Netflix and Amazon Offer New Incentives to Lure Filmmakers

Netflix and Amazon are offering unprecedented incentives to either win projects from top talent or keep hit filmmakers with existing projects at the streamers in the fold.

The Big Picture: Hollywood has nearly reached a consensus that launching a movie on the big screen is the best way to turn them into events theatrically and on streaming. That’s influencing filmmakers more and more to take less money upfront for a shot at the box office. So, streamers are realizing that they need to up the ante to stay competitive.

Behind The Streams: Bloomberg has the scoop on two big projects that could crack the streaming business right open.

• Greta Gerwig (director and co-writer of Barbie) is in talks with IMAX to put her next project — Netflix’s big-budget adaptation of The Chronicles of Narnia — on screens around the world before its streaming debut … and, so far, Netflix is on board with the plan.
• IMAX has “signaled” that it’ll be more than happy to add the movie to its lineup as long as exhibitors like AMC and Regal agree… and they’d want a significant exclusive theatrical window.
• Amazon wanted Saltburn filmmaker Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights (starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi) so bad that it offered to give it a month-long exclusive theatrical window and a pay-per-stream residual in its bid.
• Participants in the residual would get a higher rate for viewers who signed up to watch the movie and a lower rate for average subscribers — a potentially major windfall. Still, Warner Bros. Discovery won the movie by offering a huge marketing spend.

The Future: Whether it’s longer theatrical windows, or novel performance-based compensation models, the underlying narrative is that streamers need more than just a lot of content for subscribers — they need content that breaks through the noise and generates a lot of viewership. It’s Hollywood taking the-less-is-more approach, which, in this new era of cost-cutting, is paying more for less. And as more top filmmakers ink those kinds of deals, expect the incentives to become key talking points in the next round of union contracts.