Paramount loses more than a quarter of its value, analyst believes they should "just quit streaming"

[Citiprime]

One thing I would add to this discussion, especially with the TNG films, is that I never got the feeling that Paramount or anyone involved expected them to be "blockbuster" level films, nor do the movies aspire to be that.

What strikes me about the TNG movies when you watch them now is the lack of ambition. It's probably a function of the bean counters at Paramount, and whatever formula they were using to gauge what box office gross was possible for the franchise, but almost all of the TNG movies, with maybe the possible exception of First Contact, feel like something that could have been two-part episodes on the series padded out a little.

And maybe that was a reasonable way to look at it. People loved TNG. Just give the audience 2 hours of the same dynamic with a few extra visual effects.

But really at no point do you get the feeling of people in a creative place where they want to try to do things they could never do before. It never feels like anyone either on the creative end or production end said: "Hey, we got an opportunity to stretch with a film." All of the TNG movies fit within the four corners of a Rick Berman produced Star Trek episode, and don't aspire to be anything more than that.

 

[fireproof78]

I think Nemesis far exceeds the Berman corners.

 

[Citiprime]

I think Nemesis far exceeds the Berman corners.

Berman has a "story by" credit on Nemesis, was responsible for bringing in Stuart Baird to direct, and helped develop the script with John Logan and Brent Spiner.

 

[fireproof78]

Berman has a "story by" credit on Nemesis, was responsible for bringing in Stuart Baird to direct, and helped develop the script with John Logan and Brent Spiner.

And?

I believe it indulges in excess moreso than the others from a filmmaking standpoint.

 

[Farscape One]

And it was an absolutely rubbish movie.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I think Nemesis far exceeds the Berman corners.

1. Shinzon takes Beverly on a whirlwind romance across the night life of the capital city on Romulus, and they fall in love.
2. Instead of dune buggies, they had monster trucks.
3. If the ships had moved during the final fight. At all.
4. B4 (before) was called B9 (benign) in an earlier draft. Way funnier.
5. Picard declared Praetor, as a blood relative, upon Shinzon's death, and then it's like Arnie on the throne in Conan miserable about what his life has become.

 

[El Maestro]

And it was an absolutely rubbish movie.

So much about the creative decisions in it are inexplicable. It almost seems like an intentional and active act of hostility toward the audience.

 

[1001001]

So much about the creative decisions in it are inexplicable. It almost seems like an intentional and active act of hostility toward the audience.

A few of the cast thought so too. I’ve heard both LeVar Burton and Marina Sirtis be quite candid about their thoughts on Stuart Baird.

 

[Citiprime]

So much about the creative decisions in it are inexplicable. It almost seems like an intentional and active act of hostility toward the audience.

From what I've read from different sources online, Baird was chosen because they wanted an "action movie," and the Argo chase in the desert was an addition he advocated for. Baird also had never seen an episode of Star Trek before taking the job. And the emphasis on turning it into an action film first took all precedence over developing a strong story.

Reportedly, the script from John Logan (Aviator, Skyfall), who is a lifelong Trek fan, was much more of an epic but he was friends with Brent Spiner, who was also collaborating. So both Spiner and Stewart had input on the script. And the final product was cut to pieces in order to accentuate action.

 

[El Maestro]

A few of the cast thought so too. I’ve heard both LeVar Burton and Marina Sirtis be quite candid about their thoughts on Stuart Baird.

And I know that a lot of people think it was after NEM's box office performance that the decision was made to not make any more movies but the marketing was all about "A generation's final journey," suggesting this was always planned as the last film, making the decisions even MORE inexplicable.

 

[El Maestro]

From what I've read from different sources online, Baird was chosen because they wanted an "action movie," and the Argo chase in the desert was an addition he advocated for. Baird also had never seen an episode of Star Trek before taking the job. And the emphasis on turning it into an action film first took all precedence over developing a strong story.

Reportedly, the script from John Logan (Aviator, Skyfall), who is a lifelong Trek fan, was much more of an epic but he was friends with Brent Spiner, who was also collaborating. So both Spiner and Stewart had input on the script. And the final product was cut to pieces in order to accentuate action.

