The Death of the Blockbuster?
Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine is writing a book based on his writing for Wired Magazine called ‘The Long Tail’. Here I would just like to mention his post on ‘The Death of a Blockbuster’ and something I think he is misunderstanding.
Go read the article and the lively comments for a good read.
I think Chris is misunderstanding what movie studios are producing now a days. Movie studios today create ‘Content’ not movies. Years ago when the Motion Picture industry was in its infancy, there was only one distribution method and that was a movie theater. Those days are long gone.
Today’s movies find their audiences through theaters, dvd’s, television, toys and theme parks.
When Chris writes ‘The Death of a Blockbuster’ what he really should be writing about is the death of the movie theater, not the movie.
George Lucas didn’t make enough money to create ILM, Lucasarts, Pixar and Skywalker Sound because the Star Wars movies made 2 Billion at the Box Office, it’s because the Videos, DVDs and toys made all the money that they did.
If the movie Spiderman makes $300 million and sales of the Spiderman comic book double, then Spiderman didn’t just make $300. Those comic book sales should be figured in to the movie’s actual profit power.
So are blockbusters dying, no not at all, but are movie theaters dying, yeah, maybe they are.
Maybe that will change if they put in cell phone jammers, though.
