PHOENIX \u2013 A self-described \u201chistorian of Hollywood,\u201d the Director of the Center for the Digital Future at USC<\/a> Annenberg School believes services like MoviePass are nudging the U.S. movie industry toward a subscription model for ticket sales.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was fascinated by MoviePass,\u201d says Jeff Cole in this interview with Beet.TV at the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting<\/a>. \u201cEven though MoviePass isn\u2019t going to be around to celebrate at the big party, they showed that there was a real love of film in the theatres.\u201d<\/p>\n

He credits MoviePass, which faces steep financial challenges as The New York Times<\/a> and others have reported, with helping to drive the 7% unit increase in box office ticket sales in 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think MoviePass was why box office was actually up this year,\u201d says Cole, citing in particular the popularity of documentaries like RBG, Welcome to My Neighborhood and Three Identical Strangers. \u201cI think you\u2019re going to see the whole movie business slowly move to a subscription model the same way the music business has moved to a subscription model.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is also enthralled by the rise of direct-to-consumer streaming services from the likes of Disney while foreseeing distinct restrictions on that growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the most important year for direct to consumer video. All the rules and all the players are going to change. I suspect there\u2019s not room for more than two or three of these services as pay services, so it remains to be seen if they can exist independently or they will re-consolidate,\u201d Cole says.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, he sees Disney as the dominant studio in a field of eight that over time has shrunk to six. \u201cWe\u2019ve never seen one studio dominate the way Disney is now,\u201d leaving studios like Paramount and Sony \u201calmost in the dust.\u201d Considering some of Disney\u2019s slate of offerings this year, including Dumbo, a live version of The Lion King and Avengers, he adds, \u201cThey\u2019re unstoppable at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Consumers have clearly won\u2014at least until now, according to Cole, whose research shows that for people under the age of 30, only 20% of their television is live (mostly sports). The rest is recorded or streamed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of a sudden, the consumer for ten dollars a month was getting all this content from all the studios, a fantastic bargain, in three years may be paying forty dollars for the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

This segment is part of Beet.TV\u2019s coverage of the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting 2019, Phoenix. This series is sponsored by Telaria<\/a>. Please find additional videos from the series on this page<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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