Huayu: Starting from "The Heavenly Bodyguard"

Chapter 126 Other People's Homework

Beginning in the 1920s, Jewish immigrant entrepreneurs fled Edison's patent monopoly and established modern film studios in Hollywood.

Eight major film studios were established in the 1930s and 40s.

They are Paramount, MGM, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., RKO (the Big Five) + Universal, Columbia, and United Artists (the Small Three).

These eight major film studios have taken the unsavory and inhumane aspects of filmmaking to the extreme.

They have vertically monopolized all film and television resources, from stars to producers, from distribution to theaters.

Following this, the eight major film studios began the industrialization of genre films, producing movies in a canned-like manner.

Producing hundreds of films of various genres annually, and controlling over 90% of the North American box office.

After gaining a monopoly, these bastards started to get arrogant.

They don't even treat the audience like human beings, let alone the actors and industry professionals.

The Paramount case in 1948 brought them to the brink of disaster.

The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling to separate theater chains from film production and distribution has dismantled vertical monopolies and spurred the rise of independent cinemas.

By the 1950s and 60s, the eight major film studios had reached their twilight years due to their self-destructive actions.

Television began to become widespread, viewership dwindled, and independent productions emerged.

RKO Pictures ceased operations, United Artists was acquired by MGM, and MGM subsequently declined due to conservatism and debt, marking the end of an era.

By the 1970s, Coppola, Spielberg, and Lucas had risen to prominence.

The Godfather, Jaws, and Star Wars ushered in the era of high-concept blockbusters.

Universal, Warner, Paramount, Fox, Columbia, and Disney gradually formed a stable six-way competition, while MGM was marginalized.

From the 1980s to the millennium, the six major film companies made rapid progress.

Breakthroughs in special effects technology have led to the rise of special effects companies such as Industrial Light & Magic.

Films such as Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, and Titanic have completely changed the form of movies using CG.

The blockbuster's visual impact is unprecedented, constantly raising the box office ceiling.

With the wave of globalization, overseas markets have transformed from a supplement to a primary driver of growth.

The six major distributors have established distribution networks in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

American films have become globally recognized cultural products, with overseas box office revenue continuing to rise.

Through conglomeration and capital expansion, the six companies were successively acquired or integrated by large media groups.

Major film studios have evolved from single production companies into full-industry chain giants encompassing film, music, television, theme parks, and merchandise, achieving cross-industry profitability through their intellectual property.

The high-concept blockbuster model has been established.

Big investments, big stars, strong special effects, and simultaneous global release have become the standard approach.

The commercial film industry is highly industrialized, and the six major studios firmly control the global mainstream film market.

From the 80s to the millennium, the Big Six relied on special effects to upgrade content, globalization to open up markets, and group-based expansion to amplify profits, thus completing their expansion from American studios to global entertainment empires.

Following the global release of "The Dark Knight," Shen Mo, who was in the thick of it all, finally understood why the so-called Hollywood Big Six, despite making one bad movie after another and going bankrupt every now and then, can still stand strong.

The core assets of the six major entities are their powerful spiritual seal and their hegemonic power in issuing securities.

Moreover, the breadth of this distribution capability is not limited to the United States, but covers across oceans and continents.

No wonder that in later generations, only Netflix was able to barely challenge the authority of these companies.

To defeat the Big Six and gain a foothold, it is necessary to bypass their distribution hegemony.

Netflix shifted from DVD mailing to streaming subscriptions, building its own global distribution network and reaching users directly without relying on the Big Six theatrical and television distribution systems.

Internet channels offer zero marginal cost, global synchronization, and anytime access, overcoming the geographical, temporal, and physical limitations of traditional cinemas and television networks.

Netflix also overturned the traditional distribution rules of the Big Six and broke the rhythm of the window period.

Six core profit chains: 90-day exclusive theatrical release, home video, pay TV, free TV, monetization at each level.

Netflix's direct push for streaming premieres and simultaneous releases, or even just a very short window of 17-45 days, completely destroys the business logic of prioritizing theatrical releases, diverts box office revenue, and weakens the pricing power of the six major streaming services.

The most devastating blow was the shift from buying content to creating content.

Netflix has started an arms race in original content.

In 2013, House of Cards began to be produced in-house, with an annual investment of over 10 billion US dollars, far exceeding the budget of the six major studios.

Creating global blockbusters like "Stranger Things" and "The Squid Game," no longer relying on the six major film libraries.

Poaching and buyouts: Six top creators were poached with high salaries, and one-time buyouts and global copyrights were used to replace traditional box office revenue sharing.

Restructuring creator revenue models to seize content supply.

High-quality content reaches the global market directly, breaking down geographical barriers in six major regions.

The six major overseas distributions rely on local agents, have complex revenue sharing, and have long cycles.

Netflix's unified global platform, one-click uploading, and multilingual coverage allow local original content (such as Korean dramas and Spanish dramas) to be directly transformed into global content, with overseas market growth and market share far exceeding that of traditional production studios.

The six major vertical monopolists of content and distribution channels have been forced to transform into content providers.

Netflix bypassed traditional distribution channels, disrupted window periods, invested heavily in original content, and directly connected with users worldwide, transforming itself from a distributor into a content giant and completely breaking the century-old monopoly of the Hollywood Big Six.

Netflix has already drawn up the roadmap; now it's up to Shen Mo to copy it down.

Although the road ahead is fraught with difficulties, A-site has already taken the lead.

With the release of "The Squid Game" and the opening of CCTV's film library, ACFun's coverage of Asian countries has actually begun to show signs.

Overseas sites have also begun to launch one after another, reaching the Americas and Europe.

Shen Daniu felt that the conspiracies and imagination in "A Song of Ice and Fire" were enough to make those foreigners who hadn't seen much of the world scream with excitement. If they were to make "Investiture of the Gods" and "Journey to the West" well, those people would go crazy.

At worst, there are plenty of male-oriented and female-oriented novels out there. Let them know what the Great Emperor Ruyan is like, and what it means to be a Daoist master like myself.

Hot money hasn't entered the Chinese internet market yet; the timing isn't right.

Shen Mo had already set up the iron pot and was waiting for the goose to jump into it.

Pointing to Xu Yi, who was trying to appear calm in the corner, Shen Danu said to Jeremy, "Old Jeremy, don't say I, Joker, am disloyal."

"Brother, I'm introducing you to my most valuable connections."

"You must have heard of the famous A site. This is Xu Yi, the CEO of A site, a well-known big shot in China."

"People are only seeing you today because of me."

"Whether our 'The Dark Knight' can be successfully promoted in Asia depends on their attitude."

Damn it, how could Shen Daniu be so shameless in bragging to himself...

Xu Yi felt her throat was a little dry and her legs were cramping, but seeing Shen Dani'er's signal, she forced herself to say, "No seats!"