Issues with Current Financing Structures in Hollywood
The current sources of financing available to Hollywood are essential golden handcuffs for studios and creatives alike; however, there are valid reasons why obtaining capital in this industry can be particularly burdensome. Most financial institutions don’t fully understand the business of Hollywood. The terms of a revolver or borrowing base are set by a group of MDs that have never been practitioners at a studio and have limited optics on how a studio is run and where the industry is heading...
Issues with Current Financing Structures in Hollywood
The current sources of financing available to Hollywood are essential golden handcuffs for studios and creatives alike; however, there are valid reasons why obtaining capital in this industry can be particularly burdensome. Most financial institutions don’t fully understand the business of Hollywood. The terms of a revolver or borrowing base are set by a group of MDs that have never been practitioners at a studio and have limited optics on how a studio is run and where the industry is heading...
Film Underwriting Process
The typical underwriting process for a film begins with a kickoff meeting to discuss a prospective film's script and market comparables of historical releases. This meeting operates in a similar fashion to an investment committee meeting and is led by a small group of internal stakeholders including senior creative, marketing, and finance leaders. After the script is read and discussed, members in the underwriting meeting give their thoughts on where they see domestic and foreign box off...
Film Underwriting Process
The typical underwriting process for a film begins with a kickoff meeting to discuss a prospective film's script and market comparables of historical releases. This meeting operates in a similar fashion to an investment committee meeting and is led by a small group of internal stakeholders including senior creative, marketing, and finance leaders. After the script is read and discussed, members in the underwriting meeting give their thoughts on where they see domestic and foreign box off...
2022 Studio Economic Outlook
Content Strategy and underwriting groups within traditional studios look to underwrite films that they believe will at least financially break even in the majority of scenarios that are modeled out. Due to COVID and changing consumer habits, theatrical releases have become less predictable and traditional comps do not hold up. This creates a reality where it is tougher to model out the financial performance of a film, and profit projections have most likely dropped for unreleased projects. As...
2022 Studio Economic Outlook
Content Strategy and underwriting groups within traditional studios look to underwrite films that they believe will at least financially break even in the majority of scenarios that are modeled out. Due to COVID and changing consumer habits, theatrical releases have become less predictable and traditional comps do not hold up. This creates a reality where it is tougher to model out the financial performance of a film, and profit projections have most likely dropped for unreleased projects. As...
Netflix Content Strategy
Whenever Netflix cancels a show, most analysis looks something like: “it became too expensive” or “the most recent season wasn’t as popular as previous seasons”. Looking past that, what exactly does it mean to say that a show got too expensive or viewership dipped? For example, with a show like American Vandal, you often see the rationale that it was cancelled because “it was produced for Netflix by an outside studio. The streamer, like most in the TV space, is increasingly looking to produce...
Netflix Content Strategy
Whenever Netflix cancels a show, most analysis looks something like: “it became too expensive” or “the most recent season wasn’t as popular as previous seasons”. Looking past that, what exactly does it mean to say that a show got too expensive or viewership dipped? For example, with a show like American Vandal, you often see the rationale that it was cancelled because “it was produced for Netflix by an outside studio. The streamer, like most in the TV space, is increasingly looking to produce...
