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Top 12 Film Industry Stories of 2008:
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"Rare is the industry story so far reaching that we know ahead of time that it is likely to repeat its entry on the list at a later date." This is what BOP prophetically (it's what we do) said on January 1, 2008. Guess what. We were right. New at BOP: Share & Save
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For those of you who have already forgotten, the Writer's Strike began on November 5, 2007. The key issue was the Internet. Writers and their representatives recognized all too well what the major corporations running Hollywood had refused to acknowledge. Web site revenue is the future of the industry. All the major conglomerates were playing hardball with writer's wages, claiming that all ancillary revenue from the Internet was difficult to quantify and thereby out of play for writers. Given that the writers were the ones, you know, producing the content, they had a problem with this philosophy. Their sweat of brow was being used for profit, but they were not been financially compensated. As such, they felt corporate Hollywood was taking advantage of their good will. When the sides could not come to terms of agreement on the matter, the strike began.
At the time, we pointed out that the impact of the Writer's Strike had been primarily focused upon television. The true impact on the film industry would not be felt for 12-18 months, we argued, and that has recently come to fruition. One of the first dominoes to fall was the delay of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince until the summer of 2009. Warner Bros. realized that they had no potential tentpole title for the lucrative summer period. With no better option in play, they pulled their biggest production out of November and slotted it in July of 2009. Oddly, the primary beneficiary of this would prove to be Summit Entertainment as their film, Twilight, promptly jumped to that release date and proceeded to light up the box office sky. How well the move works for Warner Bros. remains to be seen, but given that Harry Potter and the Dog Fight at Michael Vick's could probably open to $100 million, BOP believes they'll be okay.
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For the industry itself, what is remarkable about the strike is how emerging technology impacted it. Through the magic of YouTube, writers had a voice for their issues that had not existed during the last strike in 1988. The principal issue of conflict back then had been the compensation for ancillary market sales on home video. At the time, the writers, the proverbial little man taking on big business, had no means to argue their point to consumers. Corporate bigwigs eventually outlasted the generally middle class writers, breaking the group as their members faced destitution. In 2008, the medium had changed.
With the ability to broadcast their message, oftentimes entertaining viewers in the process, the Writer's Guilds on both coasts managed to put a public face on their issues. And since that face looked like Steven Colbert, people were inclined to laugh at it. Many of the best viral videos of late 2007 and early 2008 focused upon the hilariously mixed message corporations were sending about the Internet. One particularly foolish corporation stated in a press release that it would be impossible to quantify how much money the Internet meant to a movie/television business. Almost immediately, writers countered with actual video of the person whose name was signed with the letterhead. That person was speaking at a business meeting...and he was boldly stating the company's Internet revenue for an upcoming period would be half a billion dollars. Whoops.
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[ View columns by David Mumpower ] [ Email this column ]
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Saturday, November 21, 2009
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