3 ms·

Maybe stagnating subscriber numbers force the question of where they are going

gjsman-1000 3y ago
That, but also, movie companies are not exactly living well with great profits right now. Disney+ is losing about $1.5 billion per quarter. Despite being very close to maxing-out the number of subscribers they will ever get. They've tried raising prices which seems to be helping reduce the bleeding, but investors are now in a lawsuit with them to determine whether the profitability projections were ever reasonable (and, surprise, Disney might have been doing some classic Hollywood Accounting to make the streaming division look better). Warner Bros. Discovery; well, $57 billion in debt with only about $40 billion in revenue per year... or $6B in profit per year. Financial struggles and pressure from investors? Immense. Their leverage ratio is 5:1 (whereas, 3:1 is considered the maximum for even remotely healthy). It's also kind of a big deal to have $57 billion in debt when the company's entire market cap is $28 billion, give or take. Thus HBO Max had a very stiff and sudden price hike a few months ago. And so on. The media market just isn't great right now. The Disney+ and Warner struggles are also definitely coming into play when the Writer's Guild comes knocking asking for higher pay.
- danjoredd 3y ago
  Having long been angry at The Mouse for their monopolistic and anticompetitive tendencies, I am indulging myself in a bit of schadenfreude seeing them fail like this. This has been LONG in the making and I'm glad to see their ivory tower start to fall.
- GuB-42 3y ago
  Big movie production is getting more and more expensive. We have been making movies for more than a century, and yet, the majority of the most expensive movies (inflation adjusted) have been made in the last decade, and that includes the pandemic. It is even worse with TV series. At some point, there won't be enough money in the world's entertainment budget to pay for it. And big studios don't really have the option of lower budgets. They need to go bigger and bigger to meet the ever increasing demands of spectators, cheap production won't cut it anymore. It is not that you can't make good low budget productions, in fact, movie production is more accessible than it ever was, which is the other side of the problem. Big studios have a hard time competing against the creativity of thousands of small producers who have little to lose and a lot to win in pursuing bold ideas. It is the same thing for AAA video games. Players want the latest ultra-HD, ultra-expensive stuff. And those who don't will typically turn to the indies.
  - somenameforme 3y ago
    Fun factoid: domestic movie ticket sales have been declining for more than 2 decades at this point. [1] We reached 'peak movie' in 2002, both in terms of tickets sold and real gross revenue. That's in spite of the population increasing by just under 50 million since then. 'Highest grossing' and other such accolades since have been driven entirely by inflation and ticket price increases beyond inflation. The point is that there's often this online discussion with one guy saying 'modern movies suck' and the other saying 'nah, it's just what the people want.' But what's happening is quantifiably not what the people want. Hollywood (and AAA games) have become almost entirely creatively bankrupt, mostly due to going to the extremes of risk intolerance. They want creative endeavors to be more like factory line productions where a product is reliably created, ready to go on a tight schedule, and matches well to profit projections. The reason there's an obsession over things like visuals is because that's one of the few things studios believe they can "improve" in a formulaic and safe way. It's not what people want let alone demand, it's simply an area movie (and AAA) companies see as being a low risk target for "improvement." Movie studios likely see ChatGPT as their savior. In reality, it will probably be their executioner. [1] - https://www.the-numbers.com/market/ https://www.the-numbers.com/market/
  - autoexec 3y ago
    > And big studios don't really have the option of lower budgets. They need to go bigger and bigger to meet the ever increasing demands of spectators, cheap production won't cut it anymore. I disagree. Very few people are demanding studios spend huge amounts of money on their films. Spectators (that is, those who watch movies for entertainment) want good stories and "good enough" production values and if they have that they will be happy with inexpensive, even low budget, films. It does feel like our standards for TV have gotten a lot higher though. Creating quality content is difficult and risky so studios would rather push low effort material (remakes/sequels/weak stories) and try to make up for it with spectacle and popular actors/franchises which is usually enough to make people feel like they didn't totally waste their time/money but not always. As you said, "good enough" is becoming increasingly accessible, but big studios aren't at much risk. They have tons of money for marketing, they control the MPA which means they control the ratings system, they also have massive influence over distribution meaning that smaller/independent films will have a harder time getting shown in most theaters or getting on many streaming platforms. Right now bad movies with bloated effects budgets still do better at the box office than quality films made by independent filmmakers which is exactly how the big studios like it. There's a lot of things competing for our attention these days and even looking only at movies having instant access to so many options on our phones or in our home theaters makes the trip to a movie theater less appealing. When it comes to games I agree with you though. People really do want games that have great graphics and more content, although with the prices of video cards and most people struggling to afford their current lifestyle I expect that games which look great on consoles and lower end hardware will only get more popular.
- kelnos 3y ago
  The stupid thing is that likely Disney and Warner/Discovery would be making much more money if they stopped running their own streaming platforms, and just licensed their content to Netflix or Hulu or whatever. And on top of that, customers would be happier not having to have 10 different subscriptions to cover what they want to watch.
- t0bia_s 3y ago
  No wonder when their production is full of diversity and LGBT propaganda. It's empty and not entertaining.
  - peddling-brink 3y ago
    Is being scared of gays a fact or a feeling?
    - t0bia_s 3y ago
      Is being lover of gays a fact or feeling?
ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
Subscribers to music labels?

