In Warning Sign for Hollywood, Younger Consumers Are Choosing Creator Content Over Premium TV and Movies: Social Platforms are Becoming a Dominant Force in Media and Entertainment.
In Warning Sign for Hollywood, Younger Consumers Are Choosing Creator Content Over Premium TV and Movies: Social Platforms are Becoming a Dominant Force in Media and Entertainment.
While studios and streaming providers compete, tougher competition is coming from social video platforms that are hyperscale and hyper-capitalized
People still want the TV and movie experience offered by traditional studios, but social platforms are becoming competitive for their entertainment time—and even more competitive for the business models that studios have relied on. Social video platforms offer a seemingly endless variety of free content, algorithmically optimized for engagement and advertising. They wield advanced ad tech and AI to match advertisers with global audiences, now drawing over half of US ad spending. As the largest among them move into the living room, will they be held to higher standards of quality?
At the same time, the streaming on-demand video (SVOD) revolution has fragmented pay TV audiences, imposed higher costs on studios now operating direct-to-consumer services, and delivered thinner margins for their efforts. It can be a tougher business, yet the premium video experience offered by streamers often sets the bar for quality storytelling, acting, and world-building. How can studios control costs, attract advertisers, and compete for attention? Are there stronger points of collaboration that can benefit both streamers looking to reach global audiences and social platforms that lack high-quality franchises?
This year’s Digital Media Trends lends data to the argument that video entertainment has been disrupted by social platforms, creators, user-generated content (UGC), and advanced modeling for content recommendations and advertising. Such platforms may be establishing the new center of gravity for media and entertainment, drawing more of the time people spend on entertainment and the money that brands spend to reach them.
Our survey of US consumers reveals that media and entertainment companies—including advertisers—are competing for an average of six hours of daily media and entertainment time per person (figure 1). And this number doesn’t seem to be growing.2 Not only is it unlikely that any one form of media will command all six hours, but each user likely has a different mix of SVOD, UGC, social, gaming, music, podcasts, and potentially other forms of digital media that make up these entertainment hours.
I can't remember the last time a movie came out that made me want to go see in theatres. Tickets are so expensive that I only want to go to one or two movies a year. Then with TV I find every show these days has "netflix syndrome" with lazy writing, exposition dumps, dummed down dialogue, I'm just not interested in what they have to offer most of the time.
Careful about mentioning the "Netflix syndrome", people here are touchy when you call out low effort writing in movies/games. Somehow studios/publishers have been extremely successful in having people establish para-social relationships with their characters and stories regardless of how poorly written they are. This results is very strong antibodies every time anyone calls out the utter lazyness in dialogue, set pieces and exposition.
Dumbed* down (sorry ☹️)
no worries, nice catch!
I can't remember the last time I wanted to go to a theater. My choices are:
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Go $20/person to go to a theater and hope I get there early enough to not be in a terrible location, sit on hard-ass uncomfortable seats, pay out the nose for shitty popcorn and candy and hope the people around me aren't dicks texting on their phones, scrolling IG, or just generally being a nuisance.
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Pay $20-30 total for a 4k BluRay and sit at home with filet mignon and a nice scotch, lounge in my reclining sofa without distractions. Also I own that movie forever.
Sure the theater has a dope screen and sound engineering but it's not worth it.
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Perhaps because Hollywood's attempt at formulaic content to generate maximum revenue loses it's charm after you've watched the same story over and over? Hmmm .. Nah, let's keep doing it.
The last Marvel offering I saw in a cinema was Avengers: Endgame.
Literally nothing since then has looked like it offered anything different or better, so at most I've watched a couple on D+, or torrented them. I just don't give a shit about any of that stuff any more.
The last Marvel thing I watched was Agatha All Along, which I only finished for the sake of completion. The moment we learned the identity of the kid, I pretty much stopped giving a shit, because at that point it just dropped into being yet another MCU property being used as promotional material for whatever they've got coming next.
I really enjoyed S01 or Andor, but I can't be sure I'll bother with S02 because I don't trust them to keep it self-contained, basically requiring me to watch 3 other series so I can have some idea of what's going on. They pulled that shit with S03 of The Mandalorian, so I never finished it.
At the same time, a lot of the most famous YouTubers/etc are also deeply formulaic. They copy the same trends, use the same formats, and post the same kind of videos.
Gaming YouTubers flock to the same game at the same time or just play the ones that get big views like minecraft/etc, cooking youtubers are all doing "viral remakes" or "rate these 45 types of chicken nugget" or "eat the menu" videos/etc.
There are always solid people doing their own thing, but the social media zeitgeist is just recycled, low effort, high engagement garbage, just like netflix.
