[Guest] Can Movie IP NFTs Really Capture the Audience’s Imagination?

NFTs (non-fungible tokens) tend to divide opinion. On the one hand, you have the proponents who claim that the technology will be transformative, allowing brands, artists, and creators to connect with an audience like never before. On the other hand, you have the detractors who shake their heads in disbelief at anyone paying a fortune for what they see as a glorified jpeg. Those in the first group might be somewhat Panglossian in their outlook. But while it’s fashionable to dismiss NFTs as a fad, the second group might be a little bit too myopic when it comes to seeing the use cases for these digital records of ownership.

Nonetheless, while the NFT sector has been muted compared with the mass hysteria in 2021 (the entire cryptocurrency industry had an annus horribilis in 2022), those working in the sector have plowed on regardless. And that includes those who believe there is a future in the tokenization of intellectual property from the movie industry. Movie artwork, stills from classic films, posters, and so on could all be turned into NFTs. The NFTs can then be sold as “digital collectibles”, conferring ownership rights onto the owner. Is that something that would interest the average movie fan who cares little about NFTs or blockchain technology? It’s a difficult question to answer.

Ace Ventura has surprisingly interesting NFTs

If you’d like an example: one of the leaders in this area is JUKE.io, a company that has recently launched its first movie focused-NFTs. The collection is based on Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. Is that a strange choice? There are, of course, more iconic and better-received movies out there, but there seems to be some method in the madness. The brand itself is recognizable. Indeed, we have seen Ace Ventura’s IP used in other entertainment mediums, including the Ace Ventura slot from Playtech, which features imagery from the original 1994 movie.

But what exactly do you get with an Ace Ventura NFT? Well, for a start, it’s not just a screenshot from the movie. JUKE offers what it calls Dynamic Poster Frames, digital artworks based on the movie designed by Akiko Stehrenberger. The artist is well-recognized in the movie industry, winning 15 CLIO awards, and she has designed movie posters for films by the Coen Brothers, Spike Jonze, and several other big names.

The artwork for the NFTs is pretty impressive, too; you can see it on JUKE’s official site. Perhaps the main thing to get over is that it is digital, and not something you can hang on your wall. Still, digital art is growing, and we have even seen companies like Samsung develop specialist television sets to display digital artworks, including NFTs.

Movie fans will still need persuading

Perhaps the most interesting thing for movie fans is what can come alongside the digital collectible. Many NFT companies have woken up to the fact that they can offer more than just ownership rights to an image. Some plan to use NFTs as a means of building loyalty programs. While it’s not a movie-related product, we have seen this with Starbucks, which is rebuilding its Rewards scheme with a unique NFT experience.  

And that perhaps is the rub: Someone, somewhere, might pay a fortune to “own” a movie still of an iconic scene from Jaws or Star Wars, but NFT proponents also imagine a world where, for example, millions of Marvel fans can purchase NFTs based on the MCU, and owning those NFTs might confer rights like access to special content related to the movies. And yes, if you were wondering, Marvel has already dived into the world of NFTs. Like most collections, they seemed to be somewhat hit-and-miss.

In the end, it might take some time for this industry to mature. We have seen a handful of movie-related IP get the NFT treatment, but there has not yet been a nuclear moment, an example where the casual fan gets excited about the prospect of this style of ownership. It’s not clear if that moment will ever come, but some believe it is inevitable.