What Happened to Hollywood? | Alexis Knight Investigation

What Happened to Hollywood? | Alexis Knight Investigation 

This isn't a true crime story—it's an investigation into one of America's biggest cultural mysteries.

What happened to Hollywood, where did the movie stars go, why does entertainment feel different today, and what changed behind the scenes?

Join Alexis Knight as we examine the business, the culture, and the transformation of an industry millions of Americans grew up loving.

Alexis Knight l Facts first. Clarity Always.
Investigating the facts behind the stories and trends shaping our world.

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Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome back to Alexis Knight, your podcast.

For clarity, We're not political. This podcast isn't here to

take sides. We are here to take a closer look

at the stories, the headlines, trends, ideas and forces shaping

our world. And together we will separate facts from assumptions

and ask the questions that too often go unasked as

we search for the clarity and truth behind the information

we're given every single day. Now today, here in this episode,

we're going to investigate something that millions of Americans have

quietly been asking for years.

Speaker 2: What happened to Hollywood?

Speaker 1: I mean, there was a time when going to the

movies it felt like an event. It was fun, movie

stars seemed larger than life. Award shows celebrated the year's

biggest films in late night television, made us laugh before bed,

and Hollywood gave us something many of us needed after

a long day and escape from the real world. Today,

many people say that.

Speaker 2: Feeling is gone.

Speaker 1: What do you think movies, some say, don't seem to

have the same magic. Streaming services are filled with content,

yet people complain they can't find anything worth watching. Award

show audiences continue to shrink, and movie stars no longer

seem to unite audiences the way they once did, and

many Americans feel that entertainment itself has fundamentally changed.

Speaker 2: So what happened?

Speaker 1: Did audiences change, did Hollywood change? Did technology change the business?

Or did entertainment slowly become something different from what it

used to be. We're going to investigate one of America's

most iconic industries in Ana, ask a question that millions are

already asking, but very few have actually stopped to examine.

From beginning to end. Now, by the end of this episode,

you're gonna understand why so many people believe Hollywood is

not what it used to be and what actually changed

along the way. Then stay with me for the Clarity Report,

where we will connect everything we've learned into one clear

conclusion you'll remember long after this episode ends. Let's begin,

and let's start with the Hollywood people grew up with.

I mean, there was a time right when Hollywood did

feel almost magical. Friday nights meant going to the movies.

Families gathered around the television for the latest sitcom, We

laughed at late night comedians before going to bed, watched

the Academy Awards to find out who won the Best

Picture and looked forward to the next blockbuster because we

knew Hollywood was about to take us somewhere we had

never been before. I mean, movie stars weren't just celebrities

or people we recognized. They were movie stars shining bright

until they burn out.

Speaker 2: That's what that means. If you didn't know.

Speaker 1: People like Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, Robin Williams, Harrison Ford,

Denzel Washington, Sandra Bullock, Audrey Hepburn, Paul Newman and Clint

Eastwood and so many others, right, they became a part

of our lives because they told unforgettable stories and those

stories are still out there, and we admire their talent.

We always talked about their latest movie. We looked forward

to the next one. Most of us didn't know much

about their personal lives, and honestly, we didn't need to.

They entertained us, and that's how we saw them heroes

that took us out of our stress our lives, gave

us breaks, gave us dates, gave us an escape. And

the same was true for television. I mean, Johnny Carson

sat behind a desk for three decades. If you didn't

know that fact making America laugh before bed, never bringing

politics into it. I mean, whether you were a Republican,

Democrat or whatever, all right, you could turn on the

Tonight Show, relax for an hour, laugh, and then go

to sleep feeling good. Carson himself often spoke about the

importance of entertainment over any political campaign, and for millions

of Americans, late night television became a way to end

the day with a smile instead of any tension or argument.

That was Hollywood's job right to entertain, to tell us stories,

introduce unforgettable characters, and help us escape for a little

while from our work, our bills, our stress, our everyday lives.

There was no pressure to agree with anyone before you

bought a movie ticket. There was no expectation that you

needed to support a certain cause in order to watch

a movie or enjoy a comedy. You didn't have to

wonder what political opinion your favorite character might post tomorrow,

who's canceled, or whether watching a movie will somehow mean

you're joining a movement or you're getting canceled. Entertainment was

just entertainment, and looking back, that is what most people

miss the most today. It's not just the movies. It's

the feeling, the excitement of discovering a great film, the

anticipation of watching that summer blockbuster with all your friends

and family, the glamour of the movie stars, and the

simplicity of just being able to sit down, enjoy a story, laugh, cry,

cheer on a hero, and then walk out of that

theater talking about the movie instead of everything else surrounding it.

Anybody remember any of that or yearn for that, because

somewhere along the way that feeling began to change, and

you might have missed it all together. I mean, Hollywood

still makes movies, there are still Movie Stars Award shows,

they're still on and held, and late night TV is

still on the air. Yet millions, I mean millions of

Americans are saying the same thing. It just doesn't feel

the same anymore. And so this is what we're going

to investigate.

Speaker 2: What is going on? What happened.

Speaker 1: Let's take a look at the Hollywood of today. If

someone walked away from Hollywood twenty or thirty years ago

and came back today, they would probably recognize very little

about what's going on in the industry now. I mean,

on the surface, sure, it can look bigger than ever.

