THB #341: New Deal 3 - The Future, Part 1

Trying to figure out the future of the filmed entertainment business is the ultimate in quicksand. The more you figure out, the less sure your footing.

I started down this road of discussion 11 days ago - which in newsletter time feels like 6 months - and I thought I was ready to spit out an answer… The Answer. But then I looked before I leaped and quickly realized that the close-up perspective I have - perhaps we all have - as the access to an endless waterfall of content is more than a little myopic.

It’s not a new problem. I have lived with it through cable, then VHS, then DVD, then the internet itself, and now streaming. I even share a kinda-anniversary with the launch of the first commercial DVD, Twister, which launched March 26, 1997… my first online column, The Whole Picture, launched on May 30, 1997.

We get into these bubbles of reality… we speculate about The Future based on what the current edges of the bubble are… and when the future actually comes, as it does, it doesn’t …