How NFTs can revolutionize Hollywood

Future. After the streaming wars made it all but impossible for most creators to strike it rich from their works, many are looking at NFTs as a way to take back control from the big conglomerates. While creating an entire NFT community around a project won’t be for everyone (i.e., the average screenwriter trying to sell a spec, a project that simply needs the level of money or infrastructure that only a studio could provide), the idea of fleshed-out teams financing their projects through NFTs could redefine independent cinema.

Crypto to power
CryptTV founder and CEO Jack Davis took to Twitter to share how he believes NFTs could put power back into the hands of film and TV creators.

Here’s what the blockchain offers:

• Turns ideas into IP. Minting NFTs to raise money for a film or show creates inherent monetary value (and cultural recognition) around the project, which can put an untested original idea on the same plane as any other adaptable IP like a book, article, or graphic novel.
• Turns fans into investors. Unlike Kickstarter, which provides set rewards for donating to a project, the blockchain turns fans into actual investors who receive a financial upside when the project does well or generates enough hype to increase the NFT’s value.
• Builds community. Discord channels, DAOs, tokens with actionable perks — the sky’s the limit for how NFT holders can be integrated into projects… which means creators are building a community of people eager to watch what you’re making as soon as it’s ready.
• Rewards a hit. After streamers destroyed creators profiting off multiple release windows (theaters, then rentals, then TV licensing, etc), most filmmakers rarely receive income from a project after an initial payment. But with NFTs, creators are paid per transaction or through any other modes baked into smart contracts.

The idea is to turn the streamers into simple distributors who pay to license the content you own. Think of it as you being the studio and streamers being an AMC or Regal that’s playing your movie.

But like any NFT collection, creators need to be ready for a lot of extra self-promotion and community-building in order to get a project off the ground in this way.

Blockchain slate
Davis is putting his money where his mouth is: CryptTV is rolling out an NFT monster universe that will hopefully create several new franchises (and IP in the metaverse). But it’s not the only independent studio or entrepreneurial creator leveraging the blockchain.

• Zero Contact, starring Anthony Hopkins, came out last fall and was the first feature film ever released on the blockchain.
• The animated show Stoner Cats, starring Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher, and Chris Rock, was funded entirely through the sale of NFTs called “TOKEns.”
• Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine is partnering with the World of Women NFT collection to bring the cryptoart alive through adaptations.

And in the biggest bet yet, filmmakers Zeek Earl and Chris Caldwell (Prospect) are bringing their sci-fi universe, The Fringe, to life through the sale of an NFT collection The NFTs will eventually act as governance tokens to help shape the direction of future stories.