Searchlight Pictures Executive Reveals They Can’t Be Competitive With Netflix Or Amazon
While Searchlight Pictures rarely produces movies that become major box office hits compared to movies from its sister studios, Pixar, Marvel, or 20th Century Studios, it continues to deliver Disney many smaller independent films that are often in award contention.
Searchlight Pictures provides a different type of film for Disney, such as the recent horror film, “Hold Your Breath”, which was released on Hulu and Disney+. Due to the budgets of Searchlight Pictures movies being much smaller, in order to be considered a success, these films don’t have to pull in as much money at the box office or views on Disney’s streaming service.
Recently, during an interview with Searchlight Pictures, Katie Goodson-Thomas at the London Film Festival revealed some details on how the studio is finding it increasingly difficult to compete on the market for projects thanks to how Amazon and Netflix are spending more money on smaller titles. Katie revealed,
“That happens on a daily basis. Really, it does. We can’t be competitive with Netflix or Amazon or Apple. Its just not gonna happen,”
She added that while she would love to work with many of the best creators, Searchlight Pictures has been entirely priced out of some conversations with them.
Despite the issues with competing with the major tech companies, Katie still believes that Searchlight Pictures continues to remain steady because of it’s “humanity and face-to-face” relationships with filmmakers at all levels of the production process.
“I don’t think there’s a better distribution marketing team around. Internationally or globally. They work so hard. Look at Poor Things. That film wasn’t easy and they just loved it. I’m so proud of the work they do and I just don’t see that at those places.”
While we’ve seen some Searchlight Pictures like “Flamin Hot” released directly onto Disney+ and Hulu, this is likely going to be something we see less of as Disney shifts its focus back on theatrical releases as its core business model:
“I don’t think that’s [streaming] something we loved in quite the same way. We loved the movies in the same way… theatrical is just a much better fit for us.”
With these films having much smaller budgets, success is measured differently than in mainstream expensive films like “Inside Out 2” or “Deadpool.” For example, “Poor Things” had a budget of just $35 million but pulled in $117 million at the box office, while “Banshees Of Inisherin” pulled in $50 million at the box office on a $20 million budget. Plus, a movie will generate income from digital and physical media sales, streaming views, and licensing deals.
Having much lower budgets makes the financial risk much smaller. While Searchlight Pictures falls under the larger Walt Disney Studios division since the purchase of 20th Century Fox, the team at Searchlight Pictures still have plenty of room to tell different types of stories.
“They give us total creative freedom and we get this huge powerhouse behind us. They respect our taste and understand what we do. The thing they’ve made us more aware of is brand. They’re so brilliant at branding and have made us more aware of that.”
Roger’s Take: Searchlight Pictures is an excellent addition to Walt Disney Studios, allowing them to create smaller independent films on a much smaller budget that don’t need to be big, huge blockbuster hits to be considered a success. It also makes sense why we’re going to see more Searchlight Pictures released in cinemas before heading to Disney+ and Hulu, since getting a theatrical release generally results in more interest and prestige from viewers.
Unfortunately, the situation of being outbid by the major tech companies like Netflix, Amazon and Apple isn’t going to get any easier, especially as all of these streaming services need new original content, but keeping budgets low is vital. It’s great for the creators to have bigger paydays, but eventually, the major tech companies are also likely going to start pulling back their own budgets. Searchlight Pictures also might need to change how it picks up its projects, as going toe-to-toe with the big tech’s chequebook is unlikely to work.
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