Two content creators in their 20s have horror movies in theatres now, and they’re getting bigger audiences than the latest Star Wars franchise effort.
Backrooms and Obsession are drawing their audiences from massive communities built up by posting their work on YouTube.
Directors Kane Parsons and Curry Barker are 20 and 26 respectively. Parsons’ YouTube channel had accumulated 224 million views across 22 videos before Backrooms took $118 million in its opening weekend worldwide. Obsession has made $17m on a budget of less than one million dollars.
Around 20 years ago the social media platform was basically used for pirating material; now it’s the world’s biggest home of original video content.
“I think that was sort of an unintended effect,” says Dr Kenny Ching, who researches entrepreneurship, the impact of AI, and digital communities with Auckland University’s business school.
“I think the originators of YouTube wanted a platform to allow people to share video, but I don’t think they really intended that people become creators themselves.
“They’re creating content, and making that their lives … their entrepreneurial passions. It basically spawned a whole creator economy.”
He says many of the content creators are interesting entrepreneurial case studies that have great lessons for consumers and policy-makers.
The difference between digital communities and traditional communities aren’t huge, he says, but there are big differences in terms of anonymity and the speed at which digital communities can form.
“You’re not geographically bound, you’re not necessarily bound by cultural norms, or issues like, ‘Do I actually know this person?'”
Ching says the only reason the success of these YouTubers has caught the headlines is because now we are seeing their work in mainstream movie theatres.
The same is happening with online news sites, which he says are producing professionally produced products much like something CNN would put out – and people are watching them.
Ching thinks the barrier between amateur and professional productions is now completely blurred, helped by improved technology and a culture that means people are very used to uploading content onto TikTok and the like – “the idea of documenting something has become so ingrained”.
“These amateurs have really caught up in terms of the kind of content they’re capable of doing.”
He says, at the same time, Hollywood has been going through a long period of decline over the last decade or so.
“The whole Hollywood eco-system has been dying … and they’re searching for what’s next to rejuvenate themselves … and I think they’re finally clueing in that maybe it’s the so-called amateur world that we need to go after.”
He’s certain these examples aren’t isolated ones and more is to come.
Ching also contends that New Zealand needs to back this end of the creative pipeline rather than just supporting film and gaming studios, perhaps with an awards structure, educational upskilling opportunities, tax incentives, and a change in psyche that says content creation is a legitimate career.
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