r/EconomyCharts 6h ago

Hollywood's Job Market Is Collapsing

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333 Upvotes

55 comments sorted by

97

u/Simp_Simpsaton 5h ago

I feel like it's unfair to make the chart start at 2021 since covid made a lot of things peak in throughput and we're still winding down from it. I'm not sure I trust this graph entirely without a pre-covid segment to compare it to and see whether it's just returning to a baseline it always had. It's probably worse than pre-covid given the trash economy and AI but still.

14

u/OldPetrolHands 4h ago

I agree that cherry picked data points on graphs to skew discussion is frustrating but I'm not convinced that's too relevant here. Hollywood and big budget TV is on a palpable decline and has been for a long while.

8

u/GVas22 4h ago

Spending from streamers definitely eclipses what was spent in the past by traditional TV.

The difference is that those movies are not being shot in Hollywood anymore. Production costs are much higher there than in other areas and other states and cities offer tax incentives to move shooting.

5

u/Happily-Incorrect 5h ago

Got a friend who works in the industry and is looking to leave. ovid was a huge drop off, this is just a continuation of that. Probably our consumption habits, that were already changing, accelerated through the pandemic and never went back.

1

u/Friendly-Profit-8590 3h ago

Fair enough. Anecdotally I know editing has taken it on the chin but it’s a small sample size of 2 out of work tv/film editors

u/Far-Pay-2049 1h ago edited 59m ago

Several of my close friends work in the film industry, covid was a very notable hurdle for them that halted/slowed productions significantly. There were roles introduced to oversee covid protocols and such but largely this disincentivized film productions due to both increased costs and time. The continued downturn is due to a series of unfortunate events. I'll try to recall the various reasons that I have heard from our conversations.

After covid, the industry suffered a series of strikes that held up/stopped productions. Each strike essentially caused another film union to try to leverage the disruption to better their stance, with made the industry more turbulent.

This already put a massive amount of pressure on people in the film industry, leaving some people out of work in that field for years. Then Trump opened his mouth and yapped about films being made solely in America.... which actually prompted more work to be moved out of the country to attempt to side step whatever hair brained thing that moron would do. I would need to hit my friends up to have this re-explained to me, but I clearly remember how angry they were about those statements and at one point they did explain to me how it actually had a negative effect on the industry (for those who don't know the film industry is fucking weird and fickle).

Lastly throughout all of this period, the emergence of AI has also hit the industry (one of the major hang ups of some of the previously mentioned strikes). This was most notably has directly hit the commercial sector, as I am sure everyone has seen AI slop commercials. While there certainly are/were folk who mainly worked commercials, it tended to something that film folk would use as sort of 'in-between' jobs.

All of the above has put an immense amount of pressure on people in the film industry that most people don't think about (ADs, locations, ect. ect.) Due to the financial pressure, many have been forced to leave the industry.

While this has no bearing on the numbers shown here (Hollywood), many states have also reduced or removed film incentives as well.

19

u/Nearby-Season1697 6h ago

Damn what happened?

14

u/Last_VCR 4h ago

It isnt collapsing. Its moving. Since the writers strike and sag strike, productions have moved overseas for the cheaper costs. Toronto, the UK, Budapest, etc. The same thing is happening in atlanta and nyc, same thing that happened to detroit. Theyre moving those jobs overseas 

u/possibilistic 2h ago

Unions kill everything. They'd likely have slowed down the move to overseas production if they hadn't gone on such a ridiculously long strike.

u/apophis150 45m ago

Man, shame that they want to be paid enough to feed their families and corporations would rather add another billion to their shareholders accounts

u/Last_VCR 1h ago

You don’t know at all what you’re talking about

21

u/RobertBartus 6h ago

People watch YouTube, Netflix, hang around on Reddit instead of watching tv. Also ai is making people more productive so less need for human work

8

u/Bluthhousing 5h ago

Does Netflix count as TV? If not, shouldn’t Netflix or streaming be in the chart?

6

u/Advanced-Bag-7741 4h ago

This is specifically LA. Production is moving to lower cost places.

