The Golden Globes ceremony was held this Sunday in Los Angeles. During this great meeting of cinema and TV series from around the world, the film Emilia Perez by Jacques Audiard has been crowned four times. But behind the ceremony and the glitter lies an industry in great difficulty. Decryption.
Hollywood, beyond being the most famous hill in Los Angeles, is also a district that weighs very heavily in the economy of the city and of California. The entertainment industry that Hollywood represents represents 681,000 jobs, an essential sector that goes without saying and contributes $115 billion per year to the regional economy according to the Los Angeles Economic Development Agency. But the emblematic sector of the American west coast was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic five years ago. Almost total suspension of filming, which means fewer contracts for a large number of professionals in the sector. After this period of lethargy, the recovery was long and difficult.
The consequences of the 2023 strike
The resumption of filming was nevertheless halted by a strike by actors and screenwriters last year. In total, 148 days of strike, the longest conflict experienced by Hollywood in its entire history. Social movement not without consequences since, if a agreement has been reached between the unions representing screenwriters and the platforms of streamingit had a cost, estimated at around six billion dollars according to the American Milken Institute. And if the sector had difficulty restarting after Covid-19, the strike did not help anything. For the third quarter of 2024, film production levels decreased by 5% compared to the same period in 2023.
Also readHollywood: after the strike, “a contraction in the industry” expected
The explanation lies in this point: after the strike, the situation for cinema and series workers only got worse. One of the main reasons is that productions have shunned Hollywood and its studios. The strike seemed endless to them. To this must be added the cost of living which has increased in Los Angeles. And this may seem anecdotal but it is not, the agreements following the strike have made production more expensive.
California shunned by producers
Faced with this situation, financiers had to find solutions. One of them is to find other sites to shoot films and series. Jobs in cinema and sound production since the start of the strike in the Los Angeles region have decreased by 15%. “ Bye »Los Angeles at first, then « Goodbye » California. Heading to other states like New Mexico and Georgia. Their strength is that they offer advantageous taxes. Georgia in particular has an unlimited tax incentive program and has already saved Hollywood studios billions of dollars. Since 2019, Netflix has invested $575 million in it. According to an investigation by New York Times38 American states offer some form of tax incentive for productions. As a result, many workers in Hollywood had to quit or relocate to keep up with productions. Others expect a lot from the return of Donald Trump at the White House with his ambitions to deregulate the economy. In any case, the dream machine that is Hollywood has transformed for many into a nightmare machine.
