Why Audiences Are Disadvantaged When It Comes to Film and TV

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With movie tickets being so expensive, and time being a precious commodity, a bad film can leave ticket purchasers feeling used and angry. Television, streaming media and other in-home entertainment options are becoming more popular as a result, but these venues can burn fans when they waste a viewer’s time.

Creators–or more often, Hollywood executives–hold all the power when it comes to deciding what projects get made. Fans are often left out of the process until they’re asked to spend money and time on a newly released project.

And while tricking a fan into paying for a bad experience may seem like a win for the business-minded studio execs, in the long run, disempowering fans has negative consequences on the entire entertainment industry. A fan that wastes money or time is unlikely to continue watching a show, will hesitate to buy another movie ticket and will share their negative opinion with other consumers.

Why Does Hollywood Ignore Its Fans and What Are the Consequences?

Any insider will tell you that Hollywood cares about profit just as much as (and often more than) art. So why do so many movies lose money? One reason is that moviemakers typically don’t take fan opinions into account.

While creators and financiers know that they need fan interest to sell tickets, in practice, they are risk-averse when it comes to choosing projects that will resonate with audiences.

What happens when they guess wrong? The film is a flop–and flops can have dire consequences. Several studios have gone under after experiencing just one massive movie flop. 2018’s “Solo,” a standalone Star Wars film and the first-ever of the franchise to be popularly considered a flop, forced executives to change plans for the entire franchise.

Executives realized that even passionate Star Wars fans might experience franchise fatigue or simply lack interest in a poorly reviewed movie. More than a few actors have blamed the end of their careers on flops. Analysts often blame 1963’s Cleopatra not only for losing lots of money but effectively ending the entire genre of big-budget historical epics for decades.

Hollywood Lacks Data

More and more moviemakers have seen the light and are trying to seek information on fan interests and needs before investing in a project. But how can filmmakers, investors, and other stakeholders find that data before they spend millions of dollars? In the current market, studios don’t usually have this information regarding whether a unique film will be successful until it’s already too late.

Test screenings can give filmmakers some data about audience reactions, but they can’t hold those screenings until much of shooting and editing has already taken place. If a film screens poorly, studios must choose between expensive and time-consuming edits and re-shoots or releasing a bad movie that risks alienating fans and making no money back.

Few industries would tolerate a business model where the desired end-user and consumer (i.e., a fan buying a ticket) is shut out of the manufacturing process until it’s already completed, with billions of units already sitting in warehouses ready for sale. That’s essentially what Hollywood does every time they make an expensive movie with little idea of how fans will respond.

Sequel fatigue shows that fans are getting tired of having their ticket purchases taken for granted. The only option left for moviemakers is to find a system that empowers fans and takes their needs into account during the creative process, not after it’s mostly completed.

Flops are preventable when studios have enough data on what fans want out of their movies, but that requires a system that engages with and respects fan opinions.

Filmio’s Solution

What would a new system that values real fan engagement during the creative process look like? There’s some early promise in crowdfunding models. In 2014, creators of the cult tv show Veronica Mars were able to complete a movie sequel and launch its successful run in theaters thanks to the crowdfunding site Kickstarter.

Fans not only got to support the continuation of a story about characters they love but also received perks such as direct interaction with creators and even walk-on roles. Veronica Mars fans funded the film because they were already familiar with the tv show. Still, original projects have struggled to communicate their content and attract fans on similar crowdfunding platforms.

Some companies use AI to perform sophisticated analyses of prior films’ success in different sectors to predict what movies might be popular next–a process that still ignores current fans’ feedback but at least tries harder to anticipate their needs.

Others, like blockchain platform Filmio, are taking the next step forward by combining a high-tech approach that empowers creators of all levels with a model that truly values fans. Filmio uses a blockchain ecosystem to incentivize fan-creator-investor interaction.

That incentivization means that all projects–not just spin-offs of existing properties–get exposed to fans and can rise in the Filmio development ladder as fans confirm their interest in the proposed content.

Blockchain architecture provides a low-cost, immutable and immediately relevant source of the actual fan data that AI firms are trying so desperately to produce by looking backward. This data allows filmmakers and investors to actually know how fans feel about their product–no more spending millions of dollars while guessing in the dark at the outcome.

Empowering Audiences Optimizes the Industry

Audiences are left in the cold when it comes to the entertainment industry, but it’s becoming more and more apparent how unsustainable that reality is. New platforms mean that fans are poised to take back the power in making movies and television, and that’s good news for both audiences and creators everywhere.

Author: Masao Akimoto

A 28 year old Japanese that loves Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and Tokenomics.

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