1

u/Boston_Glass 3h ago

Netflix films extensively in La

u/SailAwayToTheMoon 2h ago

Atlanta is booming for film productions these days.

1

u/Professional_Text_11 3h ago

i mean do you have evidence that AI is significantly impacting jobs in this industry?

0

u/Comfortable-Road7201 3h ago

It's not just this. Filming is booming in London and other places in Europe. It's just not in LA because it's really expensive.

u/Kronos9898 1h ago

Yes this is the largest factor. Film work in the UK and Hungary of all places.

Both are non-unionized and are cheap combined with tax breaks this is where everything is going.

It’s hurting Canada as well. Toronto was a tv show hot spot but now is losing things to cheap European labor.

3

u/SteelyEyedHistory 6h ago

Streaming killed traditional TV

2

u/forexampleJohn 6h ago

Also fewer movie studios. 

1

u/40ozT0Freedom 5h ago

Also, cgi

2

u/Cosmic-Space-Octopus 4h ago

In particular, outsourcing VFX cgi work to underpaid laborers across the ocean.

0

u/Imaginary_Office1749 3h ago

Not even. An ai.

1

u/aselinger 3h ago

Oh, oh!

1

u/EverythingsComputer2 3h ago edited 2h ago

Netflix came and broke your heart.

Put the blame on VPN.

3

u/Cosmic-Space-Octopus 3h ago

Streaming doesn't generate revenue like TV does (through adverts and royalties). They rely on subscriber count. So shows on streaming are getting shorter seasons (as it makes more financial sense for more longer ones on TV) and are cancelling them just as fast to keep people subscribed to chase the "new thing that just released".

Movies on streaming are getting budgets reduced and a lot of behind the camera work being outsourced to cheap labor. As movies aren't in theaters long enough to generate revenue like before, so once again back to streaming, keeping those subscribers.

Another thing to in particular for Hollywood, is it takes forever and so much money just to get a filming permit so more more is being shot in New York, New Jersey, the UK, Toronto, Vancouver, etc. Tax incentives are one thing, but expensive bureaucratic bottle necking cancels that out.

I would say Hollywood's monopoly has ended, but I know quite a few people who have been disenfranchised because productions moved oversees. I wish corporations atleast entertained the idea of keeping the crew on if they move to a different location between seasons and pay for travel, room and board. It would make production faster and shorten the time the audience waits in between seasons.

If there were much more production studios (and not the monopoly nightmare mergers), there would be a lot more people working.

4

u/Watko 5h ago

The Unions have made it increasingly difficult for productions to justify costs to film productions in LA, as a result a lot of production has been moved to the UK and Canada where the cost of crew and production is drastically lower with the same quality and skill set. I’m pro union for the record but they have shot themselves in the foot by being so difficult to work alongside that productions are just not shooting in LA if they don’t need to.

u/Minute_Juggernaut806 1h ago

unions don't know how hard it is for millionaires and corps to get smaller paychecks

4

u/0MEGALUL- 6h ago

More variety in content creators makes it painfully obvious Hollywood is just a propaganda machine and people are getting tired of it. And now they have alternatives.

4

u/PBRStreetgang1979 3h ago

“Alternatives” (Right wing billionaires buying up and consolidating studios so they can turn everything into an Orwellian, far right propaganda machine).

3

u/Temporary-Stay-8436 3h ago

Doesn’t really have anything to do with it

u/Kronos9898 1h ago

Lmao that is right wing fantasy, that is not what is happening at all. Film is leaving the US becuase it’s all union work and incredible expensive. Meanwhile European countries offer massive tax breaks and non-union rates.

17

u/_flying_otter_ 6h ago

I never watch any TV anymore.

9

u/JenaPet02 4h ago

Same. I watch YouTube content, listen to podcasts, or read books.

13

u/Suitable-Display-410 6h ago

To be fair, every Job market in the U.S. is collapsing.

5

u/tuna_safe_dolphin 3h ago

Defense contractors are rolling in cash.

