Financialized Hollywood: Institutional Investment, Venture Capital, and Private Equity in the Film and Television Industry

deWaard, Andrew. “Financialized Hollywood: Institutional Investment, Venture Capital, and Private Equity in the Film and Television Industry.” JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies 59.4 (2020). [official paywalled version here; download post-print version here]

The financial sector has a hidden, but dramatic effect on Hollywood: three institutional investors hold the largest investment stakes in nearly all major companies; corporate venture capital has arisen within every entertainment conglomerate; and private equity firms have enacted leveraged buyouts of companies in all sectors, including production, distribution, exhibition, talent agencies, audience measurement, trade press, and content catalogues. This article argues that “Financialized Hollywood” is a dangerous development; financial engineering strategies are extracting capital and reducing operational capacity, further depriving Hollywood of the diversity and heterogeneity it might provide the public sphere.