The Secret Blueprint Behind Blockbusters

Howdy Storytellers 🤠,

Did you know 80% of Hollywood’s budget goes into remakes, sequels, and existing IP (intellectual property)? That’s tens of billions of dollars a year… all on spinning out the same old sh*t.

Back in the 90s, this was flipped. 80%+ of productions were original IP and 20% were remakes & sequels [source here].

No wonder the movies have felt stale. No wonder you open the Xth streaming service you are subscribed to and think: “what am I actually paying for?”

But first, why am I telling you this now? Well, last week I shared the Movie Machine Pricing Calculator. With the Movie Machine by Creatorwood, you can now turn your story into a feature-length film in a weekend for just a couple thousand dollars out of pocket.

Compare this to the average Hollywood production which costs ~$80 million [source here]. The Movie Machine is on average over 10,000 times cheaper than that (nope, not a typo 😬).

The Movie Machine is still in beta, but the public launch is coming at the end of September. And in my next email, I’ll finally share some of the first films made with the Movie Machine 😊🎉.

“Okay… now that I can make my show, how do I release it and how do I actually make money from it?”

To see where the business of filmmaking is headed, we first need to see what’s driven it until now.

Okay, fine. There’s a lot more than 3 steps to making a blockbuster. In fact, this graphic grossly oversimplifies the process. The biggest and most important part of the process is the talent and collaboration between incredible creative people.

However, the dominance of money in filmmaking has ruled the industry until this day. But… it’s been slowly slipping.

The model used to be:

The flywheel repeats.

Until it starts to break.

Back in the 90s, Hollywood had a monopoly on distribution and with that a monopoly on culture.

With the rise of the internet, this reality was no longer.

Uploading a film is not the hard part anymore. OTT (Over-The-Top) apps allow films uploaded to the internet to be delivered straight to Smart TVs, bypassing traditional streamers and cable networks (yep, Creatorwood is working on developing our own OTT app 😉).

Billions of eyeballs can be reached on social platforms like TikTok and Instagram, driving new viewers to your film.

This means that a market that was already getting increasingly competitive in the 90s has now exploded in competition for Hollywood.

Distribution is anything but guaranteed – even for the biggest studios and streaming platforms.

Meanwhile, Hollywood produces just ~1,000 scripted productions each year.

It’s a fraction compared to the ~2.7 million ebooks published each year.

What does this mean?

There’s not that much room for new IP to begin with. But capital losing its grip on distribution has meant that the tens of billions of dollars deployed into productions each year have sought safer bets.

This means instead of relying on networks and platforms that can give them distribution – increasingly challenging – money has flowed into proven IP that already has an audience.

Hence, endless seasons, endless remakes, and endless sequels.

Why hasn’t this stopped yet?

Well storytellers looking to get their movies and TV shows made have been stuck in a two-pronged problem:

Problem #1: Creation costs have remained expensive for producing scripted content using traditional techniques.

Especially stories that require special effects, complex settings, and large film crews.

In fact, costs have dramatically risen in recent years, especially post-COVID, even for smaller productions.

Problem #2: No new business models for film have emerged independent of large studios, streaming platforms, and distribution networks.

Distributing on social media platforms is open to everyone, but unfortunately, making even a few thousand dollars requires 1 million+ views with algorithms not optimized for episodic content.

With the rise of FAST (free ad-supported television) streaming apps, there is more distribution opportunities now than there was 10 years ago. But one is still dependent on a gatekeeper’s permission.

Likewise, you have a lack of control over your payouts and no direct relationship to your audience. This makes it tough to build a sustainable business making movies and shows.

As we learned last week, although the Movie Machine by Creatorwood [pricing calculator is here] does not bring down costs of creation to zero, it does make it well over 1,000x cheaper to produce a film and often times 10,000x cheaper to produce a film compared to traditional techniques.

Likewise, it helps you make films much faster and more simply, allowing you to focus on directing your storytelling vision – rather than needing to be a pro at filmmaking (in fact, no filmmaking experience is required).

As mentioned, in my next email, I’ll be showing you the quality of film (movies and shows) the Movie Machine is capable of producing. We think you’ll be impressed!

But none of this matters if you can’t make money from your films. None of this matters if you can’t connect directly with viewers and build a sustainable business sharing the stories you love with the world.

