NFTs Will Change What the Entertainment Industry Looks Like: Here’s How

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are digital collection authenticity certificates that serve as proof of ownership. These tokens were initially assigned to unique digital music, sports artifacts, and virtual real estate, among other things.

Blockchain-based digital assets are taking over the entertainment industry where everyone from former Disney CEO Bob Iger to Fox Entertainment to actors Reese Witherspoon and Mila Kunis is supporting their claim to the tech. In the recent episode of “The Tonight Show, hosted by Jimmy Fallon, he and Paris Hilton sang praises over their respective Bored Apes NFTs.

However, many of the people within and outside the business are still struggling to wrap their heads around the idea of this tech, increasing doubts, not to forget the comparisons being made to the dot-com boom-and-bust.

In their most common recent form, NFTs work similarly to digital trading cards or art – unique collections that be purchased and sold. However, there are various other applications for the tech, some of them Hollywood is now starting to explore, including utility NFTs which work like a subscription or a ticket to an event. Although some look at the predominance aspect of the tech as a trend, others are still reluctant to miss out on any possible new revenue stream, and the entertainment industry’s big cats are issuing and buying NFTs of their own.

Hollywood players from Disney ex-CEO Bob Iger to Reese Witherspoon are laying claim to NFTs.

Hello Sunshine, Witherspoon’s media company has penned NFT deals to create TV and film projects, while the mega-producer of “Law & Order, Dick Wolf, is working alongside Curio to launch an engaging storytelling project, “Wolf Society.” Iger, Hollywood’s tycoon, is someone who has loaned out the most credibility as well as invested in and joined the board of Genies, a company that generates multifunctional digital NFTs.

Companies and creators are investing in NFTs in numerous ways. Fox Entertainment launched 10,000 “Miss Masky” NFTs associated with its famous reality show “The Masked Singer,” anticipating their fans of the singing competition will collect, purchase, and trade other “Masked Singer” on Eluvio, which Fox has capitalized in.

Rupert Murdoch’s broadcaster Fox was one of the first media companies to move into the space with its Blockchain Creative Labs NFT studio. Scott Greenberg, CEO of the studio who also directs the Fox animation studio Bento Box, shared that he thinks NFTs are now becoming a common source of revenue-generating business for Hollywood and not only a market for speculative assets. Fox has collected around $100 million in creator’s fund for NFTs.

Almost every media conglomerate and startup are trying to keep up with the market trend regarding NFTs. Warner Bros.’s inspired NFT “Matrix Resurrection” was sold out of 100,000, and another NFT platform OneOf, funded by the Quincy Jones, bid-off an entirely hidden demo of a Whitney Houston song for around $1 million. Paramount Global works alongside RECUR, an NFT startup, to create its own NFT marketplace.

Early NFT users in the entertainment industry see the income potential.

Blockchain Creative Labs’ Greenberg forecasts the NFT market to expand beyond digital collectibles. Rich Battista, a Curio investor, consultant, and former Fox executive, estimates that Hollywood will start to build an IP that is “natural to the NFT universe” like Kunis has capitalized in NFT-based animated “The Gimmicks” with the help of Sixth Wall, a blockchain entertainment company. The studio of this series animates the episodes weekly that allow “Gimmicks” to vote on where the storyline of the series is heading.

There are various companies built around the idea of crypto and Web3 foundation like Mad Realities which has generated around $6 million in a row, headed by Paradigm, which also has investments from Bumble’s Selby Drummond.

The most significant driving force in this new business model is the attraction of letting people outside the industry take part in Hollywood’s creative process. We can see more people jumping into the NFT pool in the upcoming months and years. Even the conventional Hollywood companies are not overlooking the vast number of changes that will pass through the industry. Weinstein, chief development officer of Candle Media, is well-positioned to profit from the junction of heritage media and new modalities of narrative and delivery.