The number of competitors in the Hollywood arena seems a constantly shrinking number, as exciting news of giant media companies swallowing each other’s properties (over billion dollar acquisition deals) continue to pop up.
Take the almighty Walt Disney Company—who within the last several years, acquired chief ownership of Pixar Animation Studios; entered in an agreement with DreamWorks Studios to handle their live-action film distribution for the next five years (while Paramount distributes their animation); and most recently, purchased Marvel Entertainment in a $4 billion transaction.
And it’s not that anyone should be worried about some looming lack of competition within the movie marketplace that’s bound to affect the quality or range of movies being produced. It’s just that the Hollywood juggernauts would sooner work together than against each other. Right?
What might appear to be entertainment companies setting aside their competition over the marketplace in order to join creative forces, is really just the biggest warring studios gathering more troops to go to battle. Really, what we are seeing is just the old-school Hollywood studio oligarchy—in particular, the “Big Six”—maintaining their utmost control at the top.
These are the same elite six that have been doing business since Hollywood’s Golden Age; gobbling up smaller motion picture success stories is how they remain competitive and stay in business.
In disguise, the overarching significance is just how difficult it would be today to successfully establish a place among the Hollywood upper echelon because the top dog studios would much rather make room for successful mini-majors under their big corporate umbrella than share any room at the very top.
Undoubtedly, the arena is growing larger as technology improves and the creative resources required to create film becomes more available and more affordable to the Average Joe. But the well-established major studios are still running the game, and at the end of the day, all the “buzzworthy” acquisitions and joint business ventures doesn’t do as much to change the playing field as it might seem.
Take the almighty Walt Disney Company—who within the last several years, acquired chief ownership of Pixar Animation Studios; entered in an agreement with DreamWorks Studios to handle their live-action film distribution for the next five years (while Paramount distributes their animation); and most recently, purchased Marvel Entertainment in a $4 billion transaction.
And it’s not that anyone should be worried about some looming lack of competition within the movie marketplace that’s bound to affect the quality or range of movies being produced. It’s just that the Hollywood juggernauts would sooner work together than against each other. Right?
What might appear to be entertainment companies setting aside their competition over the marketplace in order to join creative forces, is really just the biggest warring studios gathering more troops to go to battle. Really, what we are seeing is just the old-school Hollywood studio oligarchy—in particular, the “Big Six”—maintaining their utmost control at the top.
These are the same elite six that have been doing business since Hollywood’s Golden Age; gobbling up smaller motion picture success stories is how they remain competitive and stay in business.
In disguise, the overarching significance is just how difficult it would be today to successfully establish a place among the Hollywood upper echelon because the top dog studios would much rather make room for successful mini-majors under their big corporate umbrella than share any room at the very top.
Undoubtedly, the arena is growing larger as technology improves and the creative resources required to create film becomes more available and more affordable to the Average Joe. But the well-established major studios are still running the game, and at the end of the day, all the “buzzworthy” acquisitions and joint business ventures doesn’t do as much to change the playing field as it might seem.
These mergers are a bit disconcerting. I appreciate that big studios need to capitalize on economies of scale to pump out the next blockbuster, but the less competition there is the more likely that we see more movies like G-Force (the one with the guinea pigs)and less movies like WALL-E.
ReplyDeleteThe Deviant Press
I completely see your point Scott-- but with this post I really wanted to impress upon the idea that these business-related mergers don't necessarily spell the end of quality creativity within a studio. In fact, there's even an argument that could be made for some studios producing higher quality films by employing collaborative efforts.
ReplyDeleteBut your example here with G-Force and WALL-E (both of which were released by Disney) is the perfect case to help shed light on my underlying point that studio mergers don’t necessarily contribute to compromised quality. I have seen both films and I'm assuming that we agree regarding their lasting cinematic worth: G-Force was clichéd and sleep-inducing while WALL-E was captivating and thought-provoking.
However, the notion of comparing them as Disney films is more apples to oranges because even though these are both are branded with the Disney logo, each was a production of two separate studio subsidiaries under that giant corporate umbrella. Disney may have orchestrated similar business objectives with the two: family films, wide release, etc… and both ultimately fared very successfully at the domestic box office (WALL-E $223,808,164; G-Force $117,533,866). Yet the two are not alike in that Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Pictures each have unique creative direction and purpose operating under different personnel.
Pixar, for instance, has been lauded for its unrivaled dominance of the CGI animation market both critically and commercially, thanks in large part to the vision and exceptional creativity of their team of animators and upper management. [Note: since the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature was introduced in 2001, all six of Pixar’s feature films have been nominated, and four have won—including WALL-E.]
Even though G-Force also used CGI animation to create the super spy guinea pigs, Walt Disney Pictures operates with a completely separate team to complete the project. So, what may be a lesser-quality film in G-Force cannot be chalked up to some sort of lack of competition or standardization of the marketplace.
The absorption practices of the big dog studios doesn’t have much impact at the level in which filmmaking is accomplished. Instead, they do more to strategically maintain positioning at the top of the dog pile.
Disney's problem is deeper than that. On the surface, it has eaten up all these other companies, or rather conscripted them for battle. But the degradation of film quality is being brought on by the inner circle - Iger and Ross have made it clear that Disney is to become a straight to video studio, with an occasional event feature film like TRON. And since the death of Roy Disney and the excommunication of Dick Cook and his chancellors, that is exactly what Iger and his boys are doing.
ReplyDeleteA neighbor of mine is not only leaving Disney, but leaving town, because of the new regime. She has worked in Disney Marketing for fifteen years, had one boss that was difficult but who she was familiar with, and now has three bosses who make every simple decision a convoluted nightmare. Too many chiefs and not enough Indians. The carpet-bagging of Walt Disney Studios will soon be complete. Walt's name has even been taken off of future productions, which will merely say "Disney presents".
So there you have it. Marvel will do nothing to save Disney, because superhero flicks are done, kaput, it is time to become a superhero rather than worship them. Pixar will continue to go strong and if anything improves Disney's output it will be Pixar; it already has, look at Tangled.
I started my first Disney job back in 1995. The studio was just coming off the LION KING success high and it was a glorious place to work. Lots of hard work and plenty of assholes, but at least morale was great. Now, employees barely know where they are. Warner Brothers at least doesn't pretend it's the happiest god damned place on earth and I loved working there for that. I will go back to Warners the first chance I get.
I snuck a friend into a screening of the 23 minute Tron promo piece, in 3D, a few weeks ago. He works for Warners and when we emerged from the theater he turned to me and said, "Wow, we don't have anything like that!" I replied, "Yes, but we don't have anything like Inception." Warners takes risks. Disney does not.