That, but also, movie companies are not exactly living well with great profits right now. Disney+ is losing about $1.5 billion per quarter. Despite being very close to maxing-out the number of subscribers they will ever get. They've tried raising prices which seems to be helping reduce the bleeding, but investors are now in a lawsuit with them to determine whether the profitability projections were ever reasonable (and, surprise, Disney might have been doing some classic Hollywood Accounting to make the streaming division look better). Warner Bros. Discovery; well, $57 billion in debt with only about $40 billion in revenue per year... or $6B in profit per year. Financial struggles and pressure from investors? Immense. Their leverage ratio is 5:1 (whereas, 3:1 is considered the maximum for even remotely healthy). It's also kind of a big deal to have $57 billion in debt when the company's entire market cap is $28 billion, give or take. Thus HBO Max had a very stiff and sudden price hike a few months ago. And so on. The media market just isn't great right now. The Disney+ and Warner struggles are also definitely coming into play when the Writer's Guild comes knocking asking for higher pay.

danjoredd 3y ago
Having long been angry at The Mouse for their monopolistic and anticompetitive tendencies, I am indulging myself in a bit of schadenfreude seeing them fail like this. This has been LONG in the making and I'm glad to see their ivory tower start to fall.
GuB-42 3y ago
Big movie production is getting more and more expensive. We have been making movies for more than a century, and yet, the majority of the most expensive movies (inflation adjusted) have been made in the last decade, and that includes the pandemic. It is even worse with TV series. At some point, there won't be enough money in the world's entertainment budget to pay for it. And big studios don't really have the option of lower budgets. They need to go bigger and bigger to meet the ever increasing demands of spectators, cheap production won't cut it anymore. It is not that you can't make good low budget productions, in fact, movie production is more accessible than it ever was, which is the other side of the problem. Big studios have a hard time competing against the creativity of thousands of small producers who have little to lose and a lot to win in pursuing bold ideas. It is the same thing for AAA video games. Players want the latest ultra-HD, ultra-expensive stuff. And those who don't will typically turn to the indies.
- somenameforme 3y ago
  Fun factoid: domestic movie ticket sales have been declining for more than 2 decades at this point. [1] We reached 'peak movie' in 2002, both in terms of tickets sold and real gross revenue. That's in spite of the population increasing by just under 50 million since then. 'Highest grossing' and other such accolades since have been driven entirely by inflation and ticket price increases beyond inflation. The point is that there's often this online discussion with one guy saying 'modern movies suck' and the other saying 'nah, it's just what the people want.' But what's happening is quantifiably not what the people want. Hollywood (and AAA games) have become almost entirely creatively bankrupt, mostly due to going to the extremes of risk intolerance. They want creative endeavors to be more like factory line productions where a product is reliably created, ready to go on a tight schedule, and matches well to profit projections. The reason there's an obsession over things like visuals is because that's one of the few things studios believe they can "improve" in a formulaic and safe way. It's not what people want let alone demand, it's simply an area movie (and AAA) companies see as being a low risk target for "improvement." Movie studios likely see ChatGPT as their savior. In reality, it will probably be their executioner. [1] - https://www.the-numbers.com/market/ https://www.the-numbers.com/market/
- autoexec 3y ago
  > And big studios don't really have the option of lower budgets. They need to go bigger and bigger to meet the ever increasing demands of spectators, cheap production won't cut it anymore. I disagree. Very few people are demanding studios spend huge amounts of money on their films. Spectators (that is, those who watch movies for entertainment) want good stories and "good enough" production values and if they have that they will be happy with inexpensive, even low budget, films. It does feel like our standards for TV have gotten a lot higher though. Creating quality content is difficult and risky so studios would rather push low effort material (remakes/sequels/weak stories) and try to make up for it with spectacle and popular actors/franchises which is usually enough to make people feel like they didn't totally waste their time/money but not always. As you said, "good enough" is becoming increasingly accessible, but big studios aren't at much risk. They have tons of money for marketing, they control the MPA which means they control the ratings system, they also have massive influence over distribution meaning that smaller/independent films will have a harder time getting shown in most theaters or getting on many streaming platforms. Right now bad movies with bloated effects budgets still do better at the box office than quality films made by independent filmmakers which is exactly how the big studios like it. There's a lot of things competing for our attention these days and even looking only at movies having instant access to so many options on our phones or in our home theaters makes the trip to a movie theater less appealing. When it comes to games I agree with you though. People really do want games that have great graphics and more content, although with the prices of video cards and most people struggling to afford their current lifestyle I expect that games which look great on consoles and lower end hardware will only get more popular.
kelnos 3y ago
The stupid thing is that likely Disney and Warner/Discovery would be making much more money if they stopped running their own streaming platforms, and just licensed their content to Netflix or Hulu or whatever. And on top of that, customers would be happier not having to have 10 different subscriptions to cover what they want to watch.
t0bia_s 3y ago
No wonder when their production is full of diversity and LGBT propaganda. It's empty and not entertaining.
- peddling-brink 3y ago
  Is being scared of gays a fact or a feeling?
  - t0bia_s 3y ago
    Is being lover of gays a fact or feeling?

ShadowBanThis01 3y ago

Subscribers to music labels?