Happy Sunday, Creative Army!

Let’s kick things off with a huge shoutout to everyone who has already jumped into this month’s Introduce Yourself Weekend. Thousands of creatives from around the world are connecting, sharing their stories, and building relationships that can lead to collaborations, opportunities, and lifelong friendships. If you haven’t made your introduction yet, you still have time. Be bold. Introduce yourself. Your next great opportunity could be just one connection away. Now, let’s grab that coffee and dive in…

This week's featured video comes from popular content creators, Burback- The Rise and Fall...and Rise of Movie Theaters. This one is a little different from what I usually share with you, and I want to tell you why it grabbed me. It is thirty minutes on the history of the movie theater business, from the 1930s, when most Americans went to the movies every single week, all the way to this summer. And it is not a nostalgia piece. It is a business piece, and a sharp one.

You get the government breaking up the studios that owned the theaters. Television arriving and forcing movies to become spectacle to survive. Jaws in 1975, which most people think exploded organically but was actually the product of a marketing campaign so aggressive that the novel sat on the bestseller list for forty-five weeks before the film was even finished. Then VHS, on-demand, streaming, the pandemic, and now, this summer, attendance finally climbing again. The box office return we have been talking about here on Stage 32 for quite some time.

Watch the whole thing. I do not agree with every conclusion in it, and I do not have to. What I love is that somebody took the time to understand how this business actually works and why it changed. Every one of those shakeups looked like the end of movie theaters while it was happening. Every single one. And every time, the people who came through it were the ones who understood the machinery they were standing inside of. Not the ones who complained loudest about how unfair it was. Not the ones who insisted things should go back to how they were. The ones who understood the business.

Let me tell you a story about my own deal. When my project went out, everybody loved the script. And I mean that literally. Not one word of that script or bible got changed. But still, I checked my ego at the door. I knew I was not going to run that show. I knew a first-time creator does not walk in and take the reins from an experienced showrunner, and I did not pretend otherwise. If I had walked in with the attitude that I could run the show, it never would have happened. Never in a million years.

But checking my ego is not the same thing as minimizing my value, and I want you to hear the difference, because a lot of creatives confuse the two. When we got into negotiations, I did not undersell myself. And because I had been straight with everybody and built the relationships, I had people on my side of the table. The showrunner and the producer went to bat for me. They said this guy should not be treated like a first-time writer, and he should not be paid like one.

When the entertainment attorneys came in, there were things I conceded. There were also things I dug my feet into the ground on, and I had the support to do it. You have to pick your battles. Most creatives spend ninety-five percent of their energy on the work and almost none on understanding the machinery around it. Then they get to a negotiating table, or a distribution conversation, or a financing meeting, and they are guessing. They do not know what is standard and what is a grab. They do not know what is worth fighting for and what is noise. So they either concede everything out of fear, or they blow up a deal over the wrong thing.

That is exactly why spending time in the Filmmaking, Financing, Distribution, and Producing Lounges makes such a difference. Those rooms are full of people who have already sat at the tables you are heading toward, and they talk about it openly. Somebody in there closed the deal you are about to negotiate. Somebody in there took the bad one and learned from it. That is education you cannot buy, and most of you are walking past it.

You do not need a law degree. You need enough literacy to know which battles are yours. Learn how deals are structured. Learn what your work is worth in the current market, not the one from ten years ago. Read the trades. Every hour you spend understanding how this industry works is an hour that pays you back at a table someday.

What is the part of the business side you understand the least, and have been avoiding learning about? And for those of you who have been through it, what do you wish you had known before your first negotiation?

As always, here at Stage 32, we love sharing stories and knowledge with our fellow film fans. Know someone who would love this content? Share it with them. You can keep up with all of our videos by subscribing to the Stage 32 YouTube Channel. For more inspirational, educational, and motivational content on all things entertainment industry, follow me on Instagram and X @rbwalksintoabar.

Wishing you a very happy, healthy, and creative Sunday.

Cheers,

RB

Burback | The Rise and Fall… and Rise of Movie Theaters

RBWalksIntoABar | Tips for Negotiating

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