We have more streaming services, more TVCs, more movies being

released every year if you're counting in more ways you

can watch anything than any other time in history. Instead

of waiting for Friday Night or making a trip to

the theater, which was a big deal, you can just

open an app on your phone or your TV and

instantly choose from thousands of titles. At first, this all

sounds like progress, how amazing. If we were sitting back

twenty or thirty years ago and we thought we'd have

all this in front of us, we'd imagine what we had.

Speaker 2: Only bigger.

Speaker 1: I mean, who wouldn't want more great Hollywood choices? Instead

of one movie channel, we now have Netflix, Disney plus Hulu, Max,

Paramount plus Apple TV, Prime Video, Peacock, I mean, countless services,

and every company promises exclusive content, original programming, and the

next great series that everyone will be talking about. We

were told streaming would give us more freedom, more convenience,

and more entertainment than ever before. So why am I

hearing that people can't find anything to watch. It's an

interesting contradiction, isn't it. We have access to more movies

and TV than any generation in history, yet One of

the most common complaints I hear is I can spend

forty to fifty minutes scrolling and I've never found a

thing to watch during that time. I mean, families are

paying for four or five or six different streaming services

or more a month, yet they're rewatching movies they loved

twenty years ago instead of getting excited about something new.

Is that excitement the same? It raises another question. If

Hollywood is producing more content than ever before, why doesn't

it feel like we're getting more great entertainment. Well, part

of the answer lies in how the business it's self changed,

something you might not think about too often. Movie studios

are no longer simply competing with one another at the theater.

Speaker 2: Okay, that used to be a big thing.

Speaker 1: Now they're competing for those subscriptions like everything else right,

subscribe and buy. They want you to subscribe. Instead of

asking whether you're going to buy that one movie ticket,

they want to know if you're going to continue paying

every month for the rest of your life. The business

model shifted from selling these great individual films to keeping

you inside an app for as long as possible, and

that also changed how success is measured. I mean years ago,

everyone knew when a movie became a blockbuster. Box numbers

were public, ticket sales were very easy to understand, and

audiences generally agreed on which films had now become a

cultural event. But today much of that information stays inside

the streaming company. Instead of ticket sales, we're hearing about

viewing hours, engagement and subscriber growth, completion rates, algorithms, recommending

your next title before the credits are even done, rolling

on what you just watched, The experience of watching entertainment.

I mean, we're on the other end of it. It's

changed for us as well. I mean we don't simply

just go to the movies on a date or a

fun night out anymore. Instead, we're stuck on the couch

or in a car, on our phone somewhere, scrolling, browsing,

comparing titles and covers. We abandon one show after ten

minutes and go to another one because we're not satisfied.

The next recommendation's always waiting, so no problem there, and

the platform is constantly trying to keep us watching just

a little bit longer. You know, oh this popped up,

I've always wanted to watch that, or oh this is

like this I'll just stay on a little longer. I'm

so comfy sitting here. I mean, Hollywood, I guess it

didn't just change where we watch entertainment, right, I mean,

I'm talking about coaches and cars right now. It changed

the entire relationship between the audience and the industry itself.

I mean, that's kind of gone now. And that's where

our investigation really actually begins, because if technology alone isn't

enough to explain why so many people out there, maybe you,

they're feeling like Hollywood has lost something right, just pumping

out content that's not Hollywood. Hollywood is big, glamorous, and

amazing with effects we have never seen. So what else changed?

When did Hollywood really become an influencer? Because how are

they different than anything else out there? Competing for your clicks,

wanting you to engage and subscribe.

Speaker 2: To their entertainment?

Speaker 1: And as I worked through this investigation, I realized I

kind of was asking the question. I kept asking myself,

what's going.

Speaker 2: On with Hollywood? What is this?

Speaker 1: But the better question really turned out to be much

more specific. When did Hollywood stop simply entertaining us and

begin trying to influence us? I mean, I don't mean

influence us through great storytelling and our memorable characters that

really make us feel something, or all those unforgettable experiences

that we had watching some great performance that affected us.

I mean, movies have always influenced us in those ways,

the good ones. I'm talking about something different, something very today.

I'm talking about the moment when entertainers themselves become part

of the product. All right, let me just give you this.

For most of Hollywood's history. All right, A lot of

you are young out there, you only know today, but

back not that long ago, movie stars were known because

of the great movies they made. We were in awe

over their characters and how they played them so well

and could change from one character to another, from one

movie to another. We remembered Tom Hanks and we admired

him because he was remarkable as an actor. Julia Roberts

became America's sweetheart because audience loved watching her on screen.

Robin Williams, he was there to make us laugh. Harrison

Ford became Indiana Jones, and Audrey hepburn yep way back then,

represented elegance. Those are just a few. I mean, whether

we agreed with these people politically or how they raised

their kids, or whatever they ate for dinner. We didn't

really talk about those things. We'd read certain tidbits and

magazines that interest us, but that wasn't why we bought

a ticket.

Speaker 2: We went to the theater to.

Speaker 1: Spend two hours or so inside someone else's story, not

inside someone else's personal beliefs. And today that relationship feels very,

very different. Is it gone? Many actors, they're no longer

known for the characters they play, if they're even memorable

at all. In today's movies and entertainment, they're now public

personalities twenty four hours a day. They maintain enormous social

media accounts, host podcasts everywhere, promote causes that mean something

to the world. They're endorsing political candidates and making that

very public, launching beauty companies, clothing brands, alcohol brands, production companies. Again,

America becomes and the world, but I really like to

kind of stick to America becomes the atm Their identity

has expanded far beyond acting. In many cases, acting really

is only a part of what they've become and what

they do. If any of that sounds familiar, it's because

we already have a word for it, right they are influencers.

