3.8 Million per Episode - Netflix

Great article. I don't mean to quibble, but a show like House of Cards is film.

I think it's great. Related subjects have been discussed here quite a bit lately: the MPAA, who actually goes to the movies, kids go to movies, the older generations stay home these days, etc. It's been said that Hollywood's feature makers don't make films for adults because adults don't come out the theater anymore. But I wonder how much of that's true, versus the possibility that adults don't go to the theater anymore because they know those content makers don't care much about them these days.

Anyway, I'm currently watching Game of Thrones, Season Two. It's so good. Yes, there are the reasons why it wouldn't work as a feature film(s). Who'd want all that compressed into a two or three hour movie, or even a trilogy of two or three hour movies, anyway? But also, what would the MPAA do to it? The big studios would look at it and ask, fine, but what rating will the MPAA give it? How will it play with the thirteen year olds [or whatever their target audience is at this point]? What will the opening weekend numbers be? Etc. They no doubt wouldn't like the answers, and it'd be, we can't do that! It wouldn't see the light of day...not as is.

But HBO...they can say, pft, and they make it happen, and they can give the world an awesome quality show, thank you very much. What is Hollywood, as far as features go, doing these days that's evening remotely as interesting? The answer is: precious little. Really, can't exaggerate that 'precious little' part. So, as an adult who wants stories and entertainment for adults, I say, please, bring it on. More, more, more. Really, I'm exulting in stuff like Game of Thrones. 95% (oh, I don't know what the proper figure for that is) of what the local multi-plex offers me pales by comparison. It's that simple. I haven't checked House of Cards out yet, but I plan to sooner or later. If Netflix and the others can feed me good quality entertainment that actually values and respects its adult, mature audience, then they have me. Godbless them.
 
Wow I think this is great! More diverse media, a new way to boost the film industry... Cool.
I'm a Netflix user myself. My family uses LoveFilm (Amazon owns it).
 
It's interesting to see these trends. I really think we're in a new 'golden age' for television production - while there's certainly an apparently unending stream of low-budget, low-quality reality programming, there's also a large and growing number of high-quality, episodic narrative shows, more so than I can ever remember seeing before.

I can't find the link now but there's a good article about this which attributes it to the higher fees cable companies have been paying to networks to carry their content, which in turn creates competition among the networks to be able to command those fees.

With netflix, amazon, etc getting into the game it could shift that in the long run - if enough people start dropping cable in favor of these alternatives it would cut the amount cable companies can pay to carry networks. But in the near term it's likely to be even better for consumers because these outside companies look to be competing very aggressively with the cable channels - and since high quality programming has proven key for the cable companies to be competitive, it means everyone's competing to produce better shows. Who knows how long it will last, but it certainly looks like the next few years will be some of the best in television history.
 
My personal choice would be Stargate Universe or Firefly. Only saying because you asked. ^^

Edit:
I just watched the first episode of House Of Cards (Netfix's original series) and I'm VERY impressed. I will watch the rest when I have time.
Needless to say, Kevin Spacey is amazing as usual.
 
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Myself and a few other indie film fans are working on obtaining a huge industrial complex that has unlimited opportunities for filming different genres of movies. It has buildings from the early 1900's to modern day. There are several buildings that could be made into sound stages. Our goal is to attract indie and mainstream film makers to come here to make movies for alternative venues such as NETFLIX.
A two million dollar budget in Hollywood would be worth 3-4 million here due to the lower cost of doing business. There are many natural and manmade scenic sites to film here. Within 100 miles are military bases, sports arenas, major metro areas for city scenes and rural towns and cities. The Alabama Film Commission works with production companies to get them incentives and tax breaks.
I'm hoping the decentralization of movie making will make our project work.
If you are looking for a low cost place to shoot let me know and I'll send you contact info.
 
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