Game of Thrones leads Emmy nominations
20 July 2015 by Catherine Holdsworth in Business and finance, Current events, Entertainment, Game of Thrones on Business
On Thursday the 2015 Emmy nomination were announced and Game of Thrones leads the field. Though it’s disheartening to see that Kit Harrington and his lovely hair did not get a nomination, Peter Dinklage, Lena Heady and Emilia Clarke will all be hoping to take home a shiny golden trophy.
When one looks at the nominations on a broader scale, the actors who are up for the big prizes are no longer people who found fame in TV. Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kevin Spacey and Liev Schreiber are all up for acting gongs, and all are big, well-established names in the world of film. What is turning them to TV all of a sudden? When you look at the current situation of the cinema box office, it is filled with sequels, prequels and reboots. It would seem that in the two hours or so that the director has to establish a relationship with the audience, they go for what works rather than something new and innovative.
We love TV now. It’s the viewing equivalent of sitting down with War and Peace or Moby Dick, investing a long time in a fantasy world, building relationships with characters and becoming seriously affected by their outcome (farewell Jon Snow). Televisions series allow for character and plot development in a way that film cannot provide. So, since audiences want familiarity, we have an extremely long film series with characters that we know and love time and time again. Don’t get me wrong, I love a superhero movie as much as any 15 year old boy does, but it doesn’t provide me with as much satisfaction as a ten part Game of Thrones series.
Producers and actors are now wise to the shift to television that audiences are making. With the creation of HBO and Sky and of course, bigger tellys, we are now closer than ever to having the movies in our very own home. It is a radical shift to the Hollywood business model and producers are finally waking up to what the audience wants. How can Hollywood compete with Netflix, a fast streaming service that gives the viewer autonomy (or so they think) to watch whatever they want , whenever and at a reasonable price?
It is unlikely that the Emmys will ever rival the Oscars for prestige and glamour, but it is clear the heavyweight actors, once nominated and winning at the Kodak Theatre are now finding themselves on the other side of the fence. Could giants such as Netflix and Amazon Prime actually reinvent the business model of Hollywood that has remained steadfast for over 100 years? Perhaps it’s too soon to tell, but with countless Emmy nominations to its name, Netflix is all set to ‘break the wheel’, much like our favourite queen, Daenerys Targaryen.
We love business and we love popular culture, what better way to celebrate the Emmy nominations and the build up to the awards by reading Game of Thrones on Business. Netflix, take note!
