Hollywood is in trouble. Must be Tuesday!
It’s no secret that Hollywood is spinning right now. Thousands are
out of work, theaters are struggling, and audiences are
tuning out. Even in the best of times, storytelling is hard, and that is before you add in social media, video games, streaming, and now AI.
As Buffy the Vampire Slayer once noticed, some problems are recurring. The problems that nearly killed the studios in the 1960s (expensive attempts to re-create the magic of 1965’s The Sound of Music) echo into the present-day saturation of sequels and remakes.
The reason this keeps happening is because risk is terrifying when the stakes are large. At $150M+ per picture, everyone starts to play it safe.
Even Pixar. It is standard, MBA-style thinking to optimize and refine what previously worked, but entertainment is not like most consumer products. The drive towards safe, predictable stories has run its course with people, and they are sick of it.
Risk is what entertainment requires, and risk is where the true rewards live for the audiences, studios, and the storytellers that call this industry home. This becomes readily apparent when something new comes out and sticks the landing; e.g. KPop Demon Hunters. (Sony infamously had so little faith in the project that they sold the show, the sequels, and the soundtrack to Netflix.)
The upside of the 60s turmoil was the rogue’s gallery of talent that streamed into studios and created work that would define decades of entertainment. The current turbulence now makes change possible at every part of the process yet again, from what gets greenlit to how films are created in the first place. But what parts should be changed? How do you keep the magic intact?
AI prompting can certainly generate imagery, and while that might be part of the mix, it doesn’t solve for the creative insights needed to actually make something of value. To break through, you need something with a human connection. That’s what appeals to audiences, and it doesn’t come from a boardroom. It comes from filmmakers, writers, directors, DPs, actors, and all the crew members who know how to bring something on a page to life.
Star Wars Entrenched: Fan Film
But since studios are on their back feet, it’s up to artists to grab the reins and take control of both their artist intent and their equity in the project. In the last few years, new tools — some AI-driven, some not — have been hitting the market that will finally help them to do this. (We’re building a few of them.)
Films that would have been impossible to create before without massive teams or resources now have a path. And what you’ll start seeing in 2026 is more people taking the leap, using tools that amplify their capabilities so they can pitch, shoot, and deliver on ambitious ideas without the cost structures that have historically limited productions.
The key is keeping what works intact. Think about every great movie you’ve seen. A lot of the magic comes down to story and performance, and it doesn’t take much to get that core essence in place. You just need a story, actors, a camera, and a director. The part that takes a lot of money (at the low end) is building the backgrounds, getting everything lit, and all the other elements that go into your standard production. Most of this can be optimized. And when you make these pieces move faster in a lightweight way, it not only cuts costs considerably, but allows people to actually focus on the performance, which is what ultimately makes or breaks the project.
The starter’s pistol in the current transformation was virtual production, which kicked open the door and removed the need for crews to always be on location or build a physical set. For a while, this was still pretty expensive. Now you can
do it with an iPhone.
The next development was the rise of affordable, production scanners like
XGRIDS, which specialize in rapidly creating Gaussian Splats. Again, one person could go on location, get a workable, lightweight scene, and save lots of time and money.
Then AI hit.
While this space is still evolving, it’s the ‘world model’ tech like World Labs’
Marble that is particularly exciting for filmmakers, as it will allow teams to prompt their way to a location in minutes. This is revolutionary for previs, but could potentially be great for the right productions depending on the vision.
Most of this tech isn’t that expensive to acquire or use. When budgets have fewer zeros, filmmaking is instantly within more people’s grasp, and we meet people all the time that are bypassing the studio system to make it their way. The new pipelines are leveling the playing field, even in its early stages.
This is why I think this might be the most exciting time in the history of Hollywood. All the pieces are in place for an artistic explosion: a studio system in need, trained artists dying to make something new, and thousands of creators and budding filmmakers looking to branch out or crossover into the feature and series world. The tech is already there, and will only get better. If the industry leaps at it, you’ll see more stories audiences want to see, at a pace that will blow your mind.
Spark AI-assisted filmmaking platform
We’ve been thinking about this new world while building Spark, which connects all these new tools together so filmmakers can plan, shoot, and keep track of what they create. (Nothing scales without organization!) No need to wait, however; going from a concept to a Gaussian Splat to a shot test can happen in minutes, right now. Everything from early ideation to what you pitch can move at this speed.
This year is the beginning. With fully capable end-to-end toolchains hitting the market in 2026, the first series and films to use them should follow in 2027-2028. The big question is how much of the progress will be made by first-time filmmakers. The winds are at their back. And while the next few years aren’t going to come without hardships - no one is getting out without a few bruises - they will also radically change who gets to make big, original stories. So if that sounds like you, take your shot. The world wants to see it.