The Triple Crisis That’s Breaking Hollywood—and Changing the Future of Movies

Plain English with Derek Thompson

The Ringer

News, News Commentary

4.7 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 24 April 2026

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Hollywood is in the middle of a triple crisis. You can measure it in tickets, jobs, and ideas. Start with tickets. The best year for the movie business this century was 2002, when Americans and Canadians bought 1.6 billion tickets, or about five per person. Last year, Americans bought half that number. Eighty years ago, the typical American went to the movies twice a month. Now they go about twice a year. Then there are the jobs. Studios are making fewer movies and shows than they did just a few years ago, and the projects they green-light are increasingly shot overseas, where governments hand out generous subsidies. According to The Wall Street Journal, employment in Hollywood has fallen 30 percent since 2022 across the hundreds of trades—actors, carpenters—that make film and television possible. And then there's the creativity problem. It's not just that studios keep reheating 20th-century IP. The stars are getting older, too. Among the 14 most important movie stars of this decade, the average age is 57. Half are over 60. None is under 45. Even many of Gen Z's favorite movie stars—the Rock, Ryan Reynolds, Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Denzel Washington—had hit films before Gen Z was born. Today's guest is Sean Fennessey, host of The Ringer's The Big Picture and author of the new Substack Projections. In an essay published this week, Sean argues that all the gloom is missing something real: Attendance is perking up, young stars are breaking through, and the auteurs we've followed for 20 years are ascending to the center of the culture. Today, Sean and Derek talk about the new rules of Hollywood and what they tell us about the changing winds of American culture. Subscribe to our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@PlainEnglishwithDerekThompson If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. Host: Derek Thompson Guest: Sean Fennessey Producer: Devon Baroldi Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Today, the new rules of American culture.
0:10.5	There is a triple crisis facing Hollywood today.
0:14.0	You can see it in tickets bought, in jobs created, and in creativity squandered.
0:19.9	On the tickets front, the best year for the movie business this century was 2002,
0:24.6	when Americans and Canadians bought 1.6 billion movie tickets,
0:28.6	or about five tickets per person.
0:30.6	Last year, Americans bought roughly half that number.
0:34.6	This is part of a long-term trend, to be clear.
0:36.6	80 years ago, the typical American
0:38.5	went to the movies twice a month. Now we go about twice a year. On the jobs front, Hollywood
0:45.4	studios are making fewer movies and TV shows than they did a few years ago, and they're
0:49.5	increasingly making those movies overseas in other countries that offer subsidies. As a result, the business
0:56.2	of entertainment in Hollywood has been shellacked. Employment has declined 30% since 2022 for actors,
1:04.2	for carpenters, for hundreds of other occupations and professions that actually make
1:10.1	the movies and TV shows that
1:11.3	you watch, according to the Wall Street Journal.
1:14.6	And finally, the creativity front.
1:16.6	For a while, I've talked about, practically everybody, has talked about how film and television
1:20.5	has become more reliant on old IP, sequels, prequels, adaptations that often reach
1:26.6	into the 20th century for some character
1:28.7	or storyline that they can pop into the microwave and reheat for a 21st century audience.
1:34.5	But it's not just the stories that are getting older.
	...

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