It's funny when business magazines ask relevant questions. You know, because so many question their relevancy. (Okay, we only mean "so many advertisers.") But here's BusinessWeek, asking a question that not even Portfolio managed to get to the question mark of during its Ryan Kavanaugh profile, which is: If the "smarties" at movie studios are making so many budget cuts, why are the smarties on Wall Street thinking the movie biz is something to make a mint on?

Turns out, most of the deep pockets funding these new Hollywood deals aren't too far divested from the traditional media scene. Sure, Merill Lynch's coffers might be on board, but it's being led around town by former Paramount vice chairman Robert Friedman. And guess what he's got?

Connections.

Why are sane folks plunking down big money to make movies just as major studios are cutting back production and farming out riskier projects to private equity firms? In a word: distribution. As the world quickly goes digital with so many new ways to deliver entertainment directly to consumers, Malone and Moonves see movie-making as a huge opportunity to feed a fast-growing electronic maw of downloads and video-on-demand. What's more, when they look out at the bloated infrastructures of the established studios, these new entrants figure getting into the game now makes perfect sense, especially with leaner operations that get a boost from new technologies.

Those new technologies? Web 2.0 gimmicks like YouTube! And Joost! Or, known by their more proper names: studio killers.