There's a ton of garbage everywhere. I hesitate before searching for something on YouTube because the results are usually just a pile of fishy mouthed or obviously AI thumbnails and so many of the videos themselves are just low effort. Don't get me started on AI voiceovers.
Although people are starting to get tired of that as well, we just don't have an alternative lined up yet
No one is pointing out that this was inevitable result of having more options.
When I was a kid, sure we had TV and video games, but they weren’t much. There was no big library, all the better graphics games were recent, and realistically you got a few games a year.
Me and my friends went to the movies cause there honestly wasn’t much better things to do. Having a home theatre meant having a tiny screen and a handful of movies you’ve seen many times if you happen to have a VCR. TV reruns were super old and had 5 mins of ads every 15 mins.
Did they really expect teenagers to be desperate to see a new flic when it’s no longer the only way to see new content?
Let's not forget cost, either. Most movies back then, even in a theater, were dirt cheap. A summer job or allowance would be enough to pay for a movie, popcorn, drink, and you'd still have plenty leftover for arcades or the mall. Some tiny theaters in small towns would be a dollar or less for admission.
Now? You're talking $20+ per person for the same experience. Why would anyone spend that kind of money, when that's three or more hours of work at minimum wage?
I think that's an issue with whatever State / jurisdiction you're in.
When I was a teenager it was ~$12 to get a normal (non-VIP ticket) at the big multiplex and minimum wage was $9.50 / hr.
Nowadays it's $20 to get a normal (non-VIP ticket) at the big multiplex and minimum wage is $17.50.
Literally almost identical, if anything it's actually slightly more affordable now. I think what you're describing is entirely an issue with your state government not making sure its citizens are paid fairly, not an issue with the movie theatre industry and their pricing.
Because this isn't research, its Deloitte selling itself. Obviously, as newer forms of media eclipse the current access means of film and television, the newer generation is going to find itself interested.
Is it our complete lack of originality and obsessive wholesale rehashing and incessant rebooting and remaking of already existing movies that's to blame?
No, it's the children who are out of touch.
Others have touched on this but this also feels downstream from the capitalist hellscape. Most people don't have a lot of spending money. Movies are pricey and a bad money:time ratio.
I bet if wages were up, more people would go to the theater. I don't want to spend $40 to watch a movie and eat popcorn, but I'd consider it for $3.
And if they actually produced and marketed original movies rather than generic superhero movie #69
I was going to say something similar to that too. Specifically, the consolidation of power means there's less smaller companies taking risks. You'd think a big company with Disney money could afford to be weird and experimental, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
I say this despite enjoying superhero movies
I’m 54 so not that young but I find myself watching more very specific videos of subjects I’m interested in than more mainstream movies or tv shows. I mean occasionally I’ll watch a movie or show but probably 90% of the time I’m watching content creators on YouTube or the like.
Personally I find real people and everyday life more interesting than the bland reboots and sequels of movies from my youth.
I think it also makes me a more aware person to watch content from people whose lives are totally different than mine, in different countries, with different abilities.
The only good movies and shows I watch are based on sci fi books or computer games that already did the work of building a plot and characters. And there’s a few really comedic writers that do great work- mostly on Apple TV.
I'm far far far from a younger consumer, and I find that I too have moved almost entirely to online content, mostly in the form of True Crime podcasts and YT channels, History Documentaries, etc...
Especially in non-fiction content, there's pretty much nothing that paid TV can offer that Social Platforms cannot. It's the only place where I think this whole internet experiment is actually working as intended; the democratization of knowledge.
yep, i guess manga/comics/manhwa is somewhat user generated content? but i mostly read those and watch contetn creators aswell
feel like the golden age of movies are over, now its repeative bugdet movies that sell to netflix and so on
What's crazy to me is that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of great old movies that are mostly forgotten.
Look up a movie called "Sorcerer." Incredible action, fantastic acting, impeccable script.
Full movie.
First time I hear of Sorcerer, but it sounds awfully similar to this French classic.
Sorcerer is a remake of the original. There are a lot of changes. Both films stand the test of time.
There was an incredibly awful remake using the title 'Wages Of Fear.' 2024 on Netflix.
I've said it before: there's good and then there's good enough. Content that's "good enough" but easier to access will overshadow content that's maybe light-years better but harder to acquire. That and attention spans are getting shorter. My kid has the entire Disney library at his fingertips but he'd rather flip between YouTube channels.
I can testify on that.
In the last two years, I've discovered VTubers and streamers in general.
