At the end of the Netflix documentary "Gaga: Five Foot Two" from 2017, Lady Gaga is looking forward unruly: Bradley Cooper has requested her for a film role. One year later, "A Star is Born" premieres. Even before the name of director and lead actor Cooper and leading actress Lady Gaga, the name of a company appears: Live Nation.
Since 2015, the global entertainment company, which started as a concert promoter and now owned by ticket service Ticketmaster as well as various festivals in Europe and the USA, also operates in the film business. Live Nation Productions debuted with documentaries about artists in the group's music business, including "Justin Timberlake + The Tennessee Kids," and "Gaga: Five Foot Two."
"A Star is Born" is now the first major feature film success of Live Nation Productions. Over 420 million US dollars, the film has been recorded worldwide so far. He has been nominated for the Oscars in eight categories, including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Actress.
From ticket to movie promo
Whether it ends up being worth more than a prize for the best song is uncertain. But the value chain that Live Nation has created is already impressive - or scary, depending on your perspective. After all, "Gaga: Five Foot Two" and "A Star is Born" are not the only ones that mesh perfectly with PR technology. Also the Glastonbury Festival, where Cooper and Gaga appeared for the film "in real", was part of Live Nation at the time of filming.
As the Wall Street Journal also found out, Live Nation used Ticketmaster's database to identify potential fans of the film through users' music preferences. By mail, they were then provided with promotional material for "A Star is Born". Only the Platinum-winning soundtrack to "A Star is Born" has appeared on a label independent of Live Nation, Interscope Records.
Maybe this marketing gap closes with the coming projects. Next is a TV documentary series about the mothers of rock musicians planned. Based on the non-fiction book "From Cradle to Stage" by Virginia Hanlon Grohl, mother of Nirvana and Foo Fighters musician Dave Grohl, the series will include interviews with the mothers of Pharrell Williams and Adam Levine ("Maroon 5") include - all of course clients of Live Nation.
20 million for Oscar-PR?
Because this business model does not pose a threat to cinema so far, Live Nation will hardly be an issue at the Oscars - unlike Netflix. With Alfonso Cuarón's "Roma", the streaming provider has for the first time a serious Oscar candidate in the race. The black and white film about a Mexican domestic worker has been nominated ten times, and at least three awards - including Best Director, Best Picture Design, and Best Foreign Language Film - are likely to receive "Roma." Maybe even enough for the main prize: "Best Picture". As the first non-English language film in the history of the Academy Awards.
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For the triumphal march with announcement there is a semi-official price: Netflix is said to have spent up to 20 million US dollars for its Oscar campaign. Some estimates go out because of the expensive TV spots and lavish live events, including with Angelina Jolie as a presenter, even from 25 million - that was what Columbia Pictures recently jumped for the PR offensive to "The Social Network".
Another number is even more interesting when it comes to Netflix '"Oscar game": The budget of "Roma" itself. Again, there is only a semi-official price. $ 15 million is said to have cost the production. This is not bad for an arthouse film whose main actress is a layman, and in which the director himself has taken the camera. For comparison: Pawel Pawlikowski's love drama "Cold War", also shot in black and white and Cuarón's only serious competition in the categories Best Camera and Best Foreign Language Film, has cost an estimated 4.3 million euros.
Speculation about the future
If one asks film producers, however, doubts rain whether "Roma" was not even more expensive. With about 100 days of shooting, the film is almost three times that of shooting times for a full-length feature film. Experts say it is unthinkable with 15 million dollars.
But why would Netflix possibly misrepresent the cost of "Roma"? Finally, the company prides itself on providing author filmmakers such as Cuarón with sums from which they only get fractions at regular studios - if at all.
Ultimately, the uncertainties surrounding the budget of "Roma" may be seen as further evidence that Netflix, beyond the complete monopolization of content, does not have a sustainable funding model for its films and therefore deliberately keeps the industry in the dark about its numbers. Each Oscar for "Roma" would be an award for a model whose future is completely uncertain. By contrast, the businesses of Live Nation are downright serious.