Production moves elsewhere, where there are more favorable tax regimes and breaks. But enormous problems also emerge from the box office
Mass Media02/11/2024 by Journalism Editorial Team
A trend that had begun to show its first signs over the past few years, but which has now become a reality: a Hollywood crisis is underway and – probably – it will be irreversible. Both in terms of box office receipts and in terms of production numbers. 2024 was the annus horribilis for Los Angeles and the future is destined to become increasingly darker, with a slow and inexorable turning off of the spotlight.
Hollywood crisis, what’s happening
Let’s start from the data on productions: many films are no longer made within Hollywood Studios, finding economically and fiscally more favorable solutions elsewhere. There is an internal, all-American competition that sees Louisiana and – above all – Georgia as the future of the creation of cinematographic films. Thanks to tax breaks, such as the Tax Credit, which are more favorable and less stringent, the future of film productions includes the names of Australia, Japan and Ireland. And it doesn’t just apply to movies. Many TV series and television shows have migrated outside of California’s borders. An example above all: after 14 years, the very popular reality/cooking show Masterchef USA will no longer be filmed in Los Angeles, but on the other side of the world: in Australia.
But the crisis is dictated by the entire contraction in box office takings of films made in the USA. Last year, driven by Barbie and Oppenheimer, films produced in Hollywood grossed over 4.1 billion dollars. Compared to 2023, this year we are talking about lower collections of around one billion dollars (-25%) due to multiple factors. The public, in fact, has been changing its habits of enjoying films for some time and, above all, there has been a sensational flop for the two main films released in recent weeks: “Joker: Folie à Deux” grossed only 38 million in the first week, against the 100 million expected; Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis did even worse.
