Hollywood Used to Discover Creators; Now It Buys Them

For most of the last century, aspiring film makers went to Hollywood for the same reason aspiring authors appealed to Manhattan: That’s where the gatekeepers were.

Who could blame them? Big studios had the equipment, financing, marketing, and distribution needed to get a movie in front of millions of people. You could make a film without them, but good luck getting anyone to see it.

So generations of creators learned the same career path: Make a picture impressive enough to get noticed, take the ticket to get past the gates, then let the institution introduce you to its audience.

Now creators have a new path. And Hollywood investors are driving the reversal of that time-honored process.

At last week’s TheGrill conference, movie industry dealmakers said that with fewer studios left to merge, they’re now on the hunt for individual creators, independent companies, and intellectual properties.

One investment banker pointed to YouTube, where creators can now assemble audiences on a scale that once required muscle once wielded only by studios and networks.

For a century, Hollywood made creators audition for access to its audience.

Now it’s shopping for creators who already have their own.

The writing has been on the wall for a while. Studios founded online are expanding their footprints in Burbank while Los Angeles-based production contracts. Digital shoot days rose 47 percent year over year in the second quarter, even as on-location filming days fell 13 percent.

And as creator-run operations sign deals with Disney and Netflix, the common wisdom inside the entertainment business has changed.

A recent survey of creators and industry professionals found the same recommendations cropping up repeatedly:

Read the full post on Substack.