A lot of the comments here are focused on the politics of consolidation. The more interesting shift is the economics Jeff touches on toward the end.
Over the past decade we’ve seen the rise of a very different model; disciplined budgets with asymmetric upside. The $1–5M film that can travel through festivals, awards, and global audiences, or the $1M horror that can break out commercially.
That’s essentially the lane A24 and NEON have been refining. Not chasing massive swings, but building a portfolio where one breakout can carry the slate.
While the majors chase $200M bets, the smarter play right now might actually be the smaller film designed to punch far above its weight.
I don't know if you read your comments here but if you do I really want you to read this to put things into perspective. Your focus solely on the politics which is valid I will validate you there I don't like Donald Trump and I'm not going to say I don't like David Ellison but I don't like the politics that he supports. The thing David Ellison's influence over politics is only as relevant for as long as Trump is in office if there's a Democrat elected in 2028 Ellison will no longer have ties to the White House and that makes his political influence in my opinion far less weaker so this to me is more of a temporary concern but still a valid one. You fail to touch upon is this Netflix would have killed physical media almost every collector is like in unanimous agreement on that. Paramount has recently outsourced with Alliance and has a robust slate of physical media releases this year so they still support physical media whereas Netflix not so much. I know you have made the argument and one or two others kind of did too that well Netflix has never supported physical media because they didn't have the infrastructure for it and now they would embrace it since they would have the infrastructure I don't agree with that at all. If they wanted the infrastructure to support physical media they would already have that. They don't want you to own anything they want you to subscribe to their streaming service. Physical ownership is a threat to their model because by you being able to physically own copies of their content that means less subscribers for them. Physical ownership is not compatible with their business model at all and neither is theatrical releases. I mean yeah technically they do theatrical releases for like 2 weeks long enough to get Oscar nominations but if they did that for Warner Brothers entire slate that would be the immediate death of the movie theater. Paramount we know that we're going to not only get theatrical releases but we're going to get full theatrical windows. Yes I understand that consolidation such as this traditionally leads to less creativity and less risk. If you care about physical media and theatrical releases Paramount is the less worse deal. I think we need to put aside our left wing political biases and really realize that. I know people don't like Saudi Arabia's influence over our economy but guess what they already have a ton of influence over our economy and there's absolutely no changing that might as well accept that for what it is. Don't think people realize how much influence they have over our economy already. I'm not downplaying that concern I mean Saudi Arabia sucks but I'm just saying they have growing economic influence around the world and that's not changing and that's not being reversed no matter how much we protest it. Paramount is the less evil deal in my opinion and there's not really a whole lot that will convince me otherwise so. I am of the opinion that you're too blinded by politics to realize what a threat Netflix was to the movie theater and physical media. A lot of people who care about physical media and theatrical releases are siding with the Paramount deal not because they like Paramount's politics they just know that Netflix would have killed both and there's almost no debate over that. I mean no disrespect I'm just bringing another perspective to the conversation.
The Ellisons bribed Trump for his approval by promising him to gut CNN and turn it into a pro-Trump propaganda machine. Trump will push the deal through, as there is no longer any real oversight from federal agencies under this regime. It's all billionaires making "deals" with Trump to get what they want. This control of the entertainment industry is all about pushing the far-right-wing agenda to every American 24/7.
I think people are starting to finally wake up to the corruption of the government and billionaires I actually this is going to backfire for all of them.
A lot of the comments here are focused on the politics of consolidation. The more interesting shift is the economics Jeff touches on toward the end.
Over the past decade we’ve seen the rise of a very different model; disciplined budgets with asymmetric upside. The $1–5M film that can travel through festivals, awards, and global audiences, or the $1M horror that can break out commercially.
That’s essentially the lane A24 and NEON have been refining. Not chasing massive swings, but building a portfolio where one breakout can carry the slate.
While the majors chase $200M bets, the smarter play right now might actually be the smaller film designed to punch far above its weight.
Such a punchable face…. I’m sorry but I’m disgusted at these Nepo babies.
I don't know if you read your comments here but if you do I really want you to read this to put things into perspective. Your focus solely on the politics which is valid I will validate you there I don't like Donald Trump and I'm not going to say I don't like David Ellison but I don't like the politics that he supports. The thing David Ellison's influence over politics is only as relevant for as long as Trump is in office if there's a Democrat elected in 2028 Ellison will no longer have ties to the White House and that makes his political influence in my opinion far less weaker so this to me is more of a temporary concern but still a valid one. You fail to touch upon is this Netflix would have killed physical media almost every collector is like in unanimous agreement on that. Paramount has recently outsourced with Alliance and has a robust slate of physical media releases this year so they still support physical media whereas Netflix not so much. I know you have made the argument and one or two others kind of did too that well Netflix has never supported physical media because they didn't have the infrastructure for it and now they would embrace it since they would have the infrastructure I don't agree with that at all. If they wanted the infrastructure to support physical media they would already have that. They don't want you to own anything they want you to subscribe to their streaming service. Physical ownership is a threat to their model because by you being able to physically own copies of their content that means less subscribers for them. Physical ownership is not compatible with their business model at all and neither is theatrical releases. I mean yeah technically they do theatrical releases for like 2 weeks long enough to get Oscar nominations but if they did that for Warner Brothers entire slate that would be the immediate death of the movie theater. Paramount we know that we're going to not only get theatrical releases but we're going to get full theatrical windows. Yes I understand that consolidation such as this traditionally leads to less creativity and less risk. If you care about physical media and theatrical releases Paramount is the less worse deal. I think we need to put aside our left wing political biases and really realize that. I know people don't like Saudi Arabia's influence over our economy but guess what they already have a ton of influence over our economy and there's absolutely no changing that might as well accept that for what it is. Don't think people realize how much influence they have over our economy already. I'm not downplaying that concern I mean Saudi Arabia sucks but I'm just saying they have growing economic influence around the world and that's not changing and that's not being reversed no matter how much we protest it. Paramount is the less evil deal in my opinion and there's not really a whole lot that will convince me otherwise so. I am of the opinion that you're too blinded by politics to realize what a threat Netflix was to the movie theater and physical media. A lot of people who care about physical media and theatrical releases are siding with the Paramount deal not because they like Paramount's politics they just know that Netflix would have killed both and there's almost no debate over that. I mean no disrespect I'm just bringing another perspective to the conversation.
The Ellisons bribed Trump for his approval by promising him to gut CNN and turn it into a pro-Trump propaganda machine. Trump will push the deal through, as there is no longer any real oversight from federal agencies under this regime. It's all billionaires making "deals" with Trump to get what they want. This control of the entertainment industry is all about pushing the far-right-wing agenda to every American 24/7.
I think people are starting to finally wake up to the corruption of the government and billionaires I actually this is going to backfire for all of them.
Are the regulatory boards not run by the Trump Admin now, or are they still an independent body?