Why is Amazon gobbling up failing studios on the cheap?
Why is Amazon able to buy franchises like Lord of the Rings, advertise them for free on the side of its delivery vans and packaging, then offer the content completely for free to its mail order subscribers? That's dumping and competes with the non-AWS subsidized offerings of non-tech film studios.
Why did Amazon, Apple, and Netflix offshore production to the UK, Eastern Europe, and Asia when the US has infrastructure and subsidies? Almost everyone I know in IATSE is out of work and contemplating leaving the industry for good.
It's a pretty thorough destruction or assimilation if you ask me.
> Why is Amazon gobbling up failing studios on the cheap?
For their back catalogue. The audiences are after familiarity ("more of the same") and nostalgia. The studios in turn are terrified of taking risks, which is why nearly everything they release has been a sequel, prequel, reboot, or in-universe spinoff for more than 15 years. Buying up a studio gives access and control over their massive quantity of pre-chewed dough to feed their cookie cutter productions.
In this Amazon behaves like a PE entity: buy up for cheap, roll up what they can, reduce quality, and milk for as much money as possible before tossing the empty (& possibly toxic) husk aside.
> Why did Amazon, Apple, and Netflix offshore production to the UK, Eastern Europe, and Asia when the US has infrastructure and subsidies?
They have been following what the studios have been doing for decades. Even in 1990's a good chunk of US productions were often filmed in Canada. (To lower production costs, of course.) UK was known for some of their film studios even before then, so made a good early target when Canada started to become too costly and you needed to move elsewhere.
You can see where this is going. We're already seeing more productions filmed and located in/near China[ß]. As the costs there will eventually creep up too, expect to see locations shift to places like Indonesia, Pakistan and South-Eastern Africa.
ß: Part of China's visibility and increased footprint on films is due to a clear political drive. The CCP has set up structures where they strongly encourage their industry arm to fund film and TV/streaming production elsewhere in the world, buying up influence and dictating how Chinese get portrayed in the scripts.
"Why is Amazon gobbling up failing studios on the cheap?"
so you rather let them bankrupt???
"Why did Amazon, Apple, and Netflix offshore production to the UK, Eastern Europe, and Asia when the US has infrastructure and subsidies? Almost everyone I know in IATSE is out of work and contemplating leaving the industry for good"
less woke propaganda, we all know why hollywood failling but you refuse to see it
maybe next time listen to your actual fans rather listening to activist
Why is Amazon able to buy franchises like Lord of the Rings, advertise them for free on the side of its delivery vans and packaging, then offer the content completely for free to its mail order subscribers? That's dumping and competes with the non-AWS subsidized offerings of non-tech film studios.
Why did Amazon, Apple, and Netflix offshore production to the UK, Eastern Europe, and Asia when the US has infrastructure and subsidies? Almost everyone I know in IATSE is out of work and contemplating leaving the industry for good.
It's a pretty thorough destruction or assimilation if you ask me.