Hollywood’s workforce just needed to “survive” up to 25. It was the hopeful mantra from last year for entertainment pros beaten by layoffs and limited production of films and television.
But now, as the year is approaching its point of road, a darker saying seems appropriate: “existing” up to 26 “.
The pink projections of a robust recovery of this year have not materialized. If anything, the slowdown, at least in terms of employment in the studios, continued.
In recent weeks, three media and entertainment giants – Walt Disney Co., Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global – said they would dismiss staff members. Disney Cut several hundred employees In the United States and abroad, while Drilling Shed Comens of his national workforce and Warner Bros. eliminated several dozen positions.
This is still another sign that industry is always recovering from the effects of the pandemic and the strikes of the two writers and actors of 2023, while trying to sail in the evolution of the media landscape.
While people continue to reduce the traditional television television audience decreases – taking valuable advertising dollars – companies carry out the resources of their streaming platforms. They reduce spending after massive investments during so-called streaming wars. And now, the economic uncertainty of President Trump’s prices has shaken the markets, creating a difficult global commercial environment.
“We are going through this compression of our ecosystem in Hollywood,” said J. Christopher Hamilton, a lawyer by practicing entertainment and professor at the University of Syracuse who focuses on media affairs. Companies “try to find a new normal, to adapt to the financial pressures in which the global economy is under and also to determine which is the most intelligent and the way to follow”.
It is far from the optimism clues that some in industry had towards the end of last year. With the strikes finally in the rear view mirror and the delayed films that made its debut in theaters and production by returning slowly, the thought was “we are out of the strikes, we will be able to return to the market, sell and buy,” said Hamilton.
Instead, many of the recent conversations he had with customers and media leaders were focused on fear and uncertainty. People will tell him that it is difficult to sell a television program, or that they do not know if their work will be there in two weeks. The international market has also become more favorable to local content, which means that American manufacturing emissions are now strong in competition with local series.
“This is a horrible period in the content creation business, the point of view of content production,” said Hamilton. “People don’t want to take any risks. They are afraid of losing their jobs. ”
The idea of ”survive ’til ’25” has always been a myth, said Stephen Galloway, dean of the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts from the University of Chapman. The problems with which the industry is faced in the long term and disruptive.
“The industry is reducing,” he said. “And there will be an upheaval that lasts a good time.”
The continuous decline in linear television is a problem with whom almost all studios are struggling with. Although the audience is down and can drag the course of a business action, traditional broadcasting television always earns money, making it important to manage costs and generate benefits as long as possible.
It also means job cuts in these areas.
Disney layoffs have struck its film and televised marketing teams, television, casting and development as well as corporate financial operations. Warner Bros. cut the employees of his cable television channels. Although Paramount has not disclosed the departments affected by layoffs, its co-leaders recognized in a note to the staff that the decision came while the company navigates “linear declins on the industry level”.
The difficulties of linear television have led media companies to transform their traditional television assets, including wired networks, in distinct entities. Lionsgate, based in Santa Monica, rolled the ball in 2023 when he said he Separate his studio and television studio activities from his paid cable StarzA transaction completed this year.
At the end of last year, Comcast Corp. said he would do a New company made up of its wired channelsIncluding CNBC, MSNBC and USA Network. Then Monday, Warner Bros. It also would be divided into two listed companies on the stock market – An entity called Streaming & Studios and a second called Global Networks, which would be made up of its wired channels such as CNN, TNT and Discovery.
The Warner Bros. Split is “recognition that the idea of building something big enough to participate in the war in streaming did not work,” said Peter Murrieta, writer and deputy director of Sidney Poitier New American School of Arizona State University. In addition, the domination of Netflix in the streaming space has made many companies re -evaluate their plans.
“There were already signs pointing towards the non-durability of the number of shows and the number of streamers,” he said. “These are the consequences of trying to compete in the streaming level and to think that it is the future. Resources have been put there, and now they have to withdraw.”
Disney’s managing director, Bob Iger, said as much in the comments to Wall Street, recognizing that the Maison de la Souris has pumped too many shows and films to compete with Netflix.
The company has since withdrawn in the middle of Iger’s call to focus on the quality of quantity and to achieve profitability in its streaming services, What he achieved last year. The last job offers of the company now include a number of openings for software engineers.
The wider economic environment is also worrying for those of Hollywood. In addition to the specific concerns of industry concerning artificial intelligence and the decline of traditional television and cable, entertainment activity is also struggling with national and global financial uncertainty. Paramount leaders have cited “the dynamic macroeconomic environment” in its note to employees.
“Right now, there is a feeling of absolute terror among people in the business they will be unemployed, that the old models do not work, that they will not win what they have done,” said Galloway de Chapman. “They are not mistaken to be afraid. I think they are wrong to be so afraid that they are because it is a entrenchment, and it is a entrenchment after a gigantic expansion.”
White collar jobs in other industries are also threatened by technological changes, larger investments in AI and entrenchment after hiring speeds of the Pandemic era. Earlier this year, technological companies such as the Payment Square, Meta, Google and Workday company said they would dismiss the employees.
But Hollywood has always been a boom and bottle industry, said Galloway, noting that in times of change, new opportunities are still arising. Jobs in virtual production or AI become more and more numerous. While the studios reduce their staff, they will always need producers to make programs and films, said Susan SPUNG, Managing Director of the Producers Commercial Group Guild of America.
“These companies do not leave the production of major programs, films and television,” she said. “If you do not have such a large management team that can help complete this, it is even more important than you have good producers to work on each of your projects.”
Although the current environment is difficult, the industry has always been difficult and the people of this company are ingenious and intentional in their work, said Murrieta of the state of Arizona.
Although this is a difficult period, he said: “There must be hope.”