SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
From Variety:
Quotas obligating Netflix, Amazon and other streaming services operating in the European Union to dedicate at least 30% of their on-demand catalogs to local content are set to become enshrined in law soon.
Roberto Viola, head of the European Commission department that regulates communications networks, content and technology, said the new rules, which will also demand visibility and prominence of European product on streamers, are on track to be approved in December.
"We just need the final vote, but it's a mere formality," he told Variety at the Venice Film Festival.
Netflix, Amazon and other streamers will be required to fund TV series and films produced in Europe by commissioning content, acquiring it or paying into national film funds through a small surcharge added to their subscription fee, something which is already happening in Germany. Netflix tried unsuccessfully to fight the German surcharge in court.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 04 2018, @03:52PM (8 children)
It's a numbers game, make a movie in Europe and you get a starting audience a few million to a few dozen million, then start reducing that for genre etc.
In the US your movie has a starting audience of +300 million.
My top ten movie list has a few local movies, better story, better script, better acting. But they have lower budgets due to the aforementioned reason, it affects special effects budgets and marketing budgets in a big way. These two combined significantly reduces international appeal for these movies.
And then there is this, if you think US movies don't get tax money:
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130102/00510621535/embedded-fiscal-cliff-deal-hollywood-gets-big-tax-break.shtml [techdirt.com]
https://pando.com/2014/02/20/hollywood-handouts-how-subsidies-to-the-entertainment-industry-are-fleecing-taxpayers/ [pando.com]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Thexalon on Tuesday September 04 2018, @04:30PM (6 children)
How do you figure?
There are about 750 million Europeans. Because they live in a multilingual environment, most know at least 1 language other than their native tongue (usually English or Russian), and are also used to reading subtitles. If you target the larger language groups like German, you'll get 100 million or so people who can understand it natively, which isn't a small market. Plus, of course, there are speakers of European languages outside of Europe. A French-language movie could be a hit in Canada or West Africa, a Portuguese movie might do well in Brazil, etc. And then there are non-English movies that end up proving to be hits in the US (e.g. Der Untergang) because some Americans aren't afraid of subtitles.
The reason streaming services aren't providing European content is more because it's easier not to bother. They already have the production side figured out for American content aimed at Americans, and a lot of Europeans enjoy watching American stuff, so why bother with French or Spanish or German or Italian content?
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by quietus on Tuesday September 04 2018, @05:50PM (5 children)
I kinda disagree: I think it's more because there are fewer good European movies and series. Two reasons come to mind, immediately:
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday September 04 2018, @06:24PM (3 children)
How does that make them not good? I for one like artistic efforts that have something to say about the human condition and ethics.
That said, I'm also someone who would if I could take the Hollywood action blockbuster to its logical conclusion, and create a film entitled Blowing Stuff Up: It would be a sequence of car chases, explosions, fight scenes, gun battles, etc with absolutely no attempt to provide any kind of justification for why any of it was happening or why you should care about any of the people involved.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 04 2018, @10:23PM (1 child)
I've seen that movie a lot - each time with a different title.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday September 05 2018, @08:00PM
Typical action flicks have at least an attempt at an explanation for what's going on, e.g. cops versus dangerous criminals, or somebody trying to avenge his family, or something about spies. The point of Blowing Stuff Up is to not make any kind of pretense that the film exists to do anything other than entertain people with senseless violence.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @01:50AM
So MythBusters?
(Score: 1) by GDX on Tuesday September 04 2018, @11:44PM
Actually those aren't the real reason, but at the same time those are actually a result of the real problem, the cultural industry in Europe have been run by divas, pseudo artists with more ego than art and of course social justice warriors that try to impose its view on others. More than one script has been ruined because the director didn't think it was enough artistic or it haven't enough social criticism. Other times some movies don't receive subvention for political reasons instead of a objective reason. And there are scripts that are pushed in to production trough connections and not for their quality.
I know on script writer, and in his words: "you can write the best script but is going to be ruined near always by the director, the actors or the producers", and I can confirm that at least in Europe as I read some of his original scripts and then saw the final product.
The good think is that has started to change.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Arik on Tuesday September 04 2018, @04:51PM
"My top ten movie list has a few local movies, better story, better script, better acting. But they have lower budgets due to the aforementioned reason, it affects special effects budgets and marketing budgets in a big way. These two combined significantly reduces international appeal for these movies."
Do they really? That's difficult to know, when they don't get the exposure to begin with.
Personally, I know I'm far from the typical moviegoer - but I might reasonably close to the typical NON movie goer. And that's actually a pretty huge potential market. The total tickets sold in 2017 just barely beat the same figure from 1995. The population is expanding - the movie-going audience is not.
Why not? Well obviously I can't speak for everyone that's sick of this shit, but I suspect I'm not alone in just being sick to death of the Hollywood formula. Take a stock concept, buy a shitty script, hire actors that are already famous (even if you have to rewrite the script to make them work, who cares, shitty stock script to begin with) and then spray on a thick-coat of special effects and launch the spin machine to get people to go see it.
It's a formula that works, there's a market that will reliably keep coming back in to the theatre to watch this schlock, it's kind of the McDonalds of theatre conceptually - yes, the quality is low, but it's somewhat consistent and reliable. But by chasing that market they're neglecting another market. Not everyone finds that formula produces even mildly enjoyable results. I would say that for me, watching the average recent Hollywood movie is roughly as enjoyable as a 2 hour dental exam.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?