The Hollywood Collapse

Various experts, executives, and celebrities have been interviewed since the Covid lockdowns regarding the state of Hollywood since March 11, 2020.

When I moved back from New Zealand in 2013, one of my first meetings was at Studio City where CBS was in full production.

Breaking bread with a dear long time friend, I asked about the facilities. The immediate response I got was, “There are 39 Functioning Sound Stages here at Studio City. You can’t even move in here because all of these studios are contracted until the end of 2019!”

It really blew my mind watching the level of production in action.

For some reason I kept thinking, “2019.” The last time I had been on a lot that had this much activity was when I had offices for 2 years at Warner Brothers from 1997 until 1999.

Here we are in 2025 and for some bizarre strange reason, I am just as optimist  now as I was back in 2013.

Why? There are opportunities and there is technology available to us now that was not available in 2013.

Some will tell you that 70% of Hollywood is now dead.

This may or may not be true because at the end of the day in 2025, most films are not using Los Angeles for Principle Photography.

Here are 3 brief reasons I am still optimistic:

1). The technology. ~ You are now your own studio and there are cameras and recorders on the market that we didn’t have before.

2). The distribution. ~ You can easily distribute your own film.

3). The talent. ~ You can hire anyone from anywhere and as long as they get the job done.