Hollywood's been hitting hard times these last few months, but much older problems have been threatening to kill it once and for all -- Sabeane Conda, 11th Grade
It’s no secret the entertainment industry was hit hard by COVID-19. But the truth is, Hollywood was aching long before ol’ Big ‘Rona crashed into 2020. From 2005 to 2012, California saw film and television production jobs decrease by 4,500. But according to analysts, following the trend of both the industry, and the California job market as a whole, we should’ve seen an increase in production jobs by over 7,000. That’s over 12,000 less production jobs than there should’ve been.
But entertainment is bigger than ever. With the beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which went on to be the most profitable cinematic endeavor in history. Alongside it, Game of Thrones and now The Mandalorian marking the birth of the blockbuster TV show, there’s more money in it now than ever before. So where the hell are all those jobs going.?
Out of state, is the simple answer at least. Hollywood is no longer competitive in terms of location anymore. The east coast in particular has begun to offer tax benefits like no one has ever seen. I won’t get into the nitty gritty of the glamorous world of tax law, but the long and short of it is that the farther out you get from Hollywood you get, the better the incentives.
So it’s only natural that the Tax-Deductible Holy Land is as far out of state as it gets: New Zealand, if you can afford it. See, shooting an entire film in a foreign country isn’t cheap, if your budget is too low, the percentage you’ll save might be less than the cost of the maneuver. Hence, the names you’ll recognize in the New Zealand list are films like the Hobbit Trilogy, Avatar (the blue one, not the good one), and some of the more expensive X-Men films.
The ball isn’t only in Hollywood’s court now. The entertainment industry is finally following the pack and going global, and that’s never more clear than in Chinese box office returns. It’s been a humbling few years for the American film industry in this day and age, China reminding us more and more that the world doesn’t revolve around us. Pandering to the Chinese audience had become a fact of life, it’s why we’ll never see a LGBT Disney Princess—it would be throwing away hundreds of millions they couldn’t have gotten in the Chinese box office.
And now, in 2020, we got Mulan. A big-budget blockbuster by ultrastudio Disney, that, quite simply… wasn’t for us (I mean, frankly, it wasn’t for anyone seeing how terrible it was). The film was very much made to catch the attention of the Chinese filmgoers who’s local films were fast approaching a billion in revenue. Who knows… in 10 years we might go to the theaters to watch movies with english subtitles. After all… isn’t that what you did for the Oscar winning Parasite?
Ok, ok, let’s talk about the virus. 2020 was supposed to be a BIG year for entertainment. Highly anticipated films like James Bond, Eternals, Black Widow, and Godzilla have all been pushed deep into 2021—and are likely to be pushed even further into 2022. Not all movies buckled, however. Christopher Nolan, always a stubborn traditionalist, released the highly anticipated Tenet in theaters rather than making the jump to streaming services. The box office spoke for itself though, making 300 million, which seems impressive until you consider it was supposed to make more than double that, especially since it had no competitors, and released at a time when the US was yearning to watch something in theaters again, like the good ol’ days. No one since has jumped into the pool… the water really is too cold
While the situation is pretty cut and dry for the film industry, TV has been something of a wildcard. Some shows were not affected at all, but many, many more were hit bad. Not-quite-mainstream shows like Riverdale and The Flash had their productions halted until 2021(translation: until further notice). Worse still, the Emmy Nominated Netflix Original GLOWwas slated for a fourth season that was already in production and was canceled due to COVID. We were all whining about our favorite things being delayed a year, but cancelled is a completely different beast, and doesn’t bode well for any underdog show you might fancy.
Meanwhile, in the midst of the white noise of its competitors hitting the chopping block, the second generation of blockbuster TV, The Mandalorian, was completely unaffected, the only entertainment in 2020 that released on time.
