H'wood Studios: Their Backs To The Wall

Barry Diller, ex-film and TV CEO and currently Head of the Expedia Group, warned the Hollywood studios, last week, that they have lost  substantial power saying, "Hollywood is now irrelevant and those that chase Netflix are fools."

Diller argued that the studios do not understand and can not replicate the content streamers entertainment model - be it Netflix, Amazon, or Apple. "The entertainment business has become the media business", says Diller.

He did give some credit to Disney for their pending launch of Disney+, but he, like this blog, sees Disney playing only a peripheral role in content streaming. The era of the major studios dominating the movie industry is OVER!  The six (soon to be five) majors are making movies vs. making movies and distributing them to the mass public.

As I have stated in numerous posts to the CMG blog, movie exhibitors MUST form an alliance with Netflix and other alternative content providers and begin to screen their content. Make no mistake, Netflix, and others, will be major producers/distributors of movies in the future and must be engaged by exhibitors.

Just saying and warning,

Jim Lavorato