In the early part of 2018, we were earning anywhere from a half a million to almost a million dollars a month in advertising, mostly from small studios. So that, so we wanted the studios to pay us one to two dollars per ticket that we purchased when we promote their film. For them, it was a great deal because every dollar a studio makes in the box office translates to on average $10 in downstream revenues.
Mitch Lowe has been a significant disruptor of Hollywood's distribution models over the past two decades, promoting all-you-can-eat subscription models on personal devices and at the box office. Netflix famously redefined consumer video distribution while Movie Pass infamously imploded in 2019. Today, Mitch speaks openly with James about why his companies ended up on their trajectories while describing the analytics that factor into their business plans.
For a deeper dive into the dramatic evolution of the entertainment business, read or listen to Mitch's new memoir: Watch and Learn: How I Turned Hollywood Upside Down with Netflix, Redbox, and MoviePass―Lessons in Disruption
Other topics include:
- How Netflix's DVD queue saved the company (11:12)
- The genius of Netflix's auto-play feature (12:46)
- Content business models: ad sales vs. subscription (14:29)
- What led to Movie Pass' downfall? (17:46)
- Movie studios' stranglehold on movie theater pricing models (21:52)
- How Movie Pass used 'the float' in its business operations (29:22)
- The cost of acquiring digital distribution film rights (33:44)
- When does streaming become a commodity? (38:01)
- What will Netflix do to overcome the commoditization of the streaming market? (39:47)
- TikTok's algorithm vs streaming services (52:26)
(Editor’s note: Topic times don’t account for sponsor ads and may appear a few minutes later in the episode on your podcast player)
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