City A.M.’s Crypto Insider speaks to Christopher Woodrow, CEO of Entertainment Financing Platform MovieCoin
Despite its foray into the 21st Century with digital streaming and special effects, the $2 trillion global entertainment industry’s backend is in dire need of an upgrade. Poor transparency and an overreliance on “middlemen,” for example, present several cost and efficiency challenges that need addressing if the industry will ever realize its full potential.
I sat down with MovieCoin’s Founder, Chairman and CEO Christopher Woodrow to discuss the pain points in entertainment industry financing and how the right combination of blockchain and tokenization technology can resolve these issues. A film financer and producer in his own right, Christopher has navigated these industry challenges to secure box office success with several feature films, including “Black Mass,” “Hacksaw Ridge,” and four-time Academy Award winner “Birdman.”
“Major studios typically finance their productions using a handful of well-connected partners,” said Woodrow. “For this reason, many firms, funds and accredited investors looking to invest in mainstream projects find themselves without the access needed to do so. Instead, they’re limited to financing independent productions that struggle to find adequate distribution, or buying shares in a film studio’s parent company instead.”
“Another challenge is liquidity. The contractual arrangements between financers and producers are often murky, difficult to compare and lack an established secondary market on which investors can trade these assets.”
Essentially, MovieCoin wants to resolve these problems by creating slates of high-quality films that are packaged into “smart funds.” These fund vehicles, managed on MovieCoin’s platform, provide accredited investors with the ready access to quality film and entertainment assets they’ve been seeking. Any investor that buys a stake in the fund receives MovieCoin Smart Fund “MSF” Tokens in return, which are digital securities that can be bought, sold and stored on the Ethereum blockchain in real-time using digital wallets. MovieCoin built its platform with the help of BANKEX, a leading blockchain fintech company that facilitates the digitization, tokenization and online exchange of traditional assets. Blockchain also provides more transparency than traditional entertainment financing, allowing investors to see how their capital is being deployed and what residuals are owed to them throughout an entertainment asset’s lifecycle.
“MovieCoin’s debut Fund will finance eight to ten quality theatrical films each year, sourced by our team of seasoned media executives,” explained Woodrow. “Each film will comprise an A-list cast, a top-tier producer and a highly-acclaimed director. The Fund will keep commercial rights to the films it finances, building a valuable content library over time that benefits MSF Token holders.”
“When it comes to investment and transactions, the film industry is truly the modern wild west,” finished Woodrow. “Our platform provides the structure and standardization required to streamline operations, creating an improved experience for investors, industry professionals and entertainment enthusiasts alike.”
