ABSTRACT

This overview chapter introduces the reader to the book’s complex subject matter in the context of the global, highly competitive entertainment industry. Recent challenges are described in detail, specifically disrupters including the Internet; smartphones and tablets; collapsing distribution windows; impatient, unreliable customers; the changing face of television; increased costs; piracy. Some of these disrupters also serve as levelers, allowing civilians to participate in the global online distribution of content. The chapter then widens to frame movies as product, describing the three types of movies made anywhere in world today; movie business basics including the three industrial segments of production, distribution and exhibition; the four stages of filmmaking (development, preproduction, production, and postproduction); three business models at work today (studio model; independent model; DIY micro-budget model); hallmarks of the business and some history. Finally, the chapter frames the global future and academic instruction known as entertainment studies.