Hollywood’s film industry is considered one of the least transparent in the entertainment industry and is legendary for its creative accounting techniques.
There are numerous examples of films that have grossed more than 500 million dollars but have officially closed in negative.
An example is the first film of the Harry Potter saga that has grossed more than 900 million dollars worldwide.
This kind of management inspired producer Christopher Woodrow to create MovieCoin, a blockchain-based platform that offers users tokens that can also be used to help fund the production of films and other entertainment products.
Tokens can be used in both B2B and B2C environments and Woodrow’s hope is that even Hollywood’s historically hostile system will use the platform to optimize its services.
MovieCoin’s cryptocurrency can also be exchanged and used by cinephiles for more basic functions such as purchasing cinema tickets thus eliminating the cost of credit card commissions.
Woodrow – producer of many successful films including Birdman, which won four Oscars in 2015 – and his company are already active in the industry thanks to their recent partnership with TV-TWO, a television content and film platform that uses Ethereum’s blockchain to consume tokenized videos.
According to venture capitalist Nisa Amoils: “The key for MovieCoin’s success will not just be in facilitating a participation platform for investors but in providing a transparent platform for everyone associated with a film to see each dollar coming in and going out, bringing transparency to infamous Hollywood accounting.”
Currently, most films are financed by the Studios’ corporate treasuries or through financing agreements with investors such as hedge funds and private equity companies, while individual investors have no choice but to buy the shares of their parent companies.
As a result, most investors who wish to participate in the financing of a film turn to independent, generally riskier, investments.
Other interesting projects that aim to decentralize the film industry through blockchains and smart contracts are 21 Million Project and SingularDTV, while Custos Media aims to combat piracy of films and other media by combining blockchain and a proprietary watermarking technology.
Another project worthy of note in the cinema and crypto sector is certainly Tatatu, an Italian initiative of Italian entrepreneur Andrea Iervolino, co-founder of AMBI Media Group Cinema.
Another investor to mention is certainly Bacardi Rum who has invested 100 million dollars and who is also producer of the film with Alec Baldwin and Antonio Banderas “Lamborghini”, biographical film about the entrepreneur who was able to transform his tractor factory in the legendary car manufacturer and symbol of those who made it in the crypto world.
Andrea Iervolino, founder of Tatatu, explained: “Social networks and entertainment platforms are making huge profits by gathering data from their users and selling it to other corporations without rewarding their users. There is a need for a platform that provides higher levels of transparency to their users, brands, and rights holders about the revenues generated and monetization of users. Audiences need free, legal and quality content with a simple user experience.“