I think it was all exacerbated by a story whose initial concept was suspect from the beginning...the plot and story don't make a lick of sense! Action would be fine as long as the story makes sense. This is even more baffling when you think about the fact that they already made their action movie (FC) and it made much more sense.

 

[El Maestro]

1. Shinzon takes Beverly on a whirlwind romance across the night life of the capital city on Romulus, and they fall in love.
2. Instead of dune buggies, they had monster trucks.
3. If the ships had moved during the final fight. At all.
4. B4 (before) was called B9 (benign) in an earlier draft. Way funnier.
5. Picard declared Praetor, as a blood relative, upon Shinzon's death, and then it's like Arnie on the throne in Conan miserable about what his life has become.

This would be better than the theatrical release of the movie.

 

[XCV330]

The smarter solution was to forgo "Streaming Networks" and everybody combine into one IPTV like they should have and just everybody had their own portal with their own shows.

I thought initially that was what Hulu was going to be.

 

[El Maestro]

I thought initially that was what Hulu was going to be.

It was before Netflix "broke" the model when they thought they could be more profitable by making their own content instead of buying others' and Disney, Paramount, and other studios thought they could be more profitable by owning production/creation AND distribution.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

I thought initially that was what Hulu was going to be.

That's why there needs to be a law for seperation of content provider & content creator.

You can be one, or the other; never shall the two ever be allowed to merge.

That creates SOO many conflicts of interest.

We have seperation of Church & State, we need more legal seperations of business interests and ventures.

TSMC was the correct business model, they're a dedicated Semiconductor Fabrication Company, they don't design any Chips, they let their customers/partners do all the designing, they handle all the manufacturing.

A proper seperation of business interests is best for everybody IMO.

Having that unnecssary integration creates WAY too many conflicts of interest and risk to promote your own content over somebody elses.

 

[XCV330]

well.. that is definitely an opinion,

 

[Sci]

That's why there needs to be a law for seperation of content provider & content creator.

You can be one, or the other; never shall the two ever be allowed to merge.

That creates SOO many conflicts of interest.

We have seperation of Church & State, we need more legal seperations of business interests and ventures.

TSMC was the correct business model, they're a dedicated Semiconductor Fabrication Company, they don't design any Chips, they let their customers/partners do all the designing, they handle all the manufacturing.

A proper seperation of business interests is best for everybody IMO.

Having that unnecssary integration creates WAY too many conflicts of interest and risk to promote your own content over somebody elses.

An analogous situation in the world of film used to be the Paramount Consent Decrees, before Trump dismantled them. They basically ended the old distribution system where the studios would own their own cinema chains and only show their own films.

 

[The Wormhole]

A few of the cast thought so too. I’ve heard both LeVar Burton and Marina Sirtis be quite candid about their thoughts on Stuart Baird.

I remember LeVar Burton in particular got annoyed at Baird constantly calling him "Laverne" and telling him that Geordi is supposed to be an alien.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

An analogous situation in the world of film used to be the Paramount Consent Decrees, before Trump dismantled them. They basically ended the old distribution system where the studios would own their own cinema chains and only show their own films.

That sounds like such a corrupt way to do business.

Studios shouldn't be allowed to own ANY Movie Chains.

I remember LeVar Burton in particular got annoyed at Baird constantly calling him "Laverne" and telling him that Geordi is supposed to be an alien.

I'm surprised Stuart Baird wasn't "Fired" for that dumb comment.

 

[The Overlord]

Should Paramount get out of the streaming wars and sell Star Trek content to other streamers?

I saw this video that says Paramount Global continues to lose money on Paramount Plus.

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Sony sat out the Streaming Wars and makes good money selling content to other streamers. Meanwhile Paramount is losing money on streaming and keeping content it could sell on its platform.

Netflix has become profitable recently and Disney has a shot of being profitable. For companies like Apple and Amazon, their streaming services are rounding errors, they can remain as long as the main companies think they are useful.

Warner Bros maybe able to stay in the game, given its great library of content, but the debt they have makes it tricky. That leaves Paramount and NBC Universal, they sink a ton of money into their streaming services and see nothing for it.

Paramount is one of the smallest and weakest media companies, they do not have a giant war chest to rely on. They still make content that is popular enough with Star Trek and Yellow Stone, but maybe that should be sold to other services to generate cash for Paramount.