“In Hollywood, the Easy-Money Generation Toughens Up”

Good read in the New York Times where you can put some faces to names, studio execs, agents, and producers all having to face Hwood as it reformulates itself:

After riding two decades of almost nonstop growth from the cable and video revolutions, a new generation of Hollywood power players is finally being forced to test its mettle.

These executives — consummate insiders who enlisted when young and worked their way up — now find themselves pushing 50 just as some brutal problems are pushing back: a collapse in DVD sales, a credit crisis that has curtailed financing for new movies, a group of corporate owners determined to pull more profits from studios to compensate for hard-hit publishing and broadcast television divisions.

From a screenwriter’s perspective, three things to buoy hopes: (1) Movies and TV are still a growth industry (although the delivery systems will continue to change); (2) Movie studios have distribution networks that require the regular delivery of product (i.e., movies); (3) In times of economic upheaval, business leaders generally rely on the most basic truths — and about the oldest and most trustworthy bit of CW is “Great stories make great movies.” So again, it all comes back to the script.

The people who did speak acknowledged that many outside the glamour industry have it much worse. Hollywood is manufacturing one of the only products consumers are still lining up to buy, evidenced by a surge in box office revenue since December. That uptick is not nearly enough to offset the decline in DVD sales, but other businesses — online streaming, mobile, video-on-demand — are expanding and could pick up the slack.

“I look at it as growing pains,” said Donald De Line, 50, a Disney and Paramount executive who is one of the industry’s leading producers. “We’re going to figure it out, and the revenue streams will get healthy again. That’s the history of Hollywood.”

And hopefully the future.

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