Another one Bites the Dust

Another day, another studio begins its long descent into being swallowed for its library. This week's contender: Lionsgate. Some of you may say I'm jumping the gun, given that the news was that Lionsgate is only going to spin off the studio from the parent company. Although the execs will claim this is better for the company's health in the long run and it is only about injecting capital into the studio, we all know how this dance ends. This is all about making it ripe for an eventual sale and acquisition. 

It's hard to fault the executives for looking at the landscape and thinking the time might be right to make this move. As the Deadline article rightly points out, Amazon bought (overpaid) MGM for $8.4 billion last year. Lionsgate feels they have a newer and more valuable library that would make them a better deal in this market. I think we all knew this day was coming once Disney swallowed Fox. Rupert Murdoch looks like a mad genius for making his move when he did. However, we all know that this is overall worse for the industry. Another buyer bites the dust. Worse yet, another buyer who actually releases movies bites the dust. Of course, one could take the optimistic view of this and say that this might make Lionsgate longer for this world versus being swallowed up whole in some bankruptcy fire sale years down the line, and that might be true. The pessimist in me, however, views this as just another slip down the long road to borrow Richard Rushfield's phrase: "the entertainment semi-finals where only a select few studios will remain.

But, never to be one to wallow in my pessimism; this is why building up new studios, and companies willing to take risks to keep the industry thriving is essential. I am by no means fooling myself that this is in any way an easy task, but it is possible. And since I would never let an opportunity to mention Entertainment Strategy Guy's series on the American Viewer slip by, we have a roadmap to help guide the way to grab audiences. This is a large huge, diverse crazy country, and I refuse to believe that "the coasts" are the only place where great content, scratch that, MOVIES can be made. The opportunity is there as these legacy companies start to fade into the distance or look to be acquired. That's why one of the reasons I started Vision Craft Brew, and I will continually advocate for the theatrical experience and to try to save this industry from itself. As I mentioned last week, the road is long, but it is wide open to start cruising into the future. 

Barbarian at the Gate

Let's talk about that little movie that could: Barbarian. As most of you are aware, it's a horror movie that opened on September 9th to $10 million and has quietly amassed $30 million at the box office with a tiny 29% drop in weekly BO. Clearly, this flick is getting some pretty strong word-of-mouth. Oh, and it's also expanding to 500 more theaters this weekend. Not bad for a flick made on a $4 million budget. The funny thing is there was almost no campaign behind it. One has to wonder, had this been given a beefier marketing spend, would we be looking at a healthier BO? I think we would, and with a low budget, there was only upside.  

Much of this discussion has already been covered in the traditional industry trades but what hasn't been asked is this: Could this be a kink in the armor for Disney's vaulted Media and Entertainment Distribution Group? As we've highlighted on the podcast, the division, headed up by Chapek protegee Kareem Daniel, has immense power over which movies get released where and as revealed in a New York Times profile, they also set spending budgets for each content division. One has to wonder what the data told them that they decided not to put a healthy spend behind an inexpensive horror movie which potentially had a huge upside. They had to know they had a decent film on their hand, and it's horror, one of the few genres that still puts butts in the seats. 

I have no insider knowledge of who decided to keep the ad spend low. It might not even have been Kareem's division, but it does beg the question about what exactly is going on over there at Disney: a well-reviewed horror movie was shadow dumped in September and left to survive on its own. I saw more spots for the much-reviled Pinocchio than this little movie that could. More evidence of the overarching theme of the Brew: too many Chefs in the kitchen and no one willing to make that gut decision when they have a hit on their hands. 

Pages from the Commonplace Book

Given that we are wrapping up on the first week of the holiest seasons for the Jewish faith, I thought we would return to a source from earlier issues of the Brew, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. He passed away in November 2020 but not before finishing his last book: Morality: Restoring the Common Good In Divided Times. The following is the penultimate paragraph of a chapter called: "The Death of Civility." A fantastic read that I highly recommend to you all.

"I have argued that the lost of shared moral community means that we find it difficult to reason together. Truth gives way to power. Uncomfortable views are excluded from campuses. To win support, people start defining themselves as victims. Public shaming takes the place of judicial establishment of guilt. Civility - especially respect for people who oppose you - begins to die. The public conversation slowly gives to a shouting match in which integrity counts for little and noise much. This is not a culture whose survival can be taken for granted. It is one that is fraying at the seams."

Wise words. We all have some work to do. Let's get to it. 

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