Another dimension of the financialization of Hollywood is a new era of “independently wealthy film and television.” Between 1996 and 2020, more than sixty American production and distribution companies (I call them “billionaire boutiques”), each funded by a wealthy benefactor, often an heir to a massive fortune (I call them “plutocratic patrons”), arose and saturated the mid-level indie market with a financialized form of television and indie films (or “findies”). Figure 4.2 tallies the total numbers of productions developed by billionaire boutiques each year, showing this phenomenon’s start in the late 1990s and acceleration in the early aughts, just as the studio-affiliated specialty sector is declining and wealth inequality is increasing. Over 2,500 films and television shows were traced to this kind of production.

XREF: Connects to broader discussions of wealth inequality and the concentration of media ownership.

Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, loc. 263