Satoshi Nakamoto brought Bitcoin (and with it, blockchain) to the limelight over a decade ago. Since then, blockchain has revolutionized how traditional industries function. Through transparency, security, and traceability on the network, blockchain has provided new decentralized models to businesses and users. It has given rise to Web3, a term coined for the new age internet, where blockchain technologies and other decentralized platforms are used to provide an internet where users get to hold a lot of autonomy rather than concentrating power on a few big tech firms.
Hollywood isn’t far behind when it comes to using blockchain technologies to reinvent their industry. Many recent positive developments have taken place in Hollywood, where many studios have adopted blockchain in film distribution, payments, and more. In this blog, we discuss the kind of relationship blockchain and Hollywood have so far.
Hollywood And Crypto: the Relationship So Far
Hollywood had initially warmed up to crypto in the form of investments. A slew of Hollywood stars had lined up to invest in various digital assets and projects. Ashton Kutcher led the pack, which wasn’t surprising considering he was already a venture capitalist. Other stars like Gwyneth Paltrow and Johnny Depp have also invested in blockchain-based startups. Some, like Donald Glover, had advocated for crypto in as early as 2013.
Once the benefits of blockchain became known, film studios jumped into the wagon and started adopting it in film production. One of the first big Hollywood releases to have non-fungible tokens of their own was the James Bond flick, ‘No Time To Die’. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and EON Productions partnered with Veve in 2021 to release NFTs of the film, which received a favorable response amongst fans. Earlier, Veve had also partnered with Marvel to release NFTs of some of the popular superheroes, which were sold out within 24 hours.
On the other hand, Eluvio, a company providing a blockchain network to scale digital content which is owner controlled, also partnered with MGM in 2021 through a multi-year partnership.
With several studios making a run to invest in or acquire blockchain-based entertainment startups, blockchain is poised to disrupt Hollywood and film industries around the world, providing an all-new insight into distribution, independent filmmaking, and preventing piracy.
How has Crypto And Blockchain Impacted the Movie Industry?
Cryptos and blockchain has impacted Hollywood in the following ways so far:
- Production: It is well known that many big and powerful tech companies who had explored streaming content have now gradually moved to produce in-house content for their users. This may have many ramifications, with power being concentrated in the hands of a few media houses, independent filmmakers not getting opportunities for funding, and eventually, a shortage of deserving talent and well-made films.
Blockchain could solve this problem by crowdfunding through issuing NFTs and by decentralized funding where anyone could participate and contribute to funding a film. The profits from the project could also be distributed to contributors accordingly, and actors could earn more through NFTs. This creates a win-win situation for all stakeholders. Moviecoin has already worked on this domain and helped produce a film in 2022 named ‘Prizefighter,’ starring Russell Crowe.
- Distribution: It is difficult for independent filmmakers to convince big streaming platforms or multiplex chains to broadcast their films. Most of them are forced to sell the rights to distributors, who, in turn, approach these big platforms. In the entire process, the autonomy of streaming the film comes into the hands of the streaming platforms, which are not-so-transparent in sharing statistics, and can pull down the film whenever they want to. The filmmaker loses out eventually, with the creative team not getting compensated enough. This entire film cycle could be decentralized via a blockchain network, however.
For example, smart contracts can be explored to transfer royalties from the audience to the intellectual property owners, including artists, writers, technicians, and others involved. It leads the creators to exert greater control over their art.
- Piracy: Piracy has been a notorious problem for filmmakers since the beginning of filmmaking. Since the blockchain technology enables secure content delivery to the users and transparent transactions at every stage, it can easily curb this problem. Decentralized metaverse platforms can also transform how movies are screened to the audience.
BAYC Movie Trilogy
The Bored Apes Yacht Club (BAYC), the immensely popular NFT collection on the Ethereum network, has been featured to appear in a film trilogy of its own, which a major crypto exchange is to create. The series is called ‘The Degen Trilogy.’ In April 2022, the BAYC published a tweet, inviting applications from owners to send in story ideas and their characters. BAYC released a microsite for the same, where users with a wallet in the exchange could submit their apes for an opportunity to be cast in the movie and vote for their preferred story.
With the first movie in the trilogy out already, the BAYC movie trilogy is a breakthrough for all NFT marketplaces, not to mention it creates a way for them to market their NFTs better.
Conclusion
With many celebrities buying and creating NFTs of their own, and blockchain already being brought forward to help with various procedures, the future is quite bright for blockchain in Hollywood. We for one absolutely can not wait to see what new developments further collaborations between the two bring!