Between the many box office failures and the writers’ and actors’ strike, 2023 wasn’t a good year for Hollywood. The capital of movies has been creatively bankrupt for years as production companies have been focused on remakes and continuations of established franchises. Occasionally, these movies take the established fan favorites and add a twist to the new feature that makes it stand out. Last year we got Evil Dead Rise, which took the formula and added new dynamics, causing the film to have the record for highest box office numbers of the franchise. But these successes are few and far between. Hollywood is tainted and plagued with issues, that makes tinsel town a shell of its former self. This article is the first of a short series of articles on the signs of collapse in Hollywood.

            Let’s start this off with streaming services. At first, streaming services were a boon for consumers. They allowed customers to watch TV series and movies that they haven’t seen before for a monthly price tag. Before streaming, consumers would have had to either watch the content live on TV or in a theater or have access to a DVD or Blu Ray player and then buy the physical discs. A lot of steps and a lot of money. Streaming services were an affordable substitute to cable as services like Hulu and Youtube TV offered live TV services. The cord cutting trend blazed across the country. Then like everything else, 2020 came around and messed everything up with COVID. With movie theaters shut down and all productions on pause, companies had to scramble to make up for the lost revenue. Soon everyone started to create a streaming service. Peacock, Paramount+, Disney+, and HBO Max all popped up in this period. For cord cutters they now either had to pick and choose which services they wanted or buy them all, which soon matched the cost of cable.

            So why is the oversaturation of streaming services bad? Firstly, companies now contest content through licenses. Popular movies and shows often changed hands and bounced from service to service. So, if you were watching The Office on Netflix, too bad it’s on Peacock now, fork over more money if you want to continue watching. Services also decided if a show is worth continuing or canceling when it came to their original content. Netflix became notorious for this. Take Altered Carbon for example, a cult hit with a small following of sci-fi and cyberpunk fans. Though it enjoys critical and fan success in terms of ratings, Netflix didn’t like the numbers the show garnered and canceled the show. Clicks and views now ruled services over quality story telling. The quality of content started to nosedive as services allowed basically anything to be produced. Some might see the wide array of content as a plus that allows consumers to pick and choose what they want to watch and bring value to their money. But let me ask you this, have you been overwhelmed by the number of options? Not sure what you are in the mood for? Try an episode of a new drama only to find it dull and uncreative? That’s my point. Oversaturation has deeply wounded the streaming service and the content it hosts. And will the companies that own these services do anything? Of course not! They will keep on licensing content that has been proven good in theaters and TV when COVID is gone and continue pumping out content to tempt new users with flashy new content. And even though mergers of these services and some failing may show a sign of hope, pandora’s box is already open.

            Moving on to a byproduct of the rise of streaming services is the previously mentioned strikes of the writers’ and screen actors’ guilds. In addition to the rise of revenues for companies caused by the streaming services, another technological advancement caused concern amongst creatives: AI. Artificial intelligence sites started to pop up on the internet that crafted images and the start of ChatGPT allowed users to have AI produce writing off prompts. These creations can span from a simple sentence to full-fledged scripts and novels. Let me pause by saying this; AI has no place in creative industries. Sites like ChatGPT should be outlawed and banned as not only do they threaten writers and artists, but also weaken our education system, cause what high school student won’t be tempted to write a term paper or essay using AI? The threats of AI itself are enough for an article all to itself, but what is needed for this context is the Writers’ Guild saw this rise in technology as a threat to their livelihoods.

            So, the Writers’ Guild initiated the strikes back in May 2023 and were joined by the actors in July, with Hollywood shutting down. Here is the thing. Actors and writers make up a tiny part of the production of a show or film, yet they are the most critical as you cannot start a project without a cast or a script. So, they had a lot of leverage, but left their colleagues in the industry out in the cold. While the public was focused on the strikes, the other industry workers were forgotten. The boom operators, make-up artists, camera men, directors, stage assistants, costume designers, stage and sound technicians, and many more roles that make up the industry were abandoned. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the film industry saw approximately 25,000 jobs lost during the strikes, the majority of which belonging to non-writers and actors. That is more than the loss of jobs the gaming industry saw throughout the entire year! Strikes are good and are the only tool workers have against corrupt corporations, however they only work if all the workers are involved. Look at the Autoworkers Strike that also happened in 2023, that strike was more successful because all the workers were part of the strike, and the result helped everyone in the industry. In Hollywood, the guilds represent only two groups, leaving the industry disjointed. Besides, who were the real winners of those strikes? Established writers and actors, those with very little to lose with the lack of work. Those on strike that have yet to find their big break suffered under financial constraints as many lost their homes because they couldn’t pay rent. Yes, short term the strikes where a victory as AI was restricted, but what about the long term? The nearly six-month long strike has put a pressure valve on Hollywood because the amount of content that will come out in the next two years will be severely limited. That means no profits, less funds for projects, less needs for writers and actors, less jobs. Only time can tell how much damage the strikes will cause for the industry.

            Now let’s talk about the blockbuster; Hollywood’s bread and butter when it comes to film making. Huge, budgeted films with entire marketing departments, huge effects, and star actors to bring in audiences for big paydays. Starting in 1975 with Jaws, blockbusters quickly became a cash crop for Hollywood producers and studios, the reliable cash cow. Star Wars, MCU, Harry Potter, the DCEU, Jurassic World, and Mad Max Fury Road are all examples of modern blockbusters. However, these budgets are starting to get over inflated and the blockbuster is starting to become outdated. With the theater slowing down due to the aftereffects of COVID, the blockbuster isn’t as reliable as it used to be. The films can’t make up the budgets anymore. Look at Disney. All but two of their film line-ups flopped at the box office and the company lost $1 billion! Now granted this is mostly on Disney and their plan, which I’ll cover later on in the series. The main problem with the blockbuster now is that the blockbuster is the only real type of film that Hollywood can make now. Go big or go home is the motto for tinsel town. With the blockbuster becoming a regular occurrence, it becomes hard for smaller and unheard-of creators to get their break. Luckily, we have studios like A24, whose goal appears to be to sponsor small films. The modus operandi that Hollywood has is that if a blockbuster fails, just throw it onto a streaming service to make up the remaining value. This reliance on the blockbuster caused a change in quality of the films that Hollywood made. Films made with on-site locations and physical effects are replaced by CGI and VFX, with the quality of such effects varying wildly. The same actors appear in every movie, with cut-and-paste scripts and strong dialogue being replaced by jokes and pop culture references, creating fan fatigue for the blockbuster. Film is no longer treated like a passionate art, but as a profit-making machine.

            These three issues that I have described are recent trends and events that have struck Hollywood, yet they have already eroded the foundation of America’s film capital. Does this mean that this is the end of Hollywood? No, not really. An important cultural hub and presence like film and Hollywood will probably never go away fully. Instead, their relevancy will be brought into question. What these trends have shown is that studios and their investors have neglected the art of film, and that neglect has begun to rot. Sure, some positive change has taken place over the years, but that isn’t enough. Hollywood is still lagging behind the constantly changing times, and hopefully one day new visionaries and creatives can guide Hollywood back into its prime.