Hollywood Is Restructuring Everything Except How It Decides | