This Week's Handful of Must-See Headlines

International

Spotlight on Spain: European Country Seeing Rapid Growth
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez made the bold claim back in 2021 that the country was destined to be the “Hollywood of Europe” after announcing a plan to bolster its audiovisual sector several months earlier. With the Spain Audiovisual Hub plan, which increased collaboration between both the public and private spheres, the industry is making a strategic recovery. The Hub plan is focused on attracting foreign investment, improving the current film financial landscape, implementing new reforms, and training new, diverse talent. The goal is to increase film and TV production in Spain by 30% in 2025. Peter Welter Soler, who mediates between the industry and the government, said that this new awareness of the audiovisual workforce “can bring a lot of benefits, jobs, money and well-being to society in general.” The rise in production in Spain is also thanks to streaming services that are filming in Spain like Netflix and HBOMax. Before the new plan was announced, the country also boosted its film tax rebate up to 30%, which also requires a minimum spend in Spain of 1 million Euros. Regions in the country also have their own tax rebate systems. For example, Bizkaia, which is a northern region, will launch an incentive on January 1 that will range from 35-70% based on the project. ICEX-Invest, which is a division of the country’s export and investment board, also revealed that filming in the country is quite attractive because production costs can be 20% cheaper than in other European locations. Along with its overall accessibility, lifestyle, and its always sunny weather, Spain is an incredibly desirable location. The country has also ramped up studio space, addressing a very common complaint in the past. Ciudad de la Luz Studios (which contains 120,000 square feet of soundstages) reopened just this past July after a decade of being closed, and other smaller studio spaces are popping up all over the country.

Film Market

A New Normal: American Film Market Brings Familiarity to the Industry
The film industry has seen several ups and downs in the past year, but the iconic American Film Market feels stable to many attendees. Other festivals have been made into lavish shows, but industry-goers are entering into this market more focused on the business aspect of film sales. The market also has a new focus on quality content as new product announcements have not yet been made and have not stolen the spotlight from the films being sold. Jonathan Deckter, president-COO of Voltage Pictures, believes this is due to a lack of new products, but also because the companies attending have become more selective. People want to focus their energy on only a few pieces of content, but they are also looking for sure bets, or stories that contain a lot of heart and are sure to perform well. From a theatrical perspective, since cinemas tend to be focused on showing the sure bets of Hollywood titles, less independent features will make their way to the silver screen. Streaming giants are also a big threat to the independent sector as they not only offer consumers several entertainment options at their fingertips, but platforms are also able to secure a large portion of industry talent and crew members to make streaming-only content. On an international scale, Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America have become strong buyers. Cannes was the first in-person market since COVID hit, and buyers that skipped the event are attending AFM instead. Other International markets that are facing a lot of uncertainty are Russia and China. The former has been cast out of the market due to current political events, and the latter has sent very few buyers to in-person markets this year. The main concerns of market attendees this year include the increased value of U.S. currency (which makes purchasing even more expensive) and the disruption of pre-sale deals that could result in increased film pricing.

Television

Collectables on TV: Recession Sparks New Interest in Transactional Content
History Channel’s Pawn Stars struck a chord with audiences amid the 2009 recession as it featured everyday people finding and appraising treasures in their household. Now, this show has over 700 episodes, with repeats playing on multiple channels and streaming platforms. The man who created the show, Brent Montgomery, is seeing a rebirth of this genre and has begun working on a new lineup of transactional television. A new show in this genre is King of Collectibles, which features pop-culture items such as sports memorabilia and lists former NFL player Peyton Manning as an executive producer. Other series about restoration, where an expert craftsman is able to refurbish a loved item, are also of interest. Next, Montogomery is trying to build content around collectible platform Rally, which is a site that allows people to own percentages of coveted collectibles, like an ultra-rare baseball card or first edition comic book. A spiked interest in collecting also occurred during the pandemic, as those who were quarantining at home started taking up the hobby of attending online auctions. Auction house Sotheby saw online sales top $100 million for the first time, in the first five months of 2020. Online art sales also rose 474.8% in that time as well. Since then, Rally has attracted interest from several high-profile investors. Co-founder Rob Petrozzo says, “Stocks don’t have a heartbeat. The pitch for our business is that it’s a stock market for collectibles; we’ve got museum quality stuff that we split into shares.” The Rally TV show will tell the story behind these assets, including film collectibles like early manuscripts for cult movies. Montogomery also found a partner in Eli Lehrer, head of programming for the History Channel, who has helped create this generation of television and continues the trend with a Pawn Stars spinoff. Shows like the original Pawn Stars have a very committed audience that helped make it one of cable's highest-rated shows for the past decade, so television executives are excited about the next generation of this genre.

