Media: Welcome To The New World Of Cinema

(Drivebycuriosity) - The world of cinema is changing. In the old world Hollywood and other movie studios produced films, showed them in the cinema theaters & sold them later to the TV channels. But since the ascent of Netflix this system is changing. Netflix started to produce her own cinema movies, for instance the films "Rebirth", "Beasts of Nation" which have been recently in US cinema theaters (wikipedia). Netflix competitor Amazon begun her own production as well (variety). Amazon Studios produced for instance the Woody Allen film "Café Society" and the mystery "Complete Unknown". Now US theaters are showing "The Handmaiden", a milestone of cinema (here my review driveby).  Next week will start the drama "Manchester by the Sea" with Casey Affleck & Michelle Williams. Both online companies have many more films in their pipelines.

 

Netflix & Amazon will offer these film in their own networks of course.  Their customers can downstream these movies soon after the cinema placements. Amazon uses her own productions to gain more customers for Amazon Prime who`s subscribers are supposed to purchase more goods from Amazon. The self-produced movies help Amazon to expand their moat (advantages against competitors).

 

Being a movie lover I appreciate these changes. The newcomers bring more competition to the movie industry. Competition is always good for the consumers because producers have to be better than their competitors or at least as good as them to stay in business. Does that raise the quality of cinema? The current flood of super hero movies wakes doubts, but "The Handmaiden" and other recent movies are signalling at least a constant quality.

 

Netflix & Amazon also foster the globalization of cinema. Amazon´s "The Handmaiden" was produced in Korea, shot by the Korean director Park Chan-wook with a Korean cast. Netflix produced "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny" and the Bollywood comedy "Brahman Nahman". So moviegoers and online subscribers can enjoy and learn about very different cultures, views & ideas. 

 

Otherwise globalization expands the markets for these movies. Because Netflix & Amazon are streaming their films worldwide they can take higher risks and invest more into script writers, actors, directors, cinematography and post production which should foster number & quality of their cinema productions.

 

Enjoy!