Star Trek produces its shows for significantly less than rival major franchises
Alex Kurtzman · How Star Trek prospers against Netflix and Disney+ (with EP Alex Kurtzman) | Masters of Scale · Apr 18, 2024 · at 17:18
Alex Kurtzman, executive producer of the Star Trek franchise, explains how his production strategy keeps budgets lower than rival franchise productions.
0:00 / 0:08exact quote · 8.6s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“We spend far less Producing our shows than my understanding of other big franchises in terms of what they spend to make their shows.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Alex Kurtzman
Star Trek monetizes via a 30-year licensing waterfall, ignoring quarterly metrics
“What I can tell you is that Star Trek is a waterfall that keeps rolling downstream for 30 years in terms of licensing. So it's not just a matter of saying, okay, you have to decide in this quarter whether you're successful financially. My argument is you have …”
Franchise expansion requires satisfying the core fanbase first, says Alex Kurtzman
“And I believe that the only way you can build new fans is to first please the core fans. It's everything.”
Netflix is the hands-down winner of the streaming wars, says Kurtzman
“I would say that the winner of the streaming wars was easily and hands down Netflix, but even they are saying, we're not going to spend the kind of money that we spent before on shows.”
Kurtzman intentionally recruits non-fans to Star Trek writers rooms for objectivity
“When a writer says to me, yeah, I'm not really a Star Trek person, I will go hard at bringing them onto that staff, because I need that objectivity.”
Blockbuster fate is sealed by 3:00 PM opening Friday, says Alex Kurtzman
“Oh, it's, you know, it's, you can call it a crapshoot, or you can call it Russian roulette. I mean, it depends on how you look at it. And it's particularly competitive now, but yes, it's you know, it's a strange thing, because people will spend literally years…”
Micromanaging showrunners destroys a franchise's creative differentiation, warns Alex Kurtzman
“And then I stay involved on the shows that I'm not showrunning. I stay involved, but I'm not there to micromanage them. I think that is a huge mistake. If my mission is I want each show to be its own unique color in, in a rainbow, then I cannot begin muddying …”