What Is A Streaming Blockbuster?

Plus: The Amazing Tech of the Paris Olympics

Author

Steve
July 09, 2024

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What Is A Streaming Blockbuster?

Back in May, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos sat down for an infamous interview with The New York Times, during which Sarandos provided many head-scratchers, including this gem: “There’s no reason to believe that the movie itself is better in any size of screen for all people. My son’s an editor. He is 28 years old, and he watched Lawrence of Arabia on his phone.”

All due respect to Mr. Sarandos but this is sort of like bragging about eating caviar when you have COVID — you might actually be missing something important!

Ted’s… “interesting” anecdote came from a larger question about what a streaming blockbuster would look like. From the same interview:

I guess I’m thinking of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer.” Are there things that just don’t feel like they’re in your wheelhouse right now?

Both of those movies would be great for Netflix. They definitely would have enjoyed just as big an audience on Netflix. And so I don’t think there’s any reason to believe that certain kinds of movies do or don’t work. There’s no reason to believe that the movie itself is better in any size of screen for all people.

“They definitely would have enjoyed just as big an audience on Netflix.” Sorry, that’s insane! I’m undecided if this wild statement is simply standard issue PR posturing, deranged tech hubris, or a refusal to engage with the fundamental differences between something like “Barbenheimer” and a Netflix movie viewers have on in the background while doing their laundry.

Director Steven Soderbergh countered this claim during an interview at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, as covered by IndieWire:

…you make a movie on streaming for X amount of money. It’s watched for however many hours, but that’s not a direct return of revenue. That just means people spent this much time watching it. So you have the ability to create the value of that asset. And that’s a new thing.

There are two things in the movie and television business that don’t exist on your streaming platform: [b]onanzas, a film that you put out that makes a billion dollars at the box office, and a TV show that you make that’s a hit, and you do 150 episodes, and you syndicate it for the rest of time. In the streaming world, that cash cow doesn’t exist. So even if you make “Stranger Things,” which by all accounts has been seen by more people than have ever seen anything, at a certain point everybody who wants to see it will have seen it. And it’s just a dead asset sitting there, taking up terabyte space on the platform.

So I just don’t know how over time this works: You’re spending more and more money to chase fewer and fewer eyeballs.

Elsewhere in his interview, Sarandos briefly touched on both YouTube and FAST channels, perhaps underplaying their increasing threat to Netflix’s business. As Sarandos doubtlessly knows, Gen Alpha has a strongly preferred video streaming service, and it’s not Netflix.

Can Netflix throw out viewership numbers for their content that seem impressive? Sure. Can this content ever translate directly to dollar signs the same way blockbuster events like “Barbenheimer” and Dune: Part Two have? This appears less certain!

The Amazing Tech of the Paris Olympics

This year’s Paris Olympics begin on July 26! If you’re interested, the Olympics website has a ton of cool original content. My favorite is The Tech Race, described as “a global exploration of the past, present and future of technology and science as applied to Olympic sports and athletes.”

There are a number of fascinating episodes about things like the cameras used in synchronized swimming and motion analysis being utilized for athletic improvement.

There’s lots of incredible technology being used at the Olympics, including the finish line camera that:

…captur[es] up to 40,000 digital images per second at the finish line, ensures clear, composite photos of athletes crossing the line in athletics and track cycling. This technology includes dedicated color sensors for pixel-free images, aiding judges in close finish decisions.

It also wouldn’t be 2024 without a creepy, unnecessary AI integration, and Peacock is thoughtfully providing it: an AI Al Michaels recap machine! As The Verge reports:

To set up what NBC is calling “Your Daily Olympic Recap” in the Peacock app, you’ll provide your name (the AI voice can welcome the “majority” of people by their first name, NBC says in a press release) and pick up to three types of sports that are interesting to you and up to two types of highlights (for example, “Top Competition” or “Viral & Trending Moments”). Then, each morning, you’ll get your [AI Al] Michaels-led rundown.

Wow, sounds awful! Thankfully, it sounds like NBC and Peacock will be making use of some less-upsetting tech for their Olympics coverage, including a multiview option so you can create your own viewing schedule. Neat!

Here’s a round-up of cool and interesting links about Hollywood and technology:

Why Goldman Sachs turned on AI. (link)

Did Adobe cancel itself? (link)

How Ti West’s X trilogy captured the look of three different filmmaking eras. (link)

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