As a producer, not only do you need to understand the business of film, you inevitably have to explain it to your investors.
Your investment in film school presumably should help you in this task (even if it far too often fails to do so), as should the years you spend in the trenches working your way up.
Granted, the old adage “the only constant in the film biz is that everything changes” is as true as anything, and what you knew yesterday may not hold true today. You have to be able to look at both the big picture as well as the details.
You need to be able to explain the business and grasp the art. Your heart sits with the audience, your mind dances with the creatives, and your bank account is in the corporate office park.
Each segment has their own vernacular, dress codes, and behaviors and you need to play nice and be accepted with all if you want to understand and maximize the impact cinema can have. Lately I have been learning the latest necessity in my evolution from fan to artist to businessman to tech entrepreneur, a path I think most film producers will also need to follow.
But I digress…
The challenge of helping your investors understand how the film business actually works has just received a nice boost courtesy of three posts by Liam Boluk for the Ivey Business Review.
Part 1: Despite record box office losses, 2013’s Summer of Blockblusters (Bombs) was a successful strategy http://iveybusinessreview.ca/blogs/lbolukhba2010/2014/02/28/the-future-of-film-i-what-happened-to-summer-2013/
Part 2: Hollywood is not a B2C business, but a B2B platform and service relying on ancillary revenues over theatrical success http://iveybusinessreview.ca/blogs/lbolukhba2010/2014/03/01/future-of-film-ii-la-fin-du-cinema/
Part 3: Recognizing that FilmBiz is not a single product but a platform play, what strategies could protect against seemingly imminent collapse? http://iveybusinessreview.ca/blogs/lbolukhba2010/2014/03/02/future-of-film-iii-the-entertainment-as-a-service-crash/
Boluk sums it up all nicely with his “(Present) Future Of Film”:
“Journalists and analysts stressing about summer losses, swelling budgets and audience fatigue are missing the picture. The tent-pole film strategy has never been about theatrical returns, but generating lucrative ancillary revenue streams. In recent years, however, studios have looked to transform these streams into a multimedia sales platform by consolidating audiences and expanding the narrative canvas. Though this has the potential to generate immense returns for a studio’s parent company, this gold rush threatens to collapse industry returns by fragmenting audiences and flooding ancillary channels. Studios can mitigate some of this risk by pushing further into B2B revenue diversification and investigating new consumer models (e.g. experience bundles). However, as is increasingly the case on the silver screen, a series of brand-name players seem dead set on a spectacular showdown. Audiences should be thrilled.”
All film producers, fans of the business, and students of the industry should read Boluk’s posts. They are chock full of great graphs and details. As much as I wish that the takeaway for the Studios would be to diversify with more original mid-budget films, I don’t suspect that will be the case, alas.
Thank you, Liam, for the great read!
