Anything Goes : Disney to write down 190M in Lone Ranger losses - The equivalent of thirty eight 5M independent films by Richard "RB" Botto

That's a Shame - With a 190 Million acting as Seed Money, you can leverage 100 movies, most of these big studio productions piss away large portions of the budget on kick back schemes and B.S. Expense, since these companies are publicly traded, its other peoples money, use it like a stolen credit card. I Guarantee You, No big name producers would ever do this with their own money

Amazon has been doing this for 3 years, it not a Flaw its smart business practice they have a Customer base of 100's of Millions Worldwide and know what their favorite genre are, they may shoot it for Direct to DVD as first option, I am certain intelligent Producers, Writers and Actors wouldn't be a shame of having a Million dvd's sold on their first script, its great first step in getting into the front door of any major studio. Don't let the Number One Million seem Small, Don't compare it with Star Wars ...

Have you read the Amazon Agreement in total ?

Steve Jobs Sells Hardware Not Movies. Your comparing Apples & Oranges

Likes all around. Enjoying this conversation. Amazon has been a lightening rod in the biz for a while now.

I've looked at the scripts Amazon has placed on their development slate and to me they don't look like movies that will be major hits.. What they do is have other people, Amazon Studio users, contribute to the stories, so they could get a bunch of new ideas on their stories for free...IMO...Plus they've partnered with WB, so that could help reduce their expenses. I think they're approach is smart and from their current scripts in development only a few will probably ever get a full theatrical release.. Some could probably just be released on their streaming service... And I'm sure they're not going to spend 100 million on making a flick...

Amazon Studio Productions - Has a reputation of good Management Team, Worldwide Retail Presents What makes them unique is their status in retailing & distribution.One E-Blast can generate a serious response for investors to Start a New Movie Studio.They can copy The American Idol business plan. The Movie business is changing, Hollywood lost control, when technology became affordable. The Business of making movies was never intended for The Faint of Heart or Wishful Thinking. Amazon looks like their building their own line of movies to market test. He Who Holds The Gold Makes The Rules...

Can we tell a great story in a unique and interesting way...Or am I asking too much? There is a business side to this thing called "film making" that sucks the "magic" right off of the screen. So what, you wasted a whole lot of money in a lousy business endeavor? Take a chance, maybe your last, on making something I can believe in; For pennies, if you want to impress me. PEACE!

This has been such an informative summer! Everyone's looking to see what suffers first: The above-the-line fees of actors who inflate costs for such flops as RIPD, After Earth and, of course, Lone Ranger, or will futuristic/sci-fi fair be the first casualty of this crazy, whacky summer? As for Amazon Studios, they've definitely carved their place on the TV front... I know they have 25 feature projects in development and have installed a seasoned industry execs to oversee the slate; however, they've yet to pull the trigger on ANY of their feature projects so... time will tell. I just connected with one of their contest winners for feature scripts - interestingly, while it did generate rewards, it didn't generate the sort of industry buzz the winner was expecting, so on the feature side, as far as Amazon studios are concerned, I think the industry is very much in a wait-and-see pattern.

Personally, I loved The Lone Ranger. It was entertaining, fun and funny. Shame people didn't go buy a tix. They missed out imho.

I just read some Amazon comments and I get the feeling overall that it exists to ultimately become a monopoly over online/DVD movies (among it's other enterprises). Just my thoughts. Not easy to fight a monopoly; not unlike Bill Gates' methods of claiming people's programs as theirs in the early days, and incorporating them into Microsoft et al. Of course some of the little guys sued for their rights and won... others couldn't afford to sue Bill's 'machinery'. Just a tiny bit of history there I guess. Amazon too is so huge so one wonders about ownership over scripts and for how long? And is it a good deal for scriptwriters? Is this what people are asking?

You know I think there has been a lot of discussion about the future of our business, and the news seems to be grim... But, I saw "The Lone Ranger" and I don't think they were all that off from the mark. The film was very entertaining, and more importantly the crowd I saw it with was applauding the film, this almost never happens when I go to the movies anymore. The problem is a bigger issue we have to face. People do not go to the movies as much as they used to. There needs to be emphasis on the what used to be considered after market revenue, On demand, netflix, foreign distrbution, DVD ect. The industry will not implode, there's too much money invested in it. We need to stop looking at the grosses every week as winners and loosers, it kills a movie's buzz or word of mouth when it under performs based on... Who makes these projections again... Marketing people who don't see movies in theaters with audiences. Instead of pointing the finger at studios and executives and the filmmakers, let's start asking the real questions what has changed in us as a society? How do we choose to be entertained, under what conditions? What interaction do we want with the film and filmmakers? We need to change the way we approch people in our society ask then to engage in our world of cinema and entertainment.