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Comment by sandworm101 | Hacker News Reader

Unions and filesharing are not killing hollywood. (Did the mpaa write this?) The fact that 70% of revenue comes from overseas is to be expected. 70+% of people live there.

Unionized, wage earning, labour costs are not high. Look any large production. Compare the headliner (stars, directors etc) takehome to the union workers. The rise in production costs has far more to do with on-camera talent than cameramen.

"Hollywood" is dieing, but only if you are one of the old guard, the handful of old production studios that make up the mpaa. Netflix, youtube and amazon show us that there is plenty of money out there should you produce something people actually want to watch, delivered in a way people actually want.

Ditch the commercials. Stand up to your a-list talent during negotiations. Actually pay the writers (see the Goodfella fiasco). Cut the focus groups. And make something worth my time to watch.

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I've seen what entertainment industry looks like without unions; animators in anime get paid below living wages, even though that industry is bigger then ever.

Yeah, and the state of western animation (especially hand-drawn) looks pathetic in comparison. So it's either unions, or cheap entertainment, you can only pick one.

And young kpop/japanese pop stars who are owned and treated like garbage as thier brands are marketed worldwide.

The rise in production costs has far more to do with on-camera talent than cameramen.

Production costs wouldn't have to be rising, for smart producers to wonder whether they couldn't cut some corners and save some money, especially in a context of lowered ticket sales. I'd argue that inflated pay for star actors is just a symptom of the disease. Ticket sales are falling, studio heads don't know why, and they get into bidding wars for the fewer and fewer leads whose recent movies have done well. The real reason is that movie fans would rather watch their 75" screen at home than schlep to the theater.

Incidentally, what was the "Goodfella fiasco" about?

It occurred to me that we only seem to see the same couple dozen of actors in the most highly advertised movies any more. Why is that? Surely there are plenty of actors who could cover many of these parts. I mean, good for these actors if they're enjoying the work and want to be overbooked all the time, and I'm sure they're perfectly competent for the jobs, but it does feel to me like Hollywood keeps shoveling out the same thing over and over again, and it's not just the scripts and CGI.

Yep, I'm really sick of seeing Tom Cruise in so many movies. I'll actively shy away from watching a movie with him in it. I just can't disassociate him from all that Scientology cult silliness he keeps pushing; it ruins the suspension of disbelief.

Once you see his center tooth, there's no unseeing it.

You seriously underestimate how rare star power is (or how spoiled we have become).

From the studio's perspective Goodfellas never turned profit on video rentals or licensing. So the writer isnt getting residuals. It's a protracted legal battle involving shell companies and hollywood's accounting practices.

Update: they recently settled. http://variety.com/2016/biz/news/goodfellas-irwin-winkler-wa...

Just want to say I think movie RENTING may be affected, but not movie ticket sales or netflix subscriptions.

Anti-labor rhetoric and actions is almost always the first response of dying old gaurd in industry. This should come as no surprise

That's pretty much the point of the article though; that movies are not competing in the category of movies where their costs are acceptable, but the general category of entertainment and that when industries truly are dying, unions will roll over because the other main option is for the company/industry to die.

The US textile industry would be pleased, if it still existed.

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