Hollywood's Big Six & The Future

I just finished reading Time magazines article on “The End of Excess,” and one part that particularly struck me was that during the 70’s, a time of renewed entrepreneurship and creative thinkers, Microsoft and Apple were formed. So I began to think, how can a business today do things in a fresh and more efficient way than it’s already being done?

For starters, I think it’s time for a period of selling off. I’m talking about the big six. When people talk about Hollywood Studios, they’re more often referring to Warner Bros., Fox, Disney, Sony, Paramount and Universal. What’s happened is studios are now owned by huge conglomerates. Universal/NBC is owned by GE, Fox by News Corp, Sony… duh, Disney… double duh, Paramount owned by Viacom, and Warner Bros. by Time Warner.

Your asking, so what, why does it matter they’re owned by a bigger company, more exposure right? Well lets look at it this way. When GE sees profits shrink up in their Aviation/Industrial/Railway division (pick one), they need to divert funds from other segments of their company to help things out. As a result, Universal is forced to layoff. This doesn’t only occur at Universal as you can imagine. Not only do people lose their jobs, but fewer projects are getting the green light as they make cut backs. Variety has reported that 2011 will see a cutback of films being released. Granted, the credit crisis is one factor in the equation, but doesn’t help nonethless.

In my opinion, I think it would be better if the studios went back to being independently owned. Despite the economic recession, box office sales are doing just as good as any other recent year, so why not take advantage of the market? Allowing a company to be judged solely on the performance of its executives/talent/products is the only way to do business, instead of just lumping it together with the other unrelated (losing) branches.