The Hollywood industry is in crisis after strikes and streaming wars

A1 Digital India News: The actor and aerial cinematographer turned his hobby of flying drones into a profitable business in 2012, when the streaming wars began. A decade ago, he moved above movie sets, creating stunning aerial shots for films and TV shows on Netflix, Amazon and Disney.

Now he's on the verge of homelessness again. He was evicted from his Huntington Beach home, where he lived with his wife and two young children, and has now been evicted from the Las Vegas apartment he moved into. He now plans to live in Southern California. He can't afford it.

"We were saving to buy a house, we had the money, we were doing the right thing," he said. "Two years ago, I wouldn't have to worry about going out to dinner with my wife and kids and spending $200."

"Now I have to worry about spending $5 on a meal price at McDonald's."

More than a decade ago, business boomed in Hollywood, with studios trying to keep up with new companies like Netflix and Hulu. But the good old days came to an end when the Hollywood writers went on strike in May 2023.

The strike lasted for months and brought a complete halt to Hollywood production - with writers and actors working together for the first time since the 1960s. But production still floundered a year after the strike ended.

Projects were canceled and production was cut across the city, with layoffs being made at several studios - most recently Paramount. Another round of layoffs also took place this week, as the popular film company decided to cut 15% of its workforce ahead of a merger with production company Skydance.

Contributed by Michael Fortin Michael Fortin pilots a drone on a film set Contributed by Michael Fortin

Michael Fortin was on set almost every day before the strike. Now he can barely find work. Work
The unemployment rate in film and TV in the United States was 12.5% ​​in August, but while many people think that number is actually much higher, many film workers don't apply for unemployment benefits because they're entitled to it or are exhausted after months of not working.

Overall, U.S. production numbers during the second quarter of 2024 are down by about 40% compared to the same period in 2022. Globally, TV and film production fell by 20% over the same period, according to ProdPro, which tracks TV and film production.

That means fewer new movies and fewer shows for us to watch.

But experts say the streaming boom isn't sustainable. And studies are trying to figure out how to make a profit in the new world when people don't pay for cable TV funded by ads.

"The content bubble is over," said Matthew Belloni, founder of Puck News, a company that covers the entertainment industry. "Crisis is a good word, I'm not trying to sound the alarm, but people are feeling the crisis."

Part of this boom is coming from Wall Street, where tech giants like Netflix are seeing record growth and studios like Paramount are seeing their stock prices soar as they add their own streaming service offerings.

"There was a huge boom in the content market. There were 600 scripted live-action series airing a few years ago and then the stock market stopped rewarding them," Mr. Belloni said. "Netflix collapsed — every other company collapsed. Netflix has since recovered — but others are struggling to become truly profitable."

And as the streaming bubble burst, some productions were lured away from California by lucrative tax incentives in other states and countries. Los Angeles leaders are so concerned about a recession that Mayor Karen Bass created a task force last month to consider new incentives for Hollywood filmmaking.

"The entertainment industry is vital to the economic strength of the Los Angeles region," Bass said in announcing the plan. He said it was a "cornerstone" of the city's economy and provided hundreds of thousands of jobs. The mayor said recent figures showed the entertainment industry contributed more than $115 billion (£86 billion) annually to the region's economy, employing about 681,000 people.