They're not mysterious great beings that just start in the

greatest movie ever and we just love to catch them

at the coffee shop once. No, they're not mysterious to

us anymore. They tell us everything, and they give us

all their opinions and what they think of it and us.

Sometimes this doesn't necessarily mean they're bad people. I'm not

going there, or that anything they say is wrong. It

just means their rule has changed and how they affect

us has changed, and how we see them has changed.

I mean, an influencer isn't only trying to entertain you.

An influencer is trying to shape what you think about,

get you to buy something, support something, spend some attention

with them, and hopefully convince you to come back tomorrow,

maybe even subscribe so that you don't forget to come

back tomorrow. That is how the modern creator economy works,

and Hollywood has increasingly become part of that same system.

Very interesting. Will it elevate the celebrity?

Speaker 2: What is it doing to them these days?

Speaker 1: I mean, think about how different that is from the

Hollywood some of you had as children, some of you

remember growing up with, maybe some of you saw only

as a smaller child. I mean, we didn't follow actors

every day. We didn't wake up wondering what they posted overnight.

Speaker 2: We just didn't.

Speaker 1: We didn't know what products they were promoting, what they

wanted us to buy, what companies were sponsoring them, And

we certainly did not expect them to comment on every

major news story blending things that are happening in our

world good and bad with our entertainment.

Speaker 2: No, we simply just.

Speaker 1: Enjoyed their work and these great movies and shows and

looked forward to the next ones. And we went on

with our own lives, and we looked forward to the

next one. Today, that separation barely exists. See where this

is going. I mean, the movie star follows you home

through your phone before you've finish breakfast. You may have

seen their political opinion, maybe an interview on something, a

sponsored advertisement that they're now giving you, a video asking

you to support a cause they believe in, and of

course a promotion for their newest product. Hey, guys, you know,

I just want to get real with you and tell

you my skin gets dry too. That's why I use.

Speaker 2: Blah blah blah.

Speaker 1: I mean, whether you agree with any of it is

not even the point. The point is that the relationship

has fundamentally changed, whether we like it or not. You're

no longer simply watching an act or perform. You're really

being invited into an ongoing relationship with a public personality

whose influence now extends far beyond the movie screen. I mean,

and that's not unique to Hollywood. We see it with

podcasters and YouTubers today, news personalities, athletes, musicians, everything, right.

I mean, go look at Facebook or anywhere. Everyone's a

digital creator, right. But Hollywood may be the place where

many Americans first noticed this shift because it shifted into

something else and changed what it was for us. I mean,

entertainment used to stand on its own, and movie store

stars were known for making great movies, making us laugh,

making us cry, making us feel something. And that raises

the next question in my investigation here. If Hollywood changed

from an industry built around entertainment into one that increasingly

rewards influence and your behavior, what effect has that had

on the audience that's us. Has it strengthened the relationship

between entertainers and viewers, or has it changed quietly what

people expect when they sit down to watch a movie.

I think that's where the story starts becoming very interesting.

I mean, ken entertainment influence without losing the entertainment piece.

I'm not asking whether actors and musicians, communions, directors, you know,

should they be allowed to have opinions? Of course, every

American has the right to express their beliefs, support causes,

and participate in public life if they choose. That's not

really what this is about. The question here is a lot.

It's much more subtle what happens when those opinions become

inseparable from the entertainment itself. For most of Hollywood's history,

people bought a ticket to a movie because they wanted

to see a great story.

Speaker 2: That's it. It was simple. It was fun.

Speaker 1: They weren't buying a relationship with the actor. They weren't

signing up to hear their views on every major issue,

political and otherwise. You didn't need to subscribe for the

rest of your life and follow them on social media

and buy other products or support the causes they promote.

Like I said, the relationship was simple. The actor entertained you,

and you enjoyed it, and then both of you went

back to your lives. And today that relationship looks very,

very different. I mean, these actors, they don't disappear between films.

They remain part of our daily lives through interviews, podcasts,

instagram x, all of it, including endorsements, business ventures, products

for you to buy, public campaigns, all their own controversies,

some criminal some couples breaking up, someone up for domestic violence,

maybe a drug issue.

Speaker 2: We know all about it every day. I mean, whether you.

Speaker 1: Follow them or not. Their opinions often become part of

the public conversation surrounding whatever movie they were in. Instead

of simply asking whether a film looks good, audiences feel

more pressure. They find themselves thinking about the people behind

the movies and shows as well, and everything that comes

with them kind of interrupts the experience. And it became

a significant cultural shift that happened to all of us.

I mean, years ago, it was entirely possible to admire

someone's work without knowing much about their personal beliefs. We

were curious about things like are they vegan, what makeup

do they use? It was sort of a fun, mysterious relationship.

But today that's increasingly difficult because those beliefs are often

part of their public identity. Now you know everything they

think and everything they're doing. And for some that doesn't

matter at all. They can separate the artists from the

art and just enjoy the performance. But for others that

feel a lot of pressure from all the incoming, that

separation becomes much harder, and the movie itself is no

longer the only thing they're evaluating, and while they're trying

to enjoy it, all this other stuff is in their head.

I don't think we have fully appreciated what all of

this change means. You know, Hollywood was built again, very

simple on storytelling. The audience would suspend any disbelief for

two hours or so and become absorbed in another world.

