How Are The Studios Doing?
Hollywood's in big trouble. How much trouble? Well, if you lost half a trillion dollars in a year and were thanking a Scientologist for saving theatrical, quite a considerable amount of trouble. And it's real money; not just garbage writing for useless sequels and reboots. And guess what: it's not their fault.
Why is Hollywood in trouble? You know why; we all know why. The only people who don't know why, are the people in Hollywood. "Female journalist" shills at Salon are desperate to explain its not what we all know it is, which should be good enough for anyone: https://www.salon.com/2022/06/03/top-anti-woke-tom-cruise/ As Sam Goldwyn said, "If you want to send a message, use Western Union."
Industry: $136B. Box office: $42.2B. -$500B Market Cap.
During 2022, the FT reports media lost $500B in market value. $120B of it was from Disney.
“I’ve been covering this sector a long time and I’ve never seen such a bad collection of data points before,” Michael Nathanson, media analyst at SVB MoffettNathanson, told the FT."
Sources:
- https://www.ft.com/content/e4f2b787-283f-4872-916f-92d096fc7120
- https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/hollywood-stocks-take-big-hits-in-2022-1235285948/
All told, the 2019 global total is $101 billion, up 8 percent over 2017’s $93.5 billion. However, 58.3 percent of that revenue came from non-theatrical showings — a year-over-year increase of about 8.8 percent. That means theaters worldwide were responsible for less than one percent of that growth, or about $400 million.
Annual attendance among domestic moviegoers fell from five visits to 4.7, with age groups of 12-17 at the high end (4.9), and Latino communities lead all ethnic groups.
There were 864 million online video service subscribers in 2019, a whopping 28 percent jump over the prior year. However, at $116 billion, cable television remains the biggest pay television market.
https://www.indiewire.com/2020/03/2019-mpa-annual-report-future-is-streaming-1202216803/
Valuations & Stock Prices
It's a wash. Pure carnage. This is what it was:
Walt Disney: $184.45B / $100 [-45%]
- 20th Century
- ABC ($1.2B)
- Hulu (67%)
- Lucasfilm
- Marvel
- Searchlight
- Buena Vista
- Vice
- ESPN
- Star+
Disney's stock plunged 45% in a year. Cause? The CEO!
"The problem is nobody wants to go to the cinema, because they’ve been told that COVID is extremely dangerous,” Tony Chambers, Disney’s global head of theatrical distribution, said in the article. “Although cinemas are open, the appetite for going to them isn’t really there.”
Where do you begin?
Yes, that's right, Tony. THAT's the reason, not the pedo-friendly ruining of LGBT Star Wars, teenage Muslim superheroes, insulting the audience, or picking a fight with Ron DeSantis about porn for six year olds.
Netflix: $149.2B / $323.5 [-35%]
Netflix's stock plunged 35%. Cause? Password sharing!
"Among other factors, co-CEO Reed Hastings blamed the subscriber shrinkage on “great competition” and the company’s estimate that more than 100 million households are streaming the service using a shared password without paying for it."
Definitely nothing to do with making pedo-friendly shows like "Cuties" or constantly hectoring with ideological LGBT agitprop.
https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/netflix-stock-three-year-low-subscriber-miss-1235236618/
Sony Group: $104.1B / $83 [-41%]
- Sony Pictures
- Columbia
- TriStar
- Screen Gems
Sony's stock plunged 41%, but in a surprise turnaround, Pictures was the only studio which wasn't a fucking disaster.
Warner Bros Discovery: $38.6B / $16 [-63%]
- Warner Bros
- New Line
- Spyglass
- HBO
- DC Studios
- CNN
- Cartoon Network
- Castle Rock
- Cinemax
- Vudu (30%)
WBD's stock plunged 63%. Cause? Corporate structuring!
"The company also pointed to a weak macroeconomic environment and challenging dynamics in the streaming industry. Together, these adverse developments impacted Warner Bros. Discovery's outlook for the year."
Definitely not CNN+, boring superhero reboots, Matrix Resurrections, or Batgirl, then.
https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/whats-been-driving-the-warner-bros.-discovery-stock-plunge
NBC Universal (Comcast): $32.5B / $37 [-31%]
- Universal Pictures
- NBC (-$600M)
- Focus Features
- Dreamworks
- Peacock (-$3B)
- Hulu (33%)
- Vudo (70%)
WBD's stock plunged 31%. Cause? Cord-cutting!
"While Comcast’s Peacock streaming service, which the company is counting on to compensate for cable losses, has gained some traction, it continues to remain deeply lossmaking. First-quarter revenue for the service stood at $472 million with its EBITDA loss standing at $456 million."
So, not calling the audience bigots for refusing to watch homosexual rom-coms, losing $3B on a streaming platform nobody cares about, or cancelling Dr. Seuss, then.
Paramount Global: $14.63B / $22 [-44%]
- Paramount Pictures
- Miramax
- MTV
- BET
- Nickelodeon
- Pluto TV
- Showtime
Lionsgate's stock plunged 44%. Cause? Underinvestment!
"And, even at $6 billion, Paramount’s spend will be a fraction of the outlay by Netflix and rivals like Disney and WarnerMedia (even before the latter’s pending merger with Discovery). “I am not sure how they think they can spend as little as they are spending,” one analyst said. “They have to spend more to compete. But I don’t know that they can afford to spend more – or even that they can afford to spend what they are spending.”