I've discovered Geega's tech talks, Deme's videogame playthroughs, Michi Mochievee's amazing (and shocking) IRL lore, VShojo group gaming sessions, Dokibird's third wheel viral video, Ironmouse's gremlin moments with Connor, Melody getting raided at the most inopportune times, Henya's Minecraft trolling exploits, Vedal and Camila's hopecore video, Neuro-sama's singing and otherwise general roasting comments on human VTubers, and wholesome gaming streamers like Beacon of Nick.
Not to mention a number of woodworking youtubers teaching about, or otherwise making mistakes when building or restoring furniture.
There's content for everyone, and traditional TV doesn't even come close.
It's like stepping out of a boring office into Alice's Wonderland.
The creativity is out there and it's a joy to see what can be without corporate meddling.
The problem with corporate meddling is that they're increasingly larger and larger percentage of the total wealth in society and the average person doesn't really have the money to directly pay any of these people so they're dependence on the women's Corporation because they're the only ones who have any money
The problem is that this applies to news and information. People are listening to Joe Rogan, who doesn’t try to report the facts, not journalists.
Over the years I always hear people in real life tell me how much they loved Parasite, Fight Club, Being John Malkovich, Harold and Maude, Everything Everywhere at Once. They never seem to be able to find movies they like. They never put much effort finding things they'd like
They're all movies that are from indie filmmakers that managed to get mainstream recognition. Movies like O Brother Where Art Thou, There Will Be Blood, Pulp Fiction, etc. Auteur led movies making original movies. There are tens of thousands of movies being made with passion outside of just return on investment a year. Uncut Gems had some popularity some years ago.
I can confidently say with certainty that at least a couple hundred a year are good to great. Almost none of them make more than like $5 million at the box office worldwide in their release year. Most barely get screens and even in AMCs they show to theaters of like 3 people
Discovery issue but also even marketed with great trailers, people aren't going taking the risk of being disappointed. Either it goes viral or people aren't watching it. Japanese movies to non-Japanese people might as well just be anime adaptations and the latest Godzilla movie
Korean movies was for a period just Old boy to people that googled and then just Parasite. Maybe the Wailing.
Every other country in the US may as well not exist when it comes to movies. Like 1000 feature length movies a year from the US but the only ones people know are like 5 blockbusters a year where they may watch 2 and then when the Oscars come around they learn of a handful of indie movies and maybe try the best picture winner. That's it. Even a movie they like, they can't come up with the idea of seeing who directed or wrote it and see what else they've done. We can complain about studios all we want but time and time again we are shown that the general consumer including the whiners in here will not try to find what isn't already popular. Same with music, television, books, etc.
Unless it has a cookie cutter easy to see the appeal hook, very few people will show up. Celebrities they think are attractive and action. Way more competition now though. I don't think romance movies are major anymore. Plenty of good content, you just don't know it and you don't take risks. That includes everyone complaining about Netflix. There's plenty on there and Amazon Prime. There's plenty that hits the AMC or other major chain. You just don't watch it. You're a part of the problem.
Do you have recommendations for fixing discoverability? I can browse by category on streaming apps, but that just shows the top ten or twenty titles. Beyond that it's search by name or scroll alphabetically.
Yay, my 50 something butt is a younger people.
No it isn’t … 😂 (I’m in the same boat by the way).
If you can injure yourself sleeping, you are NOT younger… 🤣
Honestly most recent movies and tv shows look like scenarios were generated by AI or some barbie sweet happy life generator so there is nothing entertaining. Creators on the other side, I feel like they do the stuff without script, just making their raw videos without asking if they can put something in the video, it's entertaining because they make mistakes or have controversial opinions that you can't see in modern tv.
I think people feel more connected because they feel something when watching person talking on the screen whatever they want to talk about instead of person reading from script.
Honestly most recent movies and tv shows look like scenarios were generated by AI or some barbie sweet happy life generator so there is nothing entertaining.
A lot of slop has wide appeal. And let's not pretend soap operas and sitcoms and trope genre fiction don't routinely have wide appeal. The theory that AI can seamlessly replicate pulp fiction / scripted reality TV seems to have held up for the most part, because so much of this content is a canned and formulaic to begin with.
What AIs lack, more than anything, is a face and personality that is distinct to the line of work. There is no real AI "House Style" that gets adhered to. I can pick up a dozen Brian Sanderson novels and get roughly the same experience. But if I ask a Chatbot to "write me a chapter of a Brian Sanderson novel", what I'm really going to get is a generic jumble of Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Marvel with a few Brian Sanderson tropes thrown in.
I think people feel more connected because they feel something when watching person talking on the screen whatever they want to talk about instead of person reading from script.
