Hollywood's big online bet: Inside the industry's race to acquire internet stories

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Set us as preferred Last month, veteran Hollywood producer Roy Lee got three calls in a single day from executives at three different studios.Each believed they had found the next internet-native short poised to become a Hollywood blockbuster — an online monster named Siren Head — and each was ready to make an offer and wanted Lee’s help to develop a movie.The frenzy traces back to the enduring global box-office runs of two low-budget horror films, Curry Barker’s “Obsession” and Kane Parsons’ “Backrooms,” which have earned $403 million and $349 million, respectively.

Studios have become fixated on hunting down every short film, internet meme and indie video game with the potential to “put something new and fresh on the screen,” Lee said.“In the past, whenever we were putting together movies with the studios, they would resort to going back to safer bets with filmmakers who’ve made movies before,” Lee said, whose L.A.-based horror production company, Spooky Pictures, secured three Barker films before “Obsession” hit theaters.“But because of the [ongoing] success, bosses are going to their lower-level executives saying, ‘You better find the next person and bring them to us.’”The race for Hollywood to capture new-age internet intellectual property, or IP, is well underway.

And, in some cases, it’s happening on terms decided by the online creators themselves, according to interviews with agents and producers.Mining the internet for the next big thing isn’t a new idea.What’s changed is how major studios approach the creators behind it.

In the past, studios have plucked influencers from their online niche and slotted them into whatever mainstream production needed a face.Under the precedent set by Barker and Parsons, studios are now looking to acquire a fully developed idea from creat...