So, not "Terminator: Dark Fate", "Babylon", or "Zoolander 2". Or a streaming service put together so quickly, it made this author turn three recruiters for it down on the spot (is it Node? is it Drupal? 300 engineers at once for roles like this --> https://careers.paramount.com/job/New-York-NY-10036/954394300/)
https://deadline.com/2022/02/paramount-streaming-plans-stock-plunge-wall-street-future-1234935496/
Lionsgate: $6.63B / $10 [-53.5%]
- Lionsgate Films
- 3 Arts
- Roadside
- Spyglass
Lionsgate's stock plunged 53.5%. Cause? Being a monolith!
“When you have two very different businesses, it’s tough to put a blended multiple on that, trying to show shareholders the value of both sides of the business. A separation is the cleanest way to do that,” Burns told the RBC media conference."
Absolutely nothing to do with "Dear White People", parading its "head of inclusive content", or rebooting Leprechauns.
https://deadline.com/2022/11/lionsgate-starz-separation-spinoff-dtc-streaming-1235173167/
AMC: $12.5B / $7.61 [-59%]
AMC's stock plunged 59%. Cause? Covid.
"AMC itself had been on the brink of bankruptcy in 2021, but was able to avert it after millions of retail investors turned its shares into a meme stock. The company has since devised several plans to raise more capital to reduce its debt and invest in acquisitions and its theaters."
Nothing to do with shitty movies, and tickets being $20 per person in a cost-of-living crisis, then.
MGM: $8.5B
Amazon bought the last indie studio in Hollywood for $8.45 billion in order to get its "content" (i.e. 4000 hours of movies) onto their shitty video service.
"[Amazon said] the classic Hollywood studio “will complement Prime Video and Amazon Studios’ work in delivering a diverse offering of entertainment choices to customers.”
Sounds thrilling. Pass the shotgun.
https://www.wired.com/story/mgm-amazon-acquisition/
Meanwhile, In Completely Unrelated News
Least "woke" movie of the year, which starts with the lead actor thanking the audience, makes $300M more than its nearest rival when nobody wants to visit the cinema:
- Top Gun: Maverick $718,318,561 (Paramount)
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever $436,499,646 (Disney)
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness $411,331,607 (Disney)
- Avatar: The Way of Water $401,007,908 (20th Century)
- Jurassic World: Dominion $376,851,080 (Universal)
- Minions: The Rise of Gru $369,695,210 (Universal)
- The Batman $369,345,583 (Warner Bros. )
- Thor: Love and Thunder $343,256,830 (Disney)
- Spider-Man: No Way Home $231,808,708 (Sony Pictures )
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2 $190,872,904 (Paramount)
https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/2022/
DeSantis' popularity surges to an all-time high:
"You can agree or disagree with DeSantis and the Florida legislature on any of these moves, measures, and proclamations," The Hill opinion columnist Joe Concha wrote back in March of this year. "What makes the governor popular among his supporters is that he doesn't appear to give a damn about what the Florida press or the national political media think about how he's leading his state. He has a plan and principles that appear to be unwavering."
https://theweek.com/ron-desantis/1019300/republican-voters-are-flocking-to-ron-desantis-but-why
Tucker Carlson becomes the most watched TV host in history:
"Overall, Fox News had four of the top five most-watched shows in cable news, with Tucker Carlson Tonight in first place among total viewers, followed by Hannity (2.653 million viewers), The Five (2.632 million viewers), MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show (2.504 million viewers) and FNC’s The Ingraham Angle (2.071 million viewers)."
Greg Gutfeld's late night show on Fox instantly destroys all the others:
"With 2.494 million total viewers and 396,000 viewers in the key demographic group of adults 25-54, Gutfeld! beat not just everything else on cable, but the high-profile broadcast networks’ late night shows as well."
Pro-free speech video platform Rumble lists for $2B:
"Rumble exploded in popularity following Trump’s 2020 presidential election loss with its monthly users rising from around 2 million to over 20 million at the end of last year. The site now attracts nearly 40 million such users. Fueling that are conservative media personalities who’ve made a home for themselves on Rumble."
Daily Wire passes 1M subscribers and $100M/month in revenues:
"The company said then it would invest "a minimum of $100 million" in kids content for the service over the next three years."
https://www.axios.com/2022/11/17/daily-wire-1m-subscribers
Patriotic online marketplace Public Square gains 500,000 accounts and lists for $200M:
"Seifert first got the idea for a parallel conservative marketplace during Covid lockdowns in San Diego, Calif. He created an online directory of businesses in San Diego that did not force masks or vaccines. 'It sort of blew up from there, we realized that the nation was hungry for it too,' he said."
Really it's...
... a complete
... and utter
... mystery, why
.... anyone
... would think
these things are related.
All of things are a total coincidence. There is no connection whatsoever between insulting your audience, creating things which disgust them, campaigning for pedophiles' rights to expose kids to porn, and their total unwillingness to give you their money. It's unthinkable.
THEY are the problem.
Which Billy Eichner understands.
A story in three acts: idiot makes film, audience is insulted for refusing to watch, audience is to blame of the loss of idiot's career.
It might be $500 billion dollars, but it's $500 homophobic dollars from an ungrateful audience who need to be educated. And nobody needs those, do they?
This isn't complicated. The audience wants their films:
- As well-told, original stories;
- Free of politics, "reinforcement" of leftist ideology, or sermonising;
- Without sexual degeneracy.
They want to go to the pictures on a second date, or curl up with the kids on the couch to laugh. They want to escape their ordinary life and get away from politics.
They do not want to be confronted with grotesque sexual imagery; nor patronised, lectured, or insulted by people who rape women in hotel rooms, sleep with directors to get parts, and fly around in private jets while complaining about privacy and climate change.