Hollywood Was Cooked Before AI, and Now It's Only Getting Worse

Hollywood’s traditional production model faces a structural crisis, evidenced by a dramatic decline in local shoot days—falling from 40,000 in 2016 to under 20,000 today. This contraction stems from the shift toward streaming, the erosion of cable, and aggressive tax incentives in regions like Dublin and Vancouver. Creative processes have simultaneously suffered, with the rise of "minirooms" replacing large, collaborative writing staffs, particularly in comedy. While AI threatens "below-the-line" production roles like set design and makeup, the industry’s primary challenge remains the overwhelming saturation of existing content. Writers and creators now compete not just with new releases, but with the entire historical library of media, which is distributed for free and algorithmically optimized for individual consumption, fundamentally altering the economic viability of the entertainment sector.