Film Festival

Save the Filmhouse: Campaign Launched to Save the Longest-Running Film Festival
Last month, the organization behind the Edinburgh International Film Festival announced its closure due to a “perfect storm” of rising costs and falling admissions. The Centre for the Moving Image (CMI) has assigned administrators to oversee the festival’s transition. But just this past week, the community is fighting back. Iconic images from films were projected across Edinburgh to “keep the flame” of cinema alive, despite the serious challenges the industry will face. This campaign, which is titled “Save the Filmhouse”, began with local Filmhouse employees and patrons, but has attracted wider interest. The petition to save the organization currently has over 23,000 signatures. Filmmaker Mark Cousins who was behind the projections, said, “There are various things to do: strategic work and lobbying. But I think with everything there should be creative solutions.” The images projected included the poster for the 2016 Academy Best Picture Moonlight and stills from The Wizard of Oz and It’s a Wonderful Life. These images were chosen to highlight the importance of community and ask people what would happen to the culture of Edinburgh if this long-running festival did not exist. These images were paired with the messages "A Cinema is the Heart of a City” and “Love Filmhouse and Edinburgh Film Festival.” The festival and Filmhouse closures also effect the city’s workforce, as all employees were made redundant. With help from the local government and organizations like Creative Scotland, locals are hopeful that the festival may be able to return in some form, even if the actual location of the Filmhouse is sold. The news of the closure was also very surprising for people as the CMI previously announced a $65 million development plan to build a new home for the festival with six new cinema screens.

Streaming

Sleeper Hits: On-Demand Platforms Evolve Content Discovery
According to the latest search data from Roku, which is the top U.S. TV streaming platform, the television content that is taking up a lot of viewing time is not always from franchises or has heavy promotion. These types of shows that can catch us by surprise or gain cult viewership over time are called “sleeper hits” and they often can outshine other top programs on television in the process. Streaming plays a big role in their rise in popularity because its availability can build huge audiences. Roku also found that sleeper hit viewership also varies depending on the state, and often initial viewers of these programs were not from entertainment hubs such as California or New York. Audiences in the state of Massachusetts were more interested in the release date, as 67% of households were more likely to search for a show in its week of release. Oregon and Illinois were the other top three states searching for titles during the week of release, and southern states like Alabama, Kentucky, and Mississippi were least likely to make these searches during the first week available. Western states like Washington, Nevada, and California were more likely to search for those franchises or heavily marketed titles, which are more obvious smash hits. Ultimately, sleeper hits that were not searched upon in the first week are still able to steadily grow an audience over time throughout the U.S. Julia Mandaville, SVOD vertical specialist at Roku, believes this proved the value of mid-season marketing and says that “Amplifying midseason episodes as the story unfolds and going big at the finale can help capture widespread demand.” Roku data also focuses on how to better market these sleeper hit shows based on its audience. For example, the show Abbott Elementary, which is about elementary school teachers, was 154% more likely to be watched by households that contain educators. Therefore, marketers can make sure to target the audiences for their TV shows by identifying key audience data such as profession and ethnicity.

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