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

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

From Plain English with Derek Thompson by The Ringer

April 24, 2026 · 1h 11m

About this episode

The episode discusses the triple crisis facing Hollywood in terms of attendance, jobs, and creativity, featuring guest Sean Fennessey.

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…

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Host: Derek Thompson

Guest: Sean Fennessey

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Organizations: The Ringer, The Wall Street Journal

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