Why Time-Travel, Shape-Shifting, and the Multi-Verse are catastrophic for Sci-Fi Movie Franchises
Kevin James
? Executive Global Process Owner - Order to Cash Expert ? End-to-End Solution Building ? Revenue & Billing? Project Management ? Process Design
Or, why we need to stop trying to equalise Consumer Actions
Am I using a bugbear of mine to make a point? Probably. But still. Hear me out. Sci-Fi comics, books, and graphic novels have used the trio of Time-Travel, Shape-Shifting, and the Multi-Verse to great effect for years. Successfully, and to the enjoyment of readers.
However, I argue that these three elements are (to use dreadfully well-worn cliché) Kryptonite to modern Sci-Fi movie Franchises. All because, used frequently they tell the watcher that all the investment you've made in the past, the investment you're making right now, and that which you might make in the future; is at risk of being wasted, because the story you've invested in, can be rewritten at a moment’s notice.?
?And we're not just talking money here. We're also talking time, and reputation (the reputation of you, the fan who’s dragged their long-suffering spouse through hundreds of hours of DC & Marvel films, only to hear them go, "What the hell was what, and what have you done with hours of my life?”)
?And we're not just talking money here. We're also talking time, and reputation (the reputation of you, the fan who’s dragged their long-suffering spouse through hundreds of hours of DC & Marvel films, only to hear them go, "What the hell was what, and what have you done with hours of my life?”)
But why is it so different for literature? Well, partially because the expense is less, reading is a solitary experience so less reputational concern, and finally, as a reader we've a flexibility to imagine the story in a way that we don't have with the audio-visual experience.?
Thus, two different platforms can provide two very different experiences for the exact same story-telling mechanism.
Thus, two different platforms can provide two very different experiences for the exact same story-telling mechanism.
Great, so we understand that. Now how do we apply this to modern-day business thought?
We need to stop trying to equalise different Consumer Actions.
We need to stop trying to equalise different Consumer Actions. Bingeing on a streaming show follows a different mindset to one where you watch an episode once a week. A consumer stopping an episodes of a show partway through, is very different from a consumer ending their watching by switching off the device or platform entirely.
We might struggle with the data, we might need to build complex models, but whatever the case we need to stop ourselves making over-simplifications as to why consumers behave as they do. Otherwise the result can be catastrophic, and no amount of time-travel will bring that back.
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?The author has worked in Order to Cash and Finance Transformation for more than twenty years, with experience in the licensing, media, music and advertising worlds. With a past academic background in Consumer Behaviour, he loves to hear from all sorts of people, their stories, challenges, and interesting insight they have, that can help others and make us think.