Monthly Digest - JUNE 2018

Jun 30, 2018

June 30, 2018 | Dear Producer, No. 11

MUST READ

To give a clearer idea of how Netflix operates, The Information put together for the first time, an organizational chart of the management team at Netflix with 80 names to explain HOW NETFLIX'S MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE IS REWRITING THE HOLLYWOOD SCRIPT.

While over at Amazon, and in her first interview since replacing embattled exec Roy Price, JENNIFER SALKE DETAILS AMAZON PLANS: FIX CULTURE, EMPOWER WOMEN, 'LORD OF THE RINGS' BY 2021. The former NBC Entertainment president talks with THR about her overall deals strategy and how she's changing the corporate culture as she outlines her plans for feature films.

Meanwhile, in the fight to get audiences to the theaters, AMC THEATERS TAKES ON MOVIEPASS WITH $20-PER-MONTH TICKET PROGRAM and comes amid competition from MoviePass and a loyalty program from rival Cinemark.

But even if MoviePass doesn’t save us, Meg Shields at Film School Rejects believes INDEPENDENT MOVIE THEATERS CAN SURVIVE THE RISE OF STREAMING and points to the rise in independent bookstores for patterns that we can learn from, and that should peak our interest (and optimism) as film fans.

For Filmmaker Magazine, Eric Hatch “dug into how dumbing down the art house in search of middlebrow hits has diminished film culture for years - and how things are already in the process of changing for the better.” It's titled, with only a dash of irony, WHY I AM HOPEFUL

And helping to prove why Eric is hopeful, 5 BOX OFFICE TAKEAWAYS AT MID0YEAR: 'STAR WARS' IN TROUBLE, SIZZLING SUPERHEROES, AND COMEDY FATIGUE explains that “it’s not just the big earners like JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM that are lifting revenues and flirting with $1 billion-plus grosses. Films such as OCEANS 8, BLOOK CLUB, AND A QUIET PLACE are connecting with audiences, often older crowds, and helping to spread the wealth to films that may not feature spandexed protagonists.”

And if you want to learn how we got to this place where studios tentpoles have taken over the summer, turn to THE TRUTH ABOUT HOLLYWOOD: ON BEN FRITZ'S 'THE BIG PICTURE: THE FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE OF MOVIES' where Distribution Strategist Peter Broderick reviews a recently published book, The Big Picture: The Fight for the Future of Movies, written by Ben Fritz, who has been covering the entertainment industry since 2004 for Variety, the Los Angeles Times and currently the Wall Street Journal.