Producer Jason Blum on the battle around compensation in Hollywood: ‘I hope there will be a lot of lawsuits’

Producer Jason Blum thinks stars and filmmakers deserve a piece of the profit from their work. So naturally he opposes a push from studios to pay Netflix-style flat fees instead. But that didn’t stop him from taking a big flat fee to make three new “Exorcist” films.

“I’m being a hypocrite because I took the deal that I think is bad for movies,” Blum says. “But this is the model, this is what we’re stuck with. I’m not gonna fight it, I’m gonna take advantage of it.”

Blum weighs in on looming battles in the industry, including Scarlett Johansson's lawsuit against Disney. He hopes it’s the first of many, as Blum believes the rise of the mega-streamers may come at the expense of everyone else.

“I think Bill Gates or Sumner Redstone said, ‘Content is king.’ Michael Eisner said it a lot after that. And in a world where everything we see is being controlled by four steamers, I think it’s very safe to say that content is no longer king. Distribution and data are king. And that’s not good for anybody except the streamers.”