The trend is clear. Even though Covid affects blockbusters the most, the sad truth is, anything that isn't a blockbuster straight up can’t afford to wait around for months hemorrhaging money. Theaters have been seeing less and less people for decades, it’s why even the box office of the biggest movies couldn’t hold a candle to the inflation-adjusted numbers of films past. And with the very real money being made from direct to streaming releases, many theaters might not be coming back.
Maybe Hollywood isn’t dead after all. But the film industry as we know it is.
But entertainment is bigger than ever. With the beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which went on to be the most profitable cinematic endeavor in history. Alongside it, Game of Thrones and now The Mandalorian marking the birth of the blockbuster TV show, there’s more money in it now than ever before. So where the hell are all those jobs going.?
Out of state, is the simple answer at least. Hollywood is no longer competitive in terms of location anymore. The east coast in particular has begun to offer tax benefits like no one has ever seen. I won’t get into the nitty gritty of the glamorous world of tax law, but the long and short of it is that the farther out you get from Hollywood you get, the better the incentives.
So it’s only natural that the Tax-Deductible Holy Land is as far out of state as it gets: New Zealand, if you can afford it. See, shooting an entire film in a foreign country isn’t cheap, if your budget is too low, the percentage you’ll save might be less than the cost of the maneuver. Hence, the names you’ll recognize in the New Zealand list are films like the Hobbit Trilogy, Avatar (the blue one, not the good one), and some of the more expensive X-Men films.
The ball isn’t only in Hollywood’s court now. The entertainment industry is finally following the pack and going global, and that’s never more clear than in Chinese box office returns. It’s been a humbling few years for the American film industry in this day and age, China reminding us more and more that the world doesn’t revolve around us. Pandering to the Chinese audience had become a fact of life, it’s why we’ll never see a LGBT Disney Princess—it would be throwing away hundreds of millions they couldn’t have gotten in the Chinese box office.
And now, in 2020, we got Mulan. A big-budget blockbuster by ultrastudio Disney, that, quite simply… wasn’t for us (I mean, frankly, it wasn’t for anyone seeing how terrible it was). The film was very much made to catch the attention of the Chinese filmgoers who’s local films were fast approaching a billion in revenue. Who knows… in 10 years we might go to the theaters to watch movies with english subtitles. After all… isn’t that what you did for the Oscar winning Parasite?
Ok, ok, let’s talk about the virus. 2020 was supposed to be a BIG year for entertainment. Highly anticipated films like James Bond, Eternals, Black Widow, and Godzilla have all been pushed deep into 2021—and are likely to be pushed even further into 2022. Not all movies buckled, however. Christopher Nolan, always a stubborn traditionalist, released the highly anticipated Tenet in theaters rather than making the jump to streaming services. The box office spoke for itself though, making 300 million, which seems impressive until you consider it was supposed to make more than double that, especially since it had no competitors, and released at a time when the US was yearning to watch something in theaters again, like the good ol’ days. No one since has jumped into the pool… the water really is too cold
While the situation is pretty cut and dry for the film industry, TV has been something of a wildcard. Some shows were not affected at all, but many, many more were hit bad. Not-quite-mainstream shows like Riverdale and The Flash had their productions halted until 2021(translation: until further notice). Worse still, the Emmy Nominated Netflix Original GLOWwas slated for a fourth season that was already in production and was canceled due to COVID. We were all whining about our favorite things being delayed a year, but cancelled is a completely different beast, and doesn’t bode well for any underdog show you might fancy.
Meanwhile, in the midst of the white noise of its competitors hitting the chopping block, the second generation of blockbuster TV, The Mandalorian, was completely unaffected, the only entertainment in 2020 that released on time.
The trend is clear. Even though Covid affects blockbusters the most, the sad truth is, anything that isn't a blockbuster straight up can’t afford to wait around for months hemorrhaging money. Theaters have been seeing less and less people for decades, it’s why even the box office of the biggest movies couldn’t hold a candle to the inflation-adjusted numbers of films past. And with the very real money being made from direct to streaming releases, many theaters might not be coming back.
Maybe Hollywood isn’t dead after all. But the film industry as we know it is.