Scott Roxborough, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, reports that Indie Execs Say Content Is No Longer King — Data Is.

“Business models on which the industry has relied for decades are breaking apart as studio blockbusters grab an increasingly large share of the domestic box office and streaming platforms splinter the audience for niche and indie fare.”

Speaking at an AFM Financing conference, Erik Feig says the new key is to target a niche audience: “You find a group of people who are passionate about something — and you start with them. You make a movie that will satisfy that niche audience and then you extrapolate beyond that, turn that audience into the proselytizers for your film.”

How do you find that niche audience?

DATA.

I’ve blogged before about the ‘king’ of data: Toronto’s Wattpad who used their data to help create After, a teen romantic thriller.

Back at the conference, Christian Parkes asked, “Is content still king? I’d say data is king. If you aren’t relying heavily on it, you are going to lose.”

For the record, it may have been Bill Gates who coined the term Content is King in 1997.

My take: maybe The Audience is King? With the proliferation of viewing opportunities (plus lots of non-screen activities available) the audience is more valuable than ever. Content and data are both important. But lets not forget that show business/storytelling requires an audience to validate the experience.