So much of the "spontaneous" content is still heavily scripted and acted on delivery. What makes professional acting impressive is the range - a single person embodying a wide range of personalities and mannerisms. I don't watch Gary Oldman or Daniel Day-Lewis because I'm looking for unpolished delivery.
But the Auteur experience is what draws people in and makes certain works rise above their peer materials. AI has no real artistry. All it does is cut, copy, and paste from a grab bag of established popular materials, hoping it'll trigger enough nostalgia to be recognized as good.
As styles and tastes shift, I have to wonder what AI is going to look like, given how rooted it is in the moment of instantiation. The long tail will drag, while younger and historically unburdened artists will be out experimenting.
You're right that good actor makes a difference in average movie. I just want to add that Gary Oldman and Daniel Day-Lewis are 67. So those old guys started in theaters where you need to improvise to make people imerse in the play. All they had was a text and their own imagination.
Maybe this lack of improvisation is killing movie industry as I think smaller creators need to improvise a lot and maybe young actors are just like puppets, don't have this background where they need to put themselves in the role without all this technology around where you can look on everything how other people did it.
Number of technology stimulants these days are insane.
HEY IT'S FREEEEED!!!!!!
Guys. Remember that? Remember Fred? That's how we're going to look back on todays social media content. It will be cringeworthy embarrassments. Meanwhile go watch Fraiser. Go watch Friends. Go watch The Office. Hindsight is 20/20, but those shows hold up decades later. Do you think "Dance hype craze" video 574 is going to be something we remember fondly in 2040?
Holy shit. 2040. I'm going to be so old. My knees are going to hurt.
Do you think “Dance hype craze” video 574 is going to be something we remember fondly in 2040?
Well, I know I remember the Hamster dance website fondly, does that count as a dance hype craze?
I also remember many Youtube videos from many years ago with some amount of nostalgia, e.g. Chocolate Rain or Mocha in "His First Broccoli" or the Yogscast series Shadow of Israphel.
I know some old shows and movies hold up well but others are pretty bad too. And the newer ones have an even worse ratio there.
As far as cringe goes, I think some of the series you mentioned, like Friends, has a good percentage of that too.
Yeah whatever brings positive nostalgia to people will be looked at fondly. I remember early internet fads and viral websites in a positive light that are just as dumb and transient as whatever viral content is being pushed out today. People view things in a different light and some kids in 15 years time will get nostalgic about Skibidi Toilet and talk about how "Dance Hype Craze" fell off after video 983.
I would argue that Friends does not hold up so well. It still has funny bits, but it's also quite sexist and is homophobic and transphobic (while also being one of the few big shows to even talk about gay and trans topics at the time).
The outdated social stuff comes up occasionally but like maybe there's an issue once a season or so, it's not going to be distracting episode to episode.
The bigger problem with Friends imho, is the laugh track. It's just weird watching a show with a laugh track these days, especially when modern comedies have learned to use that time to cram in way more jokes. It just makes friends feel somewhat archaic and out of time, even compared to Seinfeld which objectively looks much older from a cinematography standpoint.
We must see things wildly differently. I remember Ross having a lesbian wife, and she had a lesbian partner, and they were always written as strong characters. The closest thing to homophobic is they'd make little jokes among the men about how they appear to others. And then they'd say something like "Oh, don't do it THAT way!" And then the 3 guys would go "HEY! WHOA! OK!" as if to say that the way they were doing it looked gay, and they didn't want to appear gay.
Which I don't find homophobic so much as it is insecure, which was the whole joke. Their insecurities in themself is the joke. Not a hatred of gay people.
I don't remember any mentions at all about trans on the show. I'm not even sure the word "trans" existed at the time.
The only sexism I remember is the football thanksgiving episode, and the poker episode. But the sexism itself was the joke. And I think they played both sides fairly.
Dropout, New Smosh and even most of the video essay YouTubers that are on Nebula would like to have a word with you
Translation:
Big Social is unsurprisingly winning the competition for individuals' attention.
Stop making junk, and start making good content, and we'll watch it. But, as it stands, Creators with zero budget are making better content that the studios with nearly unlimited budget.
Let's go fediverse!
There's not enough cowbells! We need more cowbells!
Yay I feel young!
I feel like creator content isn't about quality, but form. People watch the same TV shows from decades ago because they are familiar. Creator content is kinda like that, it's cozy. It's something you can just put on and zone out to. It's interesting and entertaining, but it's not very intense. Its usually people sharing their passions, so it feels very human and relatable too.
But also there's probably something to be said about how much it cost to get started on YouTube vs how much it cost to produce a TV show or movie.