But if the audience walks into the theater already thinking

about the actor instead of the character, has something about

that experience fundamentally changed. If people believe talking more about

hey did you see that interview? In social media posts

and speeches and controversies over the movie itself, I mean,

then has entertainment quietly just become something else. These aren't accusations,

they're just questions, and I think their questions worth asking

because they help explain why so many people say movies

just don't feel the same anymore. And whether you personally

agree with that or disagree with it, or you know,

the fact is millions of Americans have noticed that their

relationship with Hollywood has changed in about the last decade.

Understanding why it changed is far more interesting, really than

simply arguing about if it did or not, because once

the relationship between Hollywood and its audience changes, we have

to ask how the audience is going to feel about

all that, don't we? Okay, well, let's take a break

from talking about that image Hollywood cells and look at

what has actually been happening behind the curtain. Because the

industry most Americans still picture is no longer sitting neatly

inside that one glamorous place in California. Hollywood Boulevard remains

a tourist symbol. The studios still maintain headquarters and offices

around LA and plenty of writers and actors and agents

and editors. Even the production workers still live there, many

of them, but an increasing amount of the actual work,

the sets, the crews, the sound stages, the equipment, the payroll,

the catering, the construction, the location filming. It's moved somewhere else. Guys, Okay,

did you even notice. Over the past decade, film and

television production in LA it's fallen by about forty percent.

It's still going.

Speaker 2: Where it ends up? Nobody knows.

Speaker 1: Film LA reported another twenty two point four percent year

over year decline in local filming that started at the

Q one of twenty twenty five. I mean, this isn't

simply Hollywood expanding. It's an industry pulling significant portions of

its physical operation out of the city that gave its name.

So Hollywood is about half Hollywood right now. Where is

it going to end up?

Speaker 2: We don't know.

Speaker 1: All the stars are there on the sidewalk. I mean,

the reason for all of this is not a big mystery. Guys,

Movies follow money. It's a business. But where did it go?

Are you aware? Maybe it's in your town. Hollywood's moving, guys,

It's been moving for a while, and it's planting its

new homes in Georgia, New Mexico, Tennessee, New Jersey, even Canada,

the United Kingdom and Australia and other production centers offer

tax credits, grants, lower costs, sound stages, trained crews, and

governments eager to attract those projects. I mean, Georgia has

offered transferable production tax credits tied to qualified spending, while

Tennessee advertises grants covering roughly twenty five to thirty percent

of eligible costs and even makes many state owned locations

available without a location fee. California has been increasing its

own incentives because it knows. It's well aware productions are

leaving and California is losing businesses too. But when Hollywood leaves,

I mean, that's the hub. Whenever we think of movies

in Hollywood and making movies, we're thinking of Hollywood. If

you're in America, location, filming wherever. But it's all in Hollywood.

But not anymore. The industry is becoming fragmented, all right,

It's already been happening. Now the migration can bring real

work to another state. A major production needs electricians and builders, drivers, hotels, restaurants,

costume departments, security, extras, office sp like Hollywood. Okay, it

needs a little Hollywood in there, temporary services. Did I

say warehouses, because need a lot of that. Okay, So

wherever it's landing, it's going to need a lot little

Hollywood's everywhere. This can change a community. It sounds great.

All the jobs, all the glitz and glam, but it

can change a community as people knew it. I mean

property converted into studios, traffic and road closures, local governments

trying to offer public incentives, and residents discovering that the

famous company filming nearby is going to leave soon because

another state just offered a better package. So nothing's permanent.

By the way, in the industry did not move to

Georgia and Tennessee and New Mexico because it fell in

love with those cultures. If you're there, it's not because

of you. It went there because the numbers of your

state worked out for them, and they'll move on as

soon as they don't. The states that are gaining Little Hollywoods,

they're gaining those jobs and investments, but they're also entering

a bidding war with an industry that has already shown

how quickly it will abandon any location for another one. Okay,

it's not going to have allegiance to your state or

your town. Little Hollywoods are mobile set it up. When

the money doesn't make sense, leave and set it up

somewhere else. That's a very different thing. The people most

damaged by this little breakup, they're not the movie stars

they're the camera operators who had jobs for a long time,

the set decorators, makeup artists, lightning texts, everyone that knew

Hollywood's where you go to do all these things. And

they're still there, a lot of them. As Hollywood leaves.

The production assistants, editors, drivers, carpenters, small businesses that have

built their lives around LA production that's changing for them

when a movie relocates. The celebrity may simply board a plane, right.

They don't need to do much. They're used to traveling

and going to places. But the local crew member loses

months of work. Reports from inside the industry describe widespread unemployment,

workers losing health insurance, and experienced professionals leaving the business

all together as studios produce less and outsource more.

Speaker 2: Here's a fact for you.

Speaker 1: By twenty twenty four, while we were all doing other things,

only two of the twelve primetime programs honored at the

m Emmys had been filmed in Greater Los Angeles. I mean,

Hollywood's brand remains in California, because that's what you all like.

The mirage is still there, but a growing share of

the machinery is somewhere else, and It all happened while

many of you were unaware, unless you're in those towns

where your little Minnie Hollywood showed up. Now, at the

same time, the industry's carefully managed image was being ripped

apart by something much uglier. Let's talk Harvey Weinstein. I

mean he was not a fringe figure hiding outside the system.

He was one of the most powerful producers in modern Hollywood,

a man whose companies made acclaimed films, built careers one oscars,

and held enormous influence over what projects were financed and

which performers received opportunities. More than one hundred women eventually

accused him of misconduct. If you didn't know that fact.