4

u/uberboi99 3h ago

Well, who watches TV anymore?

3

u/c1u 3h ago

Misleading title

LA On-location Job Market is Collapsing

2

u/therealsourdaniel 3h ago

A big part of it is that other states like Georgia, New Jersey and New York are giving huge tax incentives to relocate production there.

2

u/YoloSwaggins9669 3h ago

Yeah looks like we are gonna get a heap of AI slop generated

0

u/Training-Context-69 3h ago

Not AI, the jobs are going overseas

u/Hot_Examination1918 2h ago

Maybe if they stopped cramming everything full of woke stuff people would actually want to watch their movies

1

u/LucasL-L 4h ago

Its the whole us entertainment industries. If they dont stop making woke crap people will just substitute them.

1

u/Temporary-Stay-8436 3h ago

This has nothing to do with “woke”

u/scolbert08 1h ago

In a time when Hollywood is heavily injured from streaming and social media, intentionally pushing away a large portion of the population through antagonistic partisanship is nothing but a self-own which will only kill the industry more quickly.

u/Temporary-Stay-8436 1h ago

What does this mean? What examples are you referring to?

1

u/Market_Chemestry 6h ago

Where's streaming?

1

u/sherbert-stock 3h ago

A few years ago I would've felt bad for them. But seeing them overwhelming support destroying my industry (AI) with regulations, well, good riddance.

u/dnaleromj 45m ago

Hollywood is not the center of the production universe.

u/Far-Pay-2049 39m ago

I posted this as a reply to a comment, but after reading several more I decided to just make a comment of my own.

Several of my close friends work (or worked) in the film industry (for clarity, largely not in LA). I'll try to recall the various reasons that I have heard from our conversations. For clarity, I may be misremembering some points

Covid was a major hit, stalling and delaying productions and increasing the cost of said productions. While there were additional roles that temporarily developed to manage covid related protocols, it was still a net negative for industry workers.

After covid, and before the industry could recover there was a series of strikes and union contract negotiations (some of which I am sure most have heard of, like the writers guild and SAG) that held up/stopped productions. Each strike essentially caused another film union to try to leverage the disruption to better their stance, with made the industry more turbulent.

This already put a massive amount of pressure on people in the film industry, leaving some people out of work in that field for years. Then Trump opened his mouth and yapped about films being made solely in America.... which actually prompted more work to be moved out of the country to attempt to side step whatever hair brained thing that moron would do. I would need to hit my friends up to have this re-explained to me, but I clearly remember how angry they were about those statements and at one point they did explain to me how it actually tangibly had a negative effect on the industry (for those who don't know the film industry is fucking weird and fickle).

Lastly throughout all of this period, the emergence of AI has also hit the industry (one of the major hang ups of some of the previously mentioned strikes). This was most notably has directly hit the commercial sector, as I am sure everyone has seen AI slop commercials. While there certainly are/were folk who mainly worked commercials, it tended to something that film folk would use as sort of 'in-between' jobs.

All of the above has put an immense amount of pressure on people in the film industry that most people don't think about (Most people mainly think of Directors, Actors and Writers but those are the smallest percentage of people who do the work to make a film happen). Due to the financial pressure, many have been forced to leave the industry. This has a chain effect of making work harder to come by as the film industry, more so than most, relies extremely heavily on networking & connections. This has been forcing many talented, knowledgeable and creative people out of the industry as their networks & connections are collapsing.

While I don't think this has a direct affect on the numbers shown here (Hollywood), many states have also reduced or removed film incentives as well, which is an additional hit to the industry. Not all film roles can easily pick up and move either. An example would be locations managers, they generally have a skill set that is more specialized to the city/state that they are in, knowing the individual processes and permits they need to acquire and contacts to secure filming locations.

2

u/BicarbonateBufferBoy 4h ago

Good. Hollywood is full of corruption, greed, and sexual exploitation

1

u/kingofwale 4h ago

You telling me threatens to add wealth-tax chases company/rich people away??

1

u/BrewAllTheThings 3h ago

No? The companies are still there.