The State of the Hollywood Film Industry: 99 Problems and Counting

Now marks a tumultuous time in the film industry, a turning point in what the future will hold. 

The strike is a major sign of the issues at hand, but it is merely the tip of the iceberg regarding the problems within the film industry’s current business model. In this episode of One Moore Hollywood Podcast, our hosts, Chris Moore, Katie Marpe, and Dennis De Nobile, come together to chat about the state of the industry, how streaming is changing everything, and what it might mean for the audience and the industry at large. 

The Battle of New Revenue Streams

As Moore emphasizes, it’s not unusual for Hollywood to go through a period of reckoning as new technology interrupts the status quo of the current business model. The last major upset was over the quickly rising popularity of DVDs in the early aughts. This upset led to the 2007 WGA strike over concerns about DVD sales eclipsing the residuals TV writers made from cable network reruns and rentals. 

The current strike is again over residuals, with streaming as the new technology taking further funds away from film and TV writers. 

The Film Industry’s Current Reckoning 

Now that the audience is paying directly for what they want to watch sans advertisements via subscription-based streaming platforms, Hollywood faces a bigger problem than ever. 

In the past, people paid more than they realized through cable bundles and advertising money–now, they can pay to skip all of that with tiered subscription options. As a result of the major studios and streamers changing the process of residuals payments for writers and actors, it’s becoming more and more impossible to pay those who make the content for studios and streaming platforms a living wage. 

“The industry is being called to the carpet or having its moment where it’s been giving all the viewers content for prices below what they need to make the content…what’s happening now is you know what you’re buying.”

–Chris Moore

With streaming relying on a new residuals structure while increasing content output, the old cable and television residuals structure has been rendered nearly obsolete. It’s becoming clear that there is no longer a fair share of money to pay people creating the expected content. 

This calls for a complete restructuring of the film industry's business model, but will that ever happen with all the power players at hand? 

For now, only time will tell. 

Listen to the entire episode here: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or iHeartRadio.