TV vs. Movies, Star Power and Alternative Content: The second in a two-part series on the state of entertainment in the current market where we examine the many challenges a film faces including the revival of television as well as digital content. If you missed part-one, click here.

Because of time constraints, a film must pack as much information and texture into each scene as possible while keeping the tempo of the piece brisk enough to retain the audience’s interest without overwhelming them. With the growing demand for elaborate plots and character development, television is quickly becoming a writer’s medium and not a director’s.

Alan Ball, director of True Blood, says, “It’s because you have hours and hours to tell a story whereas in a movie you just have two hours, and you have to simplify everything down to its pure essentials. I also feel that in America, at least, movies are all targeted at 15-year-olds, and there’s nothing wrong with that. They’re the ones that are buying tickets, but, as an adult, I feel that TV is a much more welcoming place for complicated adult writing.”

To mock television even a decade ago might have been fair. The networks offered low-quality content that were less than well received and syndicated the same programming formula year after year. But with the emergence of video-on-demand, upstart cable programming and a slew of various content offerings, the medium not only fuels instant gratification but is able to provide something for everyone.

A key difference lies in cost and feedback. If a consumer doesn’t like television program, he or she can change the channel at little expense outside of time invested. If that same consumer commits to a movie they don’t enjoy, they’re out the time and the price of admission with little chance of receiving the latter back.

Television shows carry storylines across seasons and develop complex plots and characters with histories that can evolve through time, and programming is agile. Shows adapt to changes in the real world, instead of languishing in studios for years after a project gets the green light, making play on current events taken straight from the newspaper.

Star Power:
As the average number of viewers per release is falling, studios have become increasingly dependent on tentpoles, movies that receive the most attention, the highest production and marketing budgets as well as the most favorable release dates. These serve as the primary means of support and compensate for less successful releases. Studios have also opted for rebooting film franchises, to hedge against failure and capitalize on established success, rather than produce entirely original work.

Indeed, inside Hollywood, stars are defined largely in terms of their bankability- that is, their ability to attract money to a project from outside investors. The studios know that stars cannot guarantee box office success (Unless you’re Angelina Jolie), but they can safeguard against the downside risk in the form of insurance.

The Expendables, a film directed by Sylvester Stallone that paid tribute to the blockbuster action movies of the 1980s and early 1990s, starred a dizzying array of veteran action stars from those decades and was a wild success. It made $103,068,524 in the US and $171,401,870 in the international box office, bringing its worldwide gross to $274,470,394. Its sequel is to be released later this year.

2011’s top ten grossing films consisted of eight sequels, a series revamped and one original computer animated movie. All of which are heavy in the special effects department. While the average moviegoer is quick to say that they value plot more than special effects, the latter typically yields significantly higher returns at the box office which the top ten list confirms.

Walt Disney Animation Studio’s Chief Technical Officer, Andy Hendrickson, says that visual spectacle drives attendance in a film’s first few weekends. In the past, a movie would stay in theaters for as long as a year. Today, the window is much shorter. “People say ‘It’s all about the story,'” Hendrickson said. “When you’re making tentpole films, bullsh–.” Hendrickson showed a chart of the top 12 all-time domestic grossers and noted every one is a spectacle film. Of his own studio’s Alice in Wonderland, which is on the list, he said, “The story isn’t very good, but visual spectacle brought people in droves and [casting] Johnny Depp didn’t hurt.”

Alternative Content:
When a consumer can legally stream movies on laptops or order them from video-on-demand services or even pirate them with high-speed Internet connections, soon after their release when they are still in theaters, it makes them less likely to pay for content. Technology is changing the rules of the film industry just as it did for the music industry.

Legislation like SOPA and PIPA have been tabled for the moment, but both sides of the argument will have to come together at some point in finding a resolution that protects copyright holders from online piracy. With growing interest from consumers to get movies and video content in different ways with different options and tickets on the rise, consumers are opting to enjoy movies at home without the cost and hassle of going to a theater.

Netflix is a prime example of innovation as it pertains to alternative content. Launched in 1997, the company started as a movie-by-mail service and now offers digital streaming. Within a short time after its start, the company began to eat into Blockbuster’s sales. Rather than charging per movie like its main competitor, Netflix used, and still uses, a monthly subscription model which allows for customers to rent, and hold onto, multiple movies simultaneously choosing from its 100,000 films via the website without late fees. Send one back, and Netflix sends the next from a queue of the consumer’s choosing.

Conceptually, from a studio’s point of view, buying a film should seem more appealing than renting it or downloading it illegally as purchases provide margins for the studios that are typically three times greater than rentals. The rise of Netflix, Redbox and video-on-demand rental services have severely cut into purchases, and the down economy has taken its toll.

Moving Forward:
The industry has gone through box-office slumps before but has always recovered. Hollywood’s highly anticipated 2012 slate includes: Men in Black III (May 25), Prometheus (June 8), The Amazing Spiderman (July 3), Ice Age: Continental Drift (July 13), The Dark Knight Rises (July 20), Skyfall (November 9) and The Hobbit (December 14) which will each look to beat the success of last year’s highest grossing movies: the final installment in the Harry Potter series, Transformers and Twilight franchises.

Movies have enchanted audiences for over 100 years now, and it’s no doubt that they’ll continue to in the future in its current distribution model or the next. If anything can draw people back to theaters, it’s the experience of being part of a captive audience of hundreds of people collectively submitting themselves to a totally immersive experience.

And while expanded content delivery and portable video options won’t necessarily keep crowds out of the theater indefinitely, what’s more likely to is a shortage of compelling content in theaters in favor of remake after remake. Ultimately, a truly original film of substance will be more memorable than the countless number of those filled with car chases and stitched together with explosions and/or attractive people, although the last certainly helps.