Blockbuster: Blockchain meets the Film Industry

Although visual effects and 3D make the movie creation spectacular and engaging like never before, today the major revolution taking place in the cinema industry consists in the way contents are distributed globally. In fact, it is definitely not a surprise that movies are available at any time and on any screen. But the decentralized ledger of blockchain tech is growing worldwide: just think that the largest movie theater chain in Thailand, Major Cineplex, started accepting payments by cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin cash to make products and services more efficient and secure. Film is a huge business and its global industry illustrates positive forecasts for the upcoming years: Statista data reports that the biggest film markets are predicted to be China, India and United States.

But what benefits can blockchain generate?

Blockchain is a great opportunity for independent movie industry to empower its position by directly accessing information about viewers, activities and money generated from views. In fact, blockchain technology connects itself to entertainment and media industry bringing a variety of benefits such as smart contracts and extensive distribution. Applying blockchain capabilities means creating reliable content registries that quickly identify assets and owners. A clear example is the development of a more filmmaker-friendly sort of Netflix that allows you to upload your own movies with complete transparency. In addition to solve the issue of fragmentation in viewing and distribution, blockchain-movie platforms offer you much more convenient and safer transactions.

The original ideas of small independent producers and distributors are often exploited, copied or unacknowledged due to an insufficient protection of their rights and traditional defense solutions are costly. The establishment of a blockchain system makes it possible to record an immutable trace and history of transactions assigned to your personal idea - or story, script, asset - and opens opportunities to those players with limited budget, audiences and infrastructures.

But a positive effect impact also exhibitor networks and traditional distributors that tend to be involved into money laundering, fraud and risk of monopoly issues. These are facilitated by factors such as the increasing complexity of international networks and distribution. Blockchain as a scalable and decentralized solution is able to manage efficiently this challenge through digital models. For instance, smart contracts enable automated distribution in receiving and recording collections, as well as cryptocurrency payments allow to buy tickets and share collections even before show screenings are completed. 

Blockchain provides also both investors and filmmakers with clear details about how money is spent on movie production: in other words, cryptographic models avoid the need to pay in advance without knowing if a movie will be successful or not. A question pops up: will blockchain set the end of digital piracy? 

Piracy has always been a major obstacle impacting revenues and expenses of contents producers. Since the blockchain technology tracks every fact related to each idea or asset, through smart contracts and tokens it screens, detects and signals non-blockchain-enabled contents online. The whole process that connects ideas to consumers becomes secure and transparent: intermediaries and overpriced taxes are not required anymore.

Blockchain-based movie projects are spreading and the film industry shifts toward this innovative technology. Its high potential attracts tech-startups to join forces to be the early adaptors, makes rise new movie financing methods as crowd-funding, and allows fans to directly support films and share in the profits.  

The adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrency applications clearly fosters a number of relevant benefits in the movie business: creativity, trust and collaboration. The simple link between consumers and producers frees the movie community of threats such as the risk of huge budgets, restrictions, intense scrutiny and piracy, enabling the creation of better conditions, a connected global network of audience and distributors, higher-quality contents and protection of copyright’s integrity.