His original twenty twenty New York conviction was overturned in

twenty four because the appeals court found procedural errors in

the trial. This was not because the court declared that

any accusation was false.

Speaker 2: Here so be clear.

Speaker 1: A twenty twenty five retrial produced another sex crime conviction,

and his separate California conviction for rape and sexual assault

remains in place.

Speaker 2: In June of this.

Speaker 1: Year, just a minute ago, prosecutors dropped one unresolved New

York rape charge after the accuser said she just could

not endure a fourth trial, but Weinstein remained incarcerated because

of his other convictions. Why am I talking about Weinstein? Well,

Weinstein matters to this investigation because his case exposed more

than one predatory man. It exposed the structure around him.

Women said, career access, auditions, financing, hotel meetings, silence, fear,

professional retaliation. They were all tangled together inside a system

where one powerful person could influence whether someone ever worked again.

Hollywood sold audience's glamour, while some people inside the industry

described a workplace built around secrecy and gatekeeping, intimidation and

protection of profitable men. The public saw the red carpet.

Behind it were assistants in, lawyers and agents, publicists, executives,

settlements and das, and careers that could be advanced or

destroyed by people the audience had never even heard of.

Nor did the reckoning end with Weinstein. In twenty three,

Danny Masterson was sentenced to thirty years to life for

being convicted of raping women. In twenty two, an Oscar

winning filmmaker Paul Hagis was found civilly liable for rape

had to pay ten million dollars in damages. In twenty

twenty five, actor Derek Dixon filed a civil lawsuit against

Tyler Perry of repeated sexual harassment, assault retaliation, all linked

to his employment. Of course, Perry denied the allegations. He's

innocent till ever proven guilty. He's only speaking through his attorney,

who called the lawsuit a scam.

Speaker 2: I mean, these.

Speaker 1: Cases are not identical. Some involve criminal convictions, some civil findings,

some are unresolved. But together, I mean, these are just

a few. Okay, they show the abuse of power problem

did not disappear when Hollywood began issuing their statements about accountability.

Those are just statements. The reality of what happened behind

the scenes many of us will never know. And there's

more stuff, right, It's happening every day, things unfolding around

us constantly. One of the bigger recent examples involves that

legal battle between Blake Lively, who was suing Justin Baldoni. Okay,

what began is dispute over one film quickly expanded into

a complete public spectacle. It is all over the place

out there. If you haven't looked or seen it. It

involved Blake Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, Justin Baldoni, the

other actor and defendant, and eventually public attention surrounding communications

that extended to Taylor Swift, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and others,

private text messages for everyone to see that changed some

people's opinions about these people. Legal filings, public statements, and

competing public relations campaigns became bigger headlines than the movie itself.

I mean, whether people sided with one person or the

other was almost secondary to the whole thing, and the

film was no longer the story. It was the people

behind the film that became the bigger story. And that's

exactly the kind of shift I'm talking about in this episode,

and that segues beautifully into the next question in this investigation.

What happens nowadays when celebrities stop promoting their work right,

They're not just trying to get you to watch and

trying to show you how great their art is, and

instead they begin telling audiences who should and who should

not be a part of what they're doing. Take John Leguizamo.

In twenty twenty six, he posted on Instagram a video

that said, if you follow a certain group, do not

follow me, don't come to my shows. Don't watch my movies.

Back in twenty sixteen, ten years ago, when all of

this shift was really beginning, a rappers said, if you

support this person, don't buy my music. Chris Evans, he

didn't tell people not to watch his movies, but he

publicly acknowledged that speaking out politically might cost him ticket sales,

and he said that he was willing to lose those fans.

And hey, it's America. People can say what they want

to say, but it is affecting their audiences, the people

consuming all the hard work they put into their art.

It's a very different relationship than previous generations had with

movie stars. I mean, you know, there was that time

when actors wanted as many people as possible to watch

their films.

Speaker 2: They didn't care.

Speaker 1: How people voted, or what they believed, or how they

raised their families, who they were politically. They wanted to

share their art and have people excited about it, out

their movie, about their music. But today it's just a

fact that we're seeing a growing number of celebrities and

public figures telling audiences that they're no longer welcome, telling

people not to support them if they don't agree with

their beliefs. Making it clear they don't want certain groups

of Americans as part of their audience, so they're cutting

people out. That is absolutely something new, a remarkable shift

when you stop and think about it. I mean, entertainment

has traditionally been one of the few places where people

with completely different beliefs could actually sit in the same theater,

watch the same movie and enjoy the same storyline, enjoy

the same characters, enjoy the special effects, and come out

after an experience excited. Once entertainers begin narrowing who they

want in their audience, another question obviously follows. Is this

good for the art or is it changing the relationship

between the artist and audience. I'll let you decide that one.

This is all just very interesting and it changed so fast. Well, okay,

up until now, we've been talking about the audience, the actors,

some of the controversy situations. Now let's really take a

walk behind the curtain and look at what has been

going on inside Hollywood itself. The industry, and I'm not

just talking about the movement of offices and locations. A

lot has changed in ways most people never see. The

first thing that happened deep on the inside was that

money changed all right. For decades, Hollywood made its money

in stages. Okay, a movie opened in theaters, then it

moved to VHS and DVD, then cable television, maybe network television,

maybe even syndication. Eventually one successful film could generate revenue

for years off its tales. Then streaming arrived, and almost overnight,

that business model disappeared, dissolved. Instead of paying for individual movies,

audiences began paying one monthly subscription fee, expecting unlimited entertainment.