And right now, we have a once in a generation opportunity to rewrite the rules of the film industry to do just that.

Let me show you…

Ever since I read the book Story Paradox by Jonathan Gottschall (amazing book by the way), I’ve been on a mission to help Storytellers Rule the World. And not just any storytellers. Everyday people like you.

I open up the book Creatorwood (which you can download for free right HERE) talking about a future for filmmaking where a mom living in rural Iowa has the same ability to get her story seen on screen as does the well-connected son of a Hollywood exec.

Bringing down the cost of creation is one thing – but if distribution remains in the hands of streaming platforms and networks owned by studios and big media conglomerates, then what have we really accomplished?

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way.

Instead, we can build a new future for the business of film. A new streaming platform, built from the ground-up to support the rise of “one-person” studios.

One where:

And this isn’t just about storytellers. This is also about creating a better future for viewers. One where:

I believe we will live in a future of film where instead of fighting for endless eyeballs, we will focus on winning over the hearts of viewers.

Imagine if instead of needing $10+ million dollars to break even on a film, you just needed a couple thousand dollars? What kind of new films would be brought to life that have never existed?

How many more people will be able to make a living with their films as the market expands with viewers falling in love with new IP that is quirky, interesting, and fun?

This future isn’t fiction anymore.

At least it won’t be soon.

That’s exactly what Creatorwood is designed to do: to be the home for storytellers to sell films directly to their fans and turn their stories into movies& shows with the Movie Machine.

I can’t wait to open the platform up to the public officially at the end of September (we’re even hosting a free one-day online summit to celebrate… you can get your ticket here).

With all of this there’s still one last piece of the puzzle missing.

Now that we have a place we can share our films with viewers, build an audience we have a direct relationship with, and make the vast majority of the revenue – how do we actually get viewers to pay us for our movies and shows?

Creatorwood is not promising you endless viewers to your films. It would be a blatant lie for us to suggest so. Our aim is to make it 1,000x easier, cheaper, and more accessible for storytellers to make movies and shows and publish them online.

Will Creatorwood be doing our own marketing of the platform? Of course. We have an ever-growing budget for such activities.

Will that marketing guarantee you new viewers to your films or guarantee that you will make the money back you spend on the Movie Machine? Absolutely not. I hope it helps, and trust me, it is very much in our best interest to help you make money from your films.

With that said, the creative industry is ruled by a Power Law where a small percentage of films tend to make the lion’s share of the money. In short, viewership is not equally distributed across any platform.

I saw the Power Law in action first-hand while building a publishing platform that helped authors make over a million dollars a year from tens of thousands of readers while in college at Harvard.

The rule stands that 1% of content generated the majority of the revenue.

I say this stark reality upfront to set your expectations. It’s anything but easy to make a living doing this – but now it’s finally possible.

And luckily, there is many room for films not in the top 1% of earners to still pay back and make a decent return to their creators. So there is hope! And even better, as you grow your email list of paying viewers film over film, it gets easier and easier to break even, make a profit, and ideally, even make a living doing this.

But I know what you’re thinking… there must be a way I can supercharge my viewership growth, right? How exactly do I market my films?

Welcome to my obsession 😂. Seriously, I’ve even worked on the Strategy Team for MrBeast, the largest video creator in the world, to help him grow his viewership.

Here’s what I’ve learned: there are 3 ways to reliably grow an audience for any story (including movies and shows). I call these 3 methods the Viewer Growth Engines.

Your goal isn’t to master all three, but instead one of them. Here they are:

Inside the FREE Creatorwood Book (you can download it here), I dive into the Viewer Growth Engines in detail.

Likewise, if you want a deep dive into each Viewer Growth Engine, including detailed tutorials on how to create, optimize, and scale paid advertising campaigns for your film, how to create social media content that can get viewers to watch and pay for your show, and SO much more to help you grow your film business then the Six-Figure Film Accelerator might be for you.

No pressure at all to join, but we’ll be closing doors for the first cohort which includes 4 live group coaching sessions along with 50+ recorded video sessions at the end of September.

You can learn more here 👇

I’ll see you all soon with a showcase of some of the first films produced by the Movie Machine by Creatorwood (🤩).

In the meantime, don’t forget…

Your Story Deserves to Be Seen,

Michael Evans and the Creatorwood Team