history
because of its presentation. John Carter on the other hand is an
excellent movie that cost way too much, but it
was horribly marketed. The marketing staff should have been fired
along with the head of the studio. The lack of team work and fiscal
responsibility turned what could have been very profitable venture
into a financial disaster.
Until
innovation, leadership, and team work once again become the standard
in the industry, the audience will continue to look else where for
their entertainment.
Love can be a blessing or a curse.
Have
you ever met someone and suddenly felt love or hate? Did you wonder
why? What if you had forgotten the reason? Would you want to remember if
it could save you life?
Never Can Say Good-bye is a paranormal thriler-horror that combines a traditional ghost story with unique plot twists.
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