Of course, suddenly every major studio wasn't just competing to

make the best movie. They were competing to convince you

not to cancel your subscription. All very different change, to

completely change the economics of filmmaking. I mean, at the

same time, the cost of making movies exploded. Many major

productions today cost well over two hundred million dollars before

marketing is even added. Okay, by the time advertising campaign,

worldwide promotions, distribution, everything's included, some films approach three hundred

million dollars and more. Sometimes that means a movie can

earn hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office

and still disappoint financially because the break even point has

become so incredibly high. When studios are risking that much money,

they naturally become far more cautious about what they're willing

to make. Meaning all those cool, big effects and all

these big things stuff that costs the money. They don't

want to do a lot of that. They want to

simplify everything. Maybe a whole show can just take place

in two rooms or in one little cabin, right, how

do we make this easier for us financially? That's what

they started thinking. That's one reason we've seen so many sequels.

This is what people are noticing when they're saying I

can't find anything to watch. They keep watching things over

and over again, maybe packaged differently, maybe different actors, maybe

different races are doing the same roles. They just keep

remaking everything, Cinematic universes, expanded live action remakes over and

over again in new ways, characters meeting each other. Let's

try that. Original stories are much riskier. Okay, that's why

we're not seeing many of those familiar franchises already have

an audience. From a business perspective, repeating something that worked

yesterday clearly looks safer than gambling on something and completely new,

Whether audiences actually want another sequel. That's a different question

that everyone is starting to feel. But financially, this decision

still makes sense. So that's why it just keeps happening.

Something else quietly changed. Movie stars stopped being the reason

people bought tickets. If you noticed, sometimes as actors got older,

they'd say something like, this actor's in this film, but

then you found out they were only in it for

a few minutes, and that's just actor dropping. Right. Oh,

they'll go to this movie because they love this actor,

and even though we only had to pay them for

five minutes of work, it'll draw in the audience that

kind of thinking. All right, I mean Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts,

Jim Carrey, Sandra Bullock. You put them on a poster,

they could sell millions of tickets. Their names were the

event Ooh what are they doing now?

Speaker 2: Today?

Speaker 1: Audiences sometimes are buying the franchise over any actor, like

Marvel or Star Wars. Many established brands have become larger

than many of the performers themselves. Studios increasingly invest in

intellectual property because brands feel more predictable than an individual star,

why deal with them? And then Hollywood itself of course

began leaving Hollywood, right. I mean, many people still picture

the industry as being centered in LA and we've talked

about this. We know a growing percentage of production has

moved elsewhere. I mean, Georgia is one of the busiest

production centers in America right now. I mean, Hollywood still

exists in California, but the business has become scattered across

the country and the world. By the way, the name

stayed the same though, because it's reliable to you. You

still think you're getting that big blockbuster if it says Hollywood,

even though the industry underneath it all became something very

different right under your nose. But everyone had their streaming,

so I'll forget that for a while and just go

to my app. But apps have definitely changed the whole

creative process. I mean, these platforms rely on data. They

know what you click, how long you watch. Everything is

the same, okay, whether you're on social media, looking at

an ad or looking something up. It's all being fed

to you based on what you're going to click. And

Hollywood has become that as well, and it's changed so

many things. They know if people don't want to see something,

they won't show it to you again. I mean, it's

all valuable information, but it changes the question being asked

inside the boardroom.

Speaker 2: Right.

Speaker 1: Instead of asking is this a great story? All they

want to know is are people going to click this?

Will they watch it to the end? Will they stay

subscribed on Netflix if we show it there? I mean,

those are completely different questions. Getting someone to commit for

their life or most of their life on a subscription,

that is the question. When you put all of these

pieces together, there is a very different picture that starts

to emerge. Right. Hollywood didn't simply become more political and

expensive or more digital. It's not one thing. Its entire

foundation has shifted. It will never be the same unless

it goes all the way back, and the audience probably

wouldn't even accept it. The way it makes money, the

way it measures success click click, click, pay, pay pay,

the way it even creates movies has changed. The way

it markets stars has changed.

Speaker 2: I mean we see movie.

Speaker 1: Stars selling odd products. They never used to do that.

Those were for actors moving their way up. So changed

all that too. The places where it films things, Hollywood

has changed that as well, and public image of the

industry is changing and has already changed, and perhaps that's

why so many people say they don't recognize Hollywood anymore.

It's not because one thing changed. We can't find that

blame game again, you can't blame one thing, because in

this case, almost everything changed, and that's what people are

feeling today.

Speaker 2: Maybe you and so.

Speaker 1: If everything we've talked about today is true, then the

obvious next question becomes this, where does that leave us?

For the first time in history, we have more entertainment

available than ever before, and yet it just doesn't seem

to be We are overfed, and a lot will say

a lot of people will say under delivered. We have

more choices than ever before, yet people spend more time

searching than actually watching. We pay for multiple subscriptions while

complaining there's nothing on them. Everybody needs to remember subscriptions

are all a la carte these days. Right, If you

haven't watched Netflix in three months, get rid of it.

You can just get it back. Why do we keep

paying on months we're not really watching. Maybe in the summer,

maybe over December. Maybe you want the Hallmark channel over Christmas,

and that's it. You can move it around. You don't

need to keep paying this amount every month. So we

need to remember that. I think the answer to where

does entertainment go it doesn't really belong to Hollywood anymore.

