This video by Clownfish TV discusses the mergers and acquisitions of Hollywood studios, either by each other, or by Big Tech. The coronavirus lockdowns were catastrophic for Hollywood, but Silicon Valley is coming through bigger than ever. Movie theaters are being replaced by streaming services, but there are currently too many options to make it in the market. After Amazon bought MGM last week, it looks likely that studios will exist to serve the survivors of the streaming wars. Whatever happens to Hollywood, this is a wonderful opportunity for independent creators.
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In the video, Kneon and Geeky Sparkles start by reading a Deadline article about Lionsgate Studios. It is suspected Lionsgate will be the next studio to be gobbled up. Lionsgate owns Starz, so their likely buyer will have a streaming service ready-made. The Deadline article notes that mergers tend to happen in waves. Amazon bought MGM, and AT&T sold Warner Media to Discovery, so there will likely be more this year.
This comes at a time when Hollywood’s creativity is drying up. The 21st Century is rife with reboots and remakes of older franchises. Companies find it easier to acquire other studios and their intellectual properties than to make new stories. This is exemplified by Disney. They own Marvel Comics, Lucasfilm, The Muppets, ESPN, and 20th Century Fox. Disney has made a few original in-house movies, like “Frozen” and “Wreck-It Ralph,” but has gone overboard producing live action remakes of their animated classics. Those remakes made money for a while, but the live action “Mulan” was a turning point. It was offensive to Chinese audiences, yet Disney colluded with the CCP so much it outraged Western audiences.
Hollywood corporations care too much about intellectual properties, and not enough about what made those properties great. This will get worse as tech companies get involved. Amazon is making a Prime series based on Lord Of The Rings, but Tolkien fans are not enthused. Watch any pop culture YouTube channel like Nerdrotic to get a sample of fans’ reactions. Hollywood and Big Tech, and almost every other global corporation, listen to Twitter more than YouTube. Therefore, far left identity politics drive their agendas, and drive away paying customers.
It’s not surprising, though, that Hollywood and the Corporate Media would distrust YouTubers. YouTube undercuts their very business model. By working out of their spare rooms, YouTube creators generate compelling content and citizen journalism- for a fraction of the budget a corporate studio spends. Video games have famously overtaken the film industry in revenue, and gaming is a dominant subject on YouTube. Anyone with creative talent is probably doing their own thing, leaving Hollywood with the hacks and bootlickers. Rather than streaming services fighting to be the next Netflix, the real revolution might be video platforms fighting to be the next YouTube.
In this post, we examine two YouTube videos by TheQuartering. One discusses multiple articles about major companies turning away from “woke” far left politics, and the other signals the split between Hollywood and communist China. As I have said in other posts, “leftist” is not the same as “liberal”; left wing activists, demagogues, and politicians are phony liberals who use ideology as a smokescreen for nefarious purposes. Consumers may not be able to articulate this, but they reject the pandering and preaching of global corporations.
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In the first video we learn about major banks are under the government’s microscope. Wednesday, the executives of JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank Of America, and others, were questioned by members of Congress. Democrats are concerned about the drop in loan issuance to small businesses last year, which is no surprise due to pandemic lockdowns, forcing businesses to close. Democrat senators and representatives should refer to Democrat state governors. Republicans in Congress want to get to the bottom of the banks’ support of left wing causes. Bank execs have criticized election reform and audits, prompting Donald Trump to call for bank boycotts. Banks also support the Paris climate agreement, which is an elite globalist racket that lets China, the biggest polluter of all, off the hook.
The next article in the video is about the ecommerce app Shopify, which businesses and independent entrepreneurs use to build their own online stores. After the January 6 fiasco, Shopify banned Donald Trump from using its platform. Trump’s followers, and many other Americans who want politics out of their business, were irate. Now, Shopify’s CEO Tobi Lutke has turned around, announcing the company behind the app will focus strictly on business and not politics. He warns that political activism inside the company will be put down if it harms users’ ability to use the app successfully. TheQuartering’s host Jeremy then opines about other service providers, mainly credit card companies and online payment processors. They have the ability to cut off the flow of money to anyone they disapprove of, which is a dire political threat. Jeremy doesn’t mention cryptocurrency, but I believe that is a workaround.
In the next video, Jeremy reads a lengthy article by The Hollywood Reporter, detailing Hollywood’s faltering relationship with China. As the world’s most populous country, China is a tempting market for all global corporations. But by trying to do business there, those companies become complicit in the regime’s human rights violations, and get arm twisted into betraying Western values. There has been a communist element in Hollywood since its Golden Age, but it has dropped all subtlety in the last 5 or 6 years. Now that the mask is off, American audiences have moved on, if award show ratings are any indication. The theatre industry is in critical condition because of last year’s lockdowns, and streaming services aren’t as lucrative as studios expected.
The current split between China and Hollywood is not due to Hollywood finding its conscience, but by China being offended by Hollywood’s hackneyed pandering. Oscar winning director Chloe Zhao is a big part of the Hollywood Reporter article. Although she is of Chinese origin, and a liberal in good standing, she now lives in America and is critical of China’s communist regime. Disney tapped her to direct The Eternals, a Marvel property, which they thought would please Chinese authorities. But now Disney has to thread the needle between those authorities and Zhao’s free thinking.
Hollywood studios may be slow to change their ways, but the Hollywood press is sounding the alarm on China’s influence. This might be an overdue response to the growth of independent journalism, found on YouTube, podcasts, and blogs. Corporate media outlets have carried water for the Establishment for years. Could it be the Establishment is losing its grip? This is a very positive sign that ordinary people are finding their power. Thanks to technology, we have so many ways to undercut the old power structure: blogs, cryptocurrency, ecommerce, the Gig Economy, and alternative social media. Corporations lose their power when we don’t depend on them. They must change to serve us.
In March, I shared a YouTube video by Midnight’s Edge discussing how toxic executives in Disney and Lucasfilm were called out in a Forbes article. The lesson was, if your organization is corrupt, you must find help outside the system. This week, Midnight’s Edge followed up on the story by analyzing an article by Variety. It’s a veiled signal to Hollywood that Disney is cleaning house. I have also shared in the past that narcissists can’t be exposed directly, because they cultivate allies. They must be dealt with on the sly.
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On the face of it, Disney is offending my individualist sensibilities by adding bureaucracy to the company, and promoting its merchandise and distribution executives above the creative ones. However, those so-called creative teams have polluted beloved franchises, infuriating the fans. The head of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy, is despised by Star Wars fans, but is so ruthless she can’t be removed easily. The new layers of bureaucracy are a barrier between far left propagandists in the studios, and paying customers.
Disney’s new CEO, Bob Chapek, has the prerogative to change the company’s direction to fit his views; that’s normal in the corporate world. The fact that a leading Hollywood trade publication like Variety is covering it gives the article another meaning. In the video, industry insider Kamran Pasha reads between the lines. A few Disney creative executives are leaving this year, and this may provide cover for removing Kennedy. Pasha says the entire article is subtext for ousting her, without riling up her flying monkeys.
What lessons can we take from this installment? Toxic leaders use lies and false pretenses to protect their positions of power. To oust them, you don’t need to lie (in fact, you shouldn’t), but you can’t challenge them directly. You need to connect other ideas and context to their abuse, and their removal. You can camouflage your actions without hiding them. You need to build your own support around common sense. Whatever you do, don’t make it personal- the egos of narcissists are too explosive, so it must be strictly business.
