Comments on: Why the quants won’t take over Hollywood

By: NotPredictable

NotPredictable — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 22:02:08 +0000

These people should really read Art De Vany’s Hollywood Economics – the algorithims are a complete waste of money – the statistics of Hollywood are too wild for models.

By: Woltmann

Woltmann — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 18:04:53 +0000

Modern day Sherman & Mr Peabody update the WABAC machine, the biggest stoops are the people buying Big Data for this application ..

By: johncabell

johncabell — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 17:36:00 +0000

If the quants actually could turn us all into puppets, Facebook would be a $1,000 stock.

By: QCIC

QCIC — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 15:36:23 +0000

This post sort of lacks a central argument. Are you mad because you don’t like the show, or mad because you think making it was a bad business decision, or mad because they made that business decision using a bad heuristic, or mad because Andrew Davies wasn’t involved? You are clearly mad about something.

Nevertheless, it seems like a submerged premise in this article is that you don’t like the show…

I liked the original quite a bit, but so far most of my friends have thought the new one was fine. My wife and sister enjoy it, and I think it is solid if not spectacular. Why should I care if Netflix wants to waste money creating overpriced entertainment for me?

By: nnja

nnja — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 15:16:21 +0000

Re Relativity: Anybody running 10,000 trials in a spreadsheet is not using predictive analytics. They are creating marketing copy.

By: fresnodan

fresnodan — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 09:46:30 +0000

I good give a million examples of foreign movies ruined by being redone in American cinema, but one of the best examples is “The Vanishing”

http://johnkennethmuir.wordpress.com/201 0/03/22/an-homage-to-a-vanished-loved-on e-the-vanishing-1988-vs-the-vanishing-19 93/

And it was done by the same director!!!

By: y2kurtus

y2kurtus — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 23:03:29 +0000

NFLX will eventually learn that their dollars are always better spent acquiring great content from others. If they did nothing but offer all the best content from the last 20 years of Public Broadcasting that alone would be worth the full current NFLX subscription price.

The reason iTunes rocks everyones socks is they cut the cost of a good song from 12.99 (the cost of buying the whole cd)to a buck an change. Netflix did the same thing by basically lowering the cost of cable tv (less sports programming) to 9.99/month. Roughly the same 80%ish reduction in cost coupled with a similarly massive leap forward in user interface, pretty attractive!

Netflix’s big problem is that the cable co’s figured out broadband not content is their killer app. Cable TV rates are up slightly in last 5 years while the broadband cable internet rate has increased 100%.

Over the next 5 years Comcast and TWX will see zero tv revenue growth (they’ll raise the average bill but enough people will cut the cord that the revs will flatline.) The response will be simple, ruthlessly jack up their broadband rates because their connection speeds crush regular DSL and “super cable speed DSL” is already priced at a premium to cable broadband. When broadband alone hits $99/month that will crimp NFLX’s growth.

Consumers will gripe and moan but if you look what AT&T and VZ are getting for a couple GB/month of data… my brother pulls 100 times those limits through Comcast’s cable network every month…

By: jomiku

jomiku — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 14:59:30 +0000

BTW, your comments login is throwing up a nonsensical developer login and denial and then logs you in anyway. Oopsie.

One of the first books about the tension between numbers and art is Stephen Bach’s book about United Artists and Heaven’s Gate called Final Cut. A major theme is that UA was being pulled toward a “invest in a lot of films” like they’re a basket of securities.

By: ABT

ABT — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 12:42:12 +0000

Netflix’s data indicated that the same subscribers who loved the original BBC production also gobbled down movies starring Kevin Spacey or directed by David Fincher. Therefore, concluded Netflix executives, a remake of the BBC drama with Spacey and Fincher attached was a no-brainer,

If that was really their logic then they are insane.

Everyone I know who liked the original is avoiding this show out of fear that it will be a load of crap in comparison and ruin memories of the original. It’s not like American tv networks have a particularly good record of remaking successful UK shows (Though the new Yes Prime Minister sounds just as bad and will also be avoided)