We need to get our head out of that. Like

the subscription model, right, it's not forever. Hollywood certainly isn't forever,

because it's dissolving as we speak. I mean, for decades

it was Hollywood that decided what we would watch. Today,

audiences have more power than they've ever had. Every canceled

subscription sends a message to those watching the finances, as

well as every movie ticket purchased sends a message. You

want to see more movies in theaters, Go to more movies.

Every independent filmmaker you support sends a message. Think about it.

Every subscription you keep, every movie ticket you buy, series

you binge, everything you rent, it's telling the entertainment industry

what you're willing to accept. Do we accept if there

are enough people that are unhappy with what has being

fed out there, the people do have a choice. I mean,

Hollywood doesn't have to guess at what audiences want. And

if everyone's just accepting it and watching the reruns, they'll

keep giving them to you. It only cares where the

money's going, and they want it to come in based

off what you are doing and what you're doing. What

all all consumers are doing of entertainment is we're responding

to what is given to us. Now, let me just

back out a little bit, because there's some other things

to talk about regarding what we're watching, all right. First off,

one of the biggest misconceptions about Hollywood is that there's

one person or this one organization that makes.

Speaker 2: All the rules and decisions. But there is not.

Speaker 1: The first organization most people hear about is the Academy

of Motion Picture Arts and Scientists the Academy, right, It's

a private organization made up of more than ten thousand

film professionals. This includes actors, directors, producers, writers, editors, cinematographers, composers,

costume designers, executives, and many others that work in the

movie industry. The Academy does not finance movies, does not

hire actors or tell studios what films they can make.

Its primary role is deciding which films are eligible for

Academy Awards. The oscars and its members vote. Its members

vote on the nominees and winners each year, so they're

voting on each other. Right, But the Academy is not

running Hollywood, but it is running the oscars, be clear,

and they are voting on each other. You're not involved

on what the best picture is.

Speaker 2: Be clear. Now.

Speaker 1: Beginning with the twenty twenty four Academy Awards, however, the

Academy introduced new eligibility standards for any film seeking Best Picture. Okay,

a movie now to win has to satisfy two of

four inclusion standards. So if you don't want to be

in the Academy award's good for you. But if you

want to win any recognition, here's what you need to do.

One way to qualify is through on screen representation. A

film can meet that standard by having a lead or

major supporting actor from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group. So,

no matter what the role is, we need one of

these in there by having at least thirty percent of

its secondary and minor roles filled by people from at

least two underrepresented groups. And those include women, racial ethnic

MINORMITYTINA minorities, LGBTQ plus, or people with disabilities, or you

could make the storyline about one of them. So are

we seeing a theme and maybe that's part of the change.

Speaker 2: You're seeing.

Speaker 1: A movie can also qualify through other categories involving hiring

practices behind the camera, paid internships, apprenticeships, or representation within

marketing or distribution departments. And so this is the long

standing question, and it confuses.

Speaker 2: A lot of people.

Speaker 1: You know, are you going to put someone in a

role because they're in a minority or are they best

for the role? Does that change the quality of the movie?

No insult to the actors. People have been turned down

for roles. When this all be back to when this

all started. If someone's not right for the role, they

didn't get the part, How does that change this now

in your eyes? You can discuss among yourselves. But these

are the new Academy rules. So you're not going to

see any Academy winners unless this stuff is in it,

whether you liked it or not. You're not even involved

in the voting, yet you're watching it to see who

won for you. It gets really confusing. These will apply

to all films seeking Best Picture. They're not federal laws,

and they don't apply to every movie. Only if you

want to be involved in these rewards now separate from

the Academy. Many of the largest studios and streaming companies

and a lot of people think the streaming companies they

don't have anything to do with Hollywood.

Speaker 2: Believe me.

Speaker 1: Everything is all interwoven at this point. But they've all

adopted their own DEI initiatives. Unlike the Academy's published OSCAR standards,

these are company policies, so they differ from one studio

to another, but they influence who even gets interviewed for jobs,

how a writer's room is assembled, because what requirements If

you have to have someone in a wheelchair in there,

or someone of some race, you're not asking anymore if

they're best for the job. And maybe they are, but

this always has to come first, and we just need

to be cleared. These are the new rules.

Speaker 2: It's fine.

Speaker 1: A lot of people are comfortable with them. Some people aren't,

but this is the way it goes, and we just

want to know. I'm here to bring you the clarity.

Speaker 2: That's it. Not taking sides here.

Speaker 1: Everything is now based off of these initiatives, or it

doesn't get started. If you want to be anything that

matters and you want to be competing now. They don't

all have identical rule books, but they've definitely changed the

conversation taking place long before any cameras are going, before

any actors are considered, we must know the requirements. And

this is where many viewers really did begin noticing a

difference between today's Hollywood and the ones that they grew

up with, movies they saw as children. Some people believe

these changes have broadened representation and open doors that should

have been opened many years ago, while others believe the

industry has become more focused on these representation goals, how

to stay good with the public, corporate priorities, then on

that simple goal in the beginning, telling the strongest possible story. Now,

regardless of where anyone falls on that debate, one thing

is undeniable. The business of making movies involves a different

set of conversations today than it did thirty or forty

years ago, and those conversations have become a part of

how modern Hollywood operates.

Speaker 2: All right.

Speaker 1: Well, as I finished researching this episode, one thought kept

coming back to me. Should we even keep calling it Hollywood?

I mean, after everything we've talked about today, that name

doesn't really seem to describe the industry anymore. It certainly

isn't all in Hollywood. Hollywood isn't even the same thing

movies are now filmed in Georgia, Tennessee, New Mexico, Canada, Australia.

