Full Mint Films Hopes to Be at the Center of Hollywood’s Convergence With Web3

Stock prices for Netflix, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global are all down on the year as Wall Street refuses to reward an array of different entertainment media strategies. As Hollywood desperately searches for the next lucrative (and necessary) growth engine amid a time of tumultuous uncertainty, Full Mint Films has become a microcosm for the growing convergence between Web3 and the entertainment industry.

With the recent emphasis on NFTs (nonfungible tokens), the hopes for a decentralized internet free from powerful technology companies (Web3), and a user-centric model, the media business has taken note of emerging opportunities. It’s true that NFT sales have fallen upwards of 90% from a September peak, per the Wall Street Journal, and there’s skepticism surrounding the fad’s sustainability overall, particularly as the cryptocurrency market continues to plunge. But while some view the Web3 and NFT space as a bear market, others see opportunity to build something new in entertainment.

“The sustainable architecture and technology of Web3, of blockchain and how we see that scaling is this intersection of Web3 into different industries,” Full Mint Films co-founder Karl Singer told TheWrap.

Hollywood’s web3 convergence

Last year, Fox Entertainment announced it was investing $100 million in a “creator fund” for the NFT space through a new venture called Blockchain Creative Labs. Marvel Entertainment and digital collectibles company Orbis Blockchain Technologies Limited announced last summer plans for a global digital collectibles experience for Marvel fans. In September, Bento Box Entertainment and Fox will deliver “Krapopolis,” the first-ever animated comedy series curated entirely on blockchain. Long story short: Hollywood is on the prowl for inventive new ways to connect with audiences and monetize content.

The advantage of Web3, as some see it, is the ability to offer incentive to fans and emerging storytellers.

“Fan fiction has been huge for a long time and NFTs, blockchain and Web3 are going to allow the fan fiction group to monetize that in a really powerful way for themselves,” filmmaker Cameron Van Hoy told TheWrap.

Projects in this new medium can create native tokens, or digital assets, that users can earn and play with through either head-to-head competitions or more advanced Dungeons & Dragons-style games all tailored to the lore of new film and TV projects. NFT holders can design and create work around new characters, enabling the IP to take on a life of its own after the filmmakers are done with it. This “gamification” allows for hyper-engagement and a long tail of monetization. “The opportunities are really limitless,” Van Hoy said.

Blockchain is rooted in access and empowering equity holders, which represents an evolution of the entertainment model. If successful, Hollywood could rely less on mass audience blockbusters that require nine-figure financial gambles and instead recruit a small but loyal contingent of fans dedicated to a project and willing to buy into it. It’s a way to fundamentally change development and production funnels.

Full Mint Films has struck a licensing partnership deal with 0XB1, a collector with over $450 million in NFT assets who signed with CAA in October, and has partnered with Sugar23 as its entertainment production arm. The hope is that these efforts will help Web3 transition from nebulous concept to practical application.

David Stein, 0XB1’s business partner and artistic creator of generative NFT collection The Symbols — which is a unique variation of the alphabet that explores language and perceptions — aims to add social and educational utility to the mix as well. “I think without it, we’re just a flat extension from the existing film and TV industry almost crawling into the Web3 space,” Stein told TheWrap.

The goal, which might as well be a guiding principle for Hollywood as it looks to establish a foundation in this new digital world, is to connect content and communities to allow users to shape the experience and share it with one another directly through new creations based off the initial IP. It’s the immersive next step for Hollywood, which has historically been slow to change, update or innovate unless forced to by disruptors.

Can the new and old models coexist?

Industrial innovation and disruption is usually not without its casualties, leading to the question of whether the future of the entertainment industry is an either/or situation. Is there room for the legacy model and the fluid Web3 model to co-exist? Van Hoy is bullish as he compares the latter’s embryonic stages to that of previous media interlopers that proved to have staying power.

“I see it shaking out the way that Instagram decimated the magazines in the transition of Web1 to Web 2,” he said. “When we gave people the ability to communicate and to comment, like and share, it was a drug that no one wanted to stop using.”

The hope of digital explorers charting the unknown terrain between Hollywood and Silicon Valley’s futures is that the decentralization of ownership Web3 offers will provide an intoxicating power to new audiences and users. No longer will they be passive viewers, but active creators alongside the on-screen talent. Yet as starry eyed ambitious as Van Hoy and others may be, there’s still an acknowledgement that cinema didn’t kill radio, television never ousted the movie theater, and social media hasn’t killed TV.

“Studios, just looking at history, are slow to adopt in a meaningful way,” Singer said. “So it’ll be really interesting to see how the entertainment industry holistically shakes out. But I think it will open up market share for a lot of companies like Full Mint to come in and really make waves in the new era of what film and TV is.”