I don’t think it’s too much to say that we are living through a once-in-a-century shift to the entertainment business. And a lot of us are wondering whether in this world of real-life “Hunger Games” we are the ones who get to survive.
Change, as we know, happens slowly and then all at once. In the last year or two nearly all of Hollywood’s legacy studios have celebrated a century of existence and the many changes that have come through those decades, including the talkies, color television, cable, VHS then DVDs then OTT.
But this change is different. What looked like a secular shift a decade and a half ago – the move to streaming – has become something more transformative and profound. The disruption to Hollywood’s major studios are the symptoms and not the cause of this transformation. Paramount and Warner Bros. are the two most impacted in the past 18 months in their highly contested merger, but hardly the only institutions affected.
When you pull the lens back, the industry as a whole shows us something bigger: a shift in the balance of power between content and technology. Technology companies have either built alternatives to legacy studios like Netflix or bought them, like Apple and Amazon MGM. This is redefining what the entertainment economy looks like. And of course AI is changing everything inside those studios as well.
Part of what we are doing this year at TheGrill is digging down deep to identify what is the core value of what Hollywood offers. Yes, we will explore the pace of mergers and acquisitions, and especially delve into the Paramount-Warner merger.
But regardless of the platform, it always comes back to authentic storytelling, whether in one-minute videos or eight-hour series. Whether it’s on TikTok or at the multiplex. It is what audiences are still hungry for, as “Obsession” and “Backrooms” and “The Odyssey” and “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” have proved, to billions of dollars at the box office.
Speaking of that, apparently theatrical moviegoing isn’t dead after all. The box office is headed to a $10.5 billion year, driven by five billion dollar global hits so far.
Creators are a whole category that barely existed five years ago. The tools we have today means that a single individual can build their own business from scratch. They no longer need permission or even the infrastructure that a studio provides, and creators are building on their own to the tune of multi-million dollar deals. We have some of the key players in that space as well as a look at a new event that we launched just for Creators on Tuesday.
And as subscription models hit maturity, advertising has come back as an important part of the entertainment ecosystem. Whether in FAST channels or in the competitive dealmaking around sports, brands and their dollars are once again a growth engine.
We’ve been convening TheGrill for 16 years and change has been the constant of this annual look at the state of the industry. But if you’re in this room today, your odds of surviving the overwhelming gale winds of change are pretty good. This community is consistently filled with the innovators and risk takers, both in the audience and on stage. It’s fun to look around and see new companies joining our stage – like aTwist from Jana Winograde and Susan Rovner, which just launched, and Mansa from Nate Parker and David Oyelowo – who are adapting to new formats like the microdrama.
This year we are able to show samples of AI generated entertainment using some of the newest tools that are making production cheaper, faster and more flexible. We feel lucky to have some of the brightest and most cutting edge minds in AI’s intersection with Hollywood.
And of course among business leaders we have some true heavy hitters coming today, from the founder and CEO of Draftkings Jason Robins, to the California attorney general Rob Bonta and Paramount chief legal counsel Makan Delrahim. We’ll have a busy morning session followed by a networking lunch where you can meet TheWrap’s top journalists and ask them anything.
We’re excited to get today kicked off. We will continue to believe in the promise of disruption.