Speaker 2: The UK.

Speaker 1: Streaming companies headquartered in Silicon Valley. While they're now some

of the largest producers of entertainment in the world, it's

not Hollywood independent creators. They can reach millions of people

from a home studio with nothing more than a camera

and a laptop. That's not Hollywood, yet we're consuming it constantly.

That kind of content. The famous Hollywood sign is still

standing for the visitors, but the industry behind it has

spread across the country and the world.

Speaker 2: And maybe that's.

Speaker 1: Because we're no longer living in the Hollywood era, right

We're now in a content era. Those two things aren't

necessarily the same. Hollywood was built around storytelling, and throughout

this episode, we've sort of broke broken apart that goal,

haven't we. But before it wanted people to buy a

ticket because as the story was unforgettable and amazing. Today's

content industry often operates very differently. Success is increasingly measured

by watch time, engagement, subscriptions, retention and clicks, and whether

you're going to come back tomorrow. The product isn't really

the movie anymore. It's your attention that's an important difference.

When the business begins measuring clicks instead of cultural impact,

subscriptions instead of unforgettable stories, and engagement instead of lasting memories,

the incentives naturally begin to change. Businesses follow the measurements

they are rewarded for, and today's entertainment companies are rewarded

for keeping you inside an app, watching more than one episode,

scrolling one more page, and renewing next month. That doesn't

mean great movies are entirely gone, but it does mean

the competition has changed. Studios are no longer just competing

to make the best film of the year, which was

awesome at the time. They're competing for your attention against

every other app. I mean movies have to They're not

just competing against other movies, is the point. Every social

media platform, every other podcast, every YouTube channel, every video game,

there's a lot out there, every streaming service in that environment.

Producing more content is the goal, not another timeless classic,

which brings.

Speaker 2: Us back to where we started. Right.

Speaker 1: If audiences continue rewarding convenience over quality, endless scrolling over

unforgettable storytelling, and quantity over craftsmanship, businesses will continue producing

exactly what the market is watching and rewarding them for

because they're getting paid no matter if you liked it

or not. And that is not unique to Hollywood. This

is the new model for everything. It's almost how every

business works these days. It's a content world. But markets

can change and consumers can change, and expectations can change,

and if enough people begin demanding better stories instead of

simply more content, the entertainment industry will eventually have to

respond or they're going to go out of business. If

you don't want to watch stuff you don't like, stop

watching it, stop subscribing, use your voice in that way,

because in the end, Hollywood never really decided what survived.

It was the audience that did. And when they stopped

making great content, the consumer became the victim of that.

And people are starting to talk now. And that brings

us to the Alexis Clarity Report. We covered a lot today.

I mean, Hollywood broke apart and went wild and tried.

Speaker 2: To fit it all in this.

Speaker 1: You know, this investigation wasn't really about the Tom Hanks

and Harvey Weinstein's of the world, or Netflix, or the oscars,

streaming politics, or even Hollywood itself, as it were. It's

about understanding that one of America's most recognizable industries, Hollywood,

our entertainment, quietly became something very different right under our noses.

For generations, Hollywood's job was remarkably simple, as we discussed,

tell great stories, tell us something amazing, let us escape

for two hours, Introduce us to unforgettable characters, and make

us laugh, cry, think we just want to escape from

the real world for just a little bit. And it

worked great, and we had fun, made whole nights out

of it, talked about the movies for days. But somewhere

along the way, that industry became something much larger and

much more complicated. To today, it isn't just competing to

make great movies. It's competing for your attention. It wants

your subscription and loyalty to It wants you to click,

click click. Whether you believe that change has made entertainment

better or worse, it's not really the whole point here.

The point is recognizing that the business has changed. If

you didn't know, and I hope you learned a little

bit about those changes, the incentives changed, and when those

incentives changed, Hollywood changed within them. And again, is Hollywood

even Hollywood anymore? Or is it just more content? But

the encouraging part of all of this is audiences still

have a voice. Every subscription you keep in movie tickets,

you buy everything, every hour of attention you give tells

the entertainment industry what you value and what you're willing

to accept. Businesses do not survive for very long by

ignoring their customers, even if it's movies. They follow the money,

and the money ultimately follows you the audience because you're

handing it over. So maybe the real question isn't what

happened to Hollywood per se. Maybe the better question is

what kind of entertainment are we willing to reward? I

guess that's the resulting question, right, because if we continue

rewarding quantity over quality, if that is your complaint, endless

content over unforgettable storytelling, and the convenience over craftsmanship, well

then we should be surprised when that's exactly what we get.

But if audiences begin demanding better stories, stronger writing, memorable characters,

and entertainment that earns our attention instead of simply trying

to keep it while we're sacked out on the couch,

the business will eventually follow and it already is following you,

It's following all of us. Hollywood may not look the

way it did thirty years ago, and it may not

really even be Hollywood anymore at all. It may never

look that way again, but one thing has not changed.

The audience gets the final vote. That's you, that's me,

that's us, And every time we press play or cancel,

we cast that vote. That's the clarity. I hope you

got something out of this episode. It was a big one.

Hollywood is changing every second and we all are seeing

the results of that. I hope it helped give you

something to think about. Thank you for listening, taking the

time to spend it with me today, and I'll talk

to you guys again on Friday when we drop the

next episode. This is Alexis Knight. Facts first, clarity. Always

talk to you guys Friday.