The Death of Hollywood: Fade to Black in TinseltownIn the shadow of the Hollywood sign, where dreams once flickered like marquee lights, a pall has settled. As of late 2025, Los Angeles—synonymous with cinematic glory—is hemorrhaging jobs, productions, and relevance. The numbers paint a grim portrait: over 42,000 entertainment jobs vanished in just two years, with filming activity plunging to historic lows.
This is supported by on-location shoots in the third quarter of 2025 marked the fourth consecutive year of decline, as studios chase cheaper locales abroad.
Is this the end of Hollywood as we know it? Or merely the death throes of an obsolete empire? We will take a look at it in this article.
A lot of this begins with the streaming wars' bitter hangover. The 2023 writers' and actors' strikes exposed fractures in a model built on endless content churn. Post-strike, the binge era buckled under cord-cutting fatigue and algorithm fatigue. Netflix and Disney Plus slashed budgets, canceling shows mid-season and pivoting to live sports and unscripted fare. In Q1 2025, U.S. scripted projects filmed in LA dropped to a mere 24 out of 87—a 27% year-over-year nosedive in series premieres. Television episode production, which peaked at over 16,000 in 2022, has collapsed by nearly half.
Studios thought they were going to reap huge rewards from streaming. The industry saw the profits of Netflix and decided to go all in. The challenge was that, in spite of billions spent, the return simply wasn't there. This cannibalized their others properties.
Not only was television taking a hit but movies were also suffering.
Blockbusters are absent with the 2025 box office limping along, haunted by flops like reboots that audiences skipped. Economics sealed the fate. California's sky-high labor costs and lax tax incentives—capped at $330 million annually—pale against global rivals. Georgia's 30% rebates lured Marvel's empire south; New Mexico and Canada offer even sweeter deals, with productions fleeing overseas for up to 40% savings.
Mel Gibson, in a recent interview highlighted the problem.
He has to do a reshoot for part of his latest movie. The intention was to do 1 day in Los Angeles. It turns out it was cheaper to fly the entire crew to Bolivia and shoot for 3 days down there.
Early 2025 saw LA production dip 22% from the prior year, turning soundstages into echo chambers. Vendors shuttered their operations as grip trucks stood still in lots.
Are we witnessing a similar path to Detroit?
That city was decimated as United States automotive production, overall declined. It was compounded by the fact that what did remain in the US was moved to states such as North and South Carolina.
For decades, the Detroit was identified as the capital for the auto industry. In the same way, Los Angeles was synonymous with movies and television.
Perhaps this is no move. Not only has production moved to other geographic areas, AI is now threatening to obliterate many of the jobs within the industry.
Is this something Hollywood can come back from?
Skeptics argue it's too late. The industry's soul has migrated to Atlanta's Pinewood or Vancouver's rainy sets. Hollywood's death isn't the proverbial bang but a whimper. Once the world's storyteller, it's now a cautionary tale of hubris, chasing scale over soul. In an era of fragmented attention, perhaps the real cinema is elsewhere, on phones, in basements, anywhere but Tinseltown.
Personally I predicted the decline a few years ago. Technology has left the industry behind. The next wave of innovation will not be only human. AI is changing everything, entertainment included.
