There was a time not long ago that just the namesMichael BayorJames Cameronattached to a new film project would get an automatic greenlight, but it appears those days are over. During a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter regarding his new parkour documentary,We Are Storror, the famous director said it’s getting more difficult to get a film made, even for him and Cameron.
“I just had a conference call with Jim Cameron, and we were both commiserating about Hollywood. No one can greenlight anything anymore. It’s just so slow.”
There are several factors involved in why Hollywood is not only cutting back on the number of films it greenlights, but also the budgets which have escalated over the years. Perhaps the biggest was the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw Los Angeles shut down production in 2020. But as the industry was getting back up on its feet, both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA went on strike in May and July 2023, respectively, the first time both unions had gone on strike at the same time since 1960. Once the strikes ended in the fall of 2023, productions on movies and shows slowly began again.
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The studios are owned by corporations, which have recently been slashing overhead and cutting jobs, particularly at Disney, which announced it would cut 7,000 jobs in Jan. 2023. The most recent cuts were200 employees at ABC News. High interest rates have also affected studios as the price to borrow has gone up. And it is too early to know the effects of the recent and devastating wildfires will have on production in Los Angeles.
Bay also pointed out just how much Hollywood has changed over the past 25-plus years:
“It’s a very different business. During ‘Armageddon,’ those were the days. We had Jonathan Hensleigh, the writer. We sat down for two or three weeks. We had the NASA guy come into my office. We worked out this 20-minute pitch. We go into [former Walt Disney Chairman] Joe Roth’s office. This would be my third movie. And Joe, he’s like a real old time, cool studio executive. He goes, “That’s going to be my July 4th movie. I want to name it ‘Armageddon.'” We walk out, and we’re looking at each other. “Did he just greenlight that movie?” That doesn’t happen now. But that’s how it used to happen.”
Hollywood Continues to Make Blockbusters Despite Budget Cuts
In 2013, legendary directors Steven Spielberg and George Lucas sat down for an interview at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, and the conversation turned to the state of Hollywood at the time. Both predicted, quite accurately, that the studios would focus on major blockbusters, expensive movie tickets, and the explosion of VOD (video-on-demand). Both said indie and niche movies would be relegated to the small screen (or streaming), with Lucas commenting:
“There’ll be big movies on a big screen, and it’ll cost them a lot of money. Everything else will be on a small screen. It’s almost that way now. ‘Lincoln’ and ‘Red Tails’ barely got into theaters. You’re talking about Steven Spielberg and George Lucas can’t get their movies into theaters.”
The sure bets these days are the big blockbuster films and shows based on known IP (intellectual property), which is why DC Studios is relaunching their superhero universe with James Gunn and Peter Safran. And likely why Marvel Studios hired Robert Downey Jr. to play Doctor Doom inAvengers: DoomsdayandSecret Wars, which will be directed by the Russo Brothers.
Until recently, streamers were spending big on movies and shows, but have beguncutting back on budgets. And while Netflix is looking togrow its annual content budget of $18 billion, it appears they’re focusing more on quality over quantity.
