I just caught a video from Film Threat on AI and the death of Hollywood and while I usually like what Chris Gore has to say, this time I disagree. Granted, he depends on the survival of Hollywood for his livelihood and he doesn’t want things to change, but I’m not at all like that.

Let Hollywood die!

See you below the fold.

First, of course, here’s the video in question. It’s an older video, but I’d never seen it before. Watch if you like.

The problem here, AI isn’t going to do anything. Hollywood has already burned itself down and it’s trying desperately to keep the fire fighters away so it can continue to destroy itself. It doesn’t want to survive in any realistic way.

Let it die.

I’m not nostalgic for the good old days. Those are gone. I have no vested interest in Hollywood lurching forward one step and back another two. If Hollywood goes away entirely, that’s fine with me. Some other form of entertainment will come along to replace it. Or not. I don’t really care. I have thousands of DVDs and Blurays of shows that I actually enjoy sitting on my shelves. If I never saw another new movie in my life, I’d be fine with that.

I’m a strong proponent of responsibility. Hollywood hasn’t had any for decades. They think they deserve to survive. I don’t. There is no deserve, there is only “earn” and they’re not earning it. The box office proves that. Most movies lose money and not just a little bit, but a ton of money. In any responsible industry, the entire leadership would have been fired, but not Hollywood because Hollywood thinks it doesn’t exist in the real world.

They are wrong.

It’s unfortunate that they are taking down entire industries with their incompetence, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles. If theaters go the way of the dodo, so be it. That will show people not to rely on a single entity for their living. Diversity in income stream is a good thing.

I can hear it now though. “Look at all these people who are losing their jobs!” Yes, that sucks, but lots of people lose their jobs as markets shift. The people who made stagecoach wheels lost their jobs when people moved to other forms of transportation. Nobody cries about them. “But they love what they do!” Cool. Means nothing. This is the world that we live in and your wishes and dreams mean nothing. The film industry has been in dire straits for a long time now, people have had plenty of time to find something else to do. This kind of stuff happens all the time, where entire industries vanish, often due to technological advancement. There were once tons of gandy dancers that worked on the railroads. That isn’t a thing anymore. Linotype operators went the way of the dodo, so did telegraphists and pin setters at bowling alleys. Nobody promised you that you could have your ideal job. Maybe it’s time to find something more stable.

The same goes for actors. Nobody promised them that they’d make millions of dollars a movie and that’s absurd. They don’t deserve it. The budgets that Hollywood is working with are not tenable. They cannot continue and they have contributed to the failure of the format. Again, they did this to themselves. I feel no sympathy for any of them.

The one thing that will never go away is entertainment, but it is currently in flux. That’s how the real world works. “But I want it to continue!” means nothing. The world has changed, AI is here to stay and Hollywood has been its own worst enemy for a long time now. They’ve done it to themselves.

I say let them die. Whatever replaces them, hopefully, will be stronger.