People underestimate the film industry, without the knowledge, the common assumption is that wanting to work in the film industry is a risky move, comparable to wanting to be a famous actor or painter. Have you ever stayed for the ending credits of a Marvel movie? In reality, there are so many departments and pieces to those departments. In summary, the film industry is huge and has a lot of employees at many different levels with many different levels of involvement.
Simply put there are two sides to the film industry: the artistic side, and the business side. Producers, when deciding how to allocate money, must have knowledge of the market. They require an in-depth understanding of what makes a successful film, understanding the costs on set and comparing that to an estimated profit allows them to designate sums of money. They also consider the cast and whether or not a specific actor is worth the cost for the film. It is all a math game in terms of what projects get x money.
With that, the directors, screenwriters, and producers must develop an understanding of what sells. Maximizing the utility for people and using the study of past films to learn what satisfies viewers. Considering marginalism, there are some movies you only feel inclined to see once, while others (often considered classics) you could watch over and over again over the course of the year. What is your favorite movie? How many times could you watch it until your utility diminishes? What do you like about it? Producers keep in mind these questions to audiences when allocating resources to projects.
Work Cited
“Taking Note: The Film Industry's Contributions to National and State Economies.” NEA, 1 Mar. 2018, www.arts.gov/art-works/2018/taking-note-film-industry%E2%80%99s-contributions-national-and-state-economies.
“Theory of Economics in the Film Industry.” UKEssays.com, www.ukessays.com/essays/economics/theory-economics-film-industry-1578.php.
I think that this blog is particularly interesting because I never really thought about the film industry as such an involved business. I bet a lot of movie ideas get scrapped because there is too much cost in creating them, and not enough utility to be gained. That's pretty cool.
ReplyDeleteI like your article! It makes sense how these producers allocate money to maximize utility. I'm wondering how do animated movies require so much money, like why did the Emoji movie take 50 million dollars to make.
ReplyDeleteThis was really interesting, I don't think many people think about the economic side of films. This explains why many smaller, usually more artistic films, don't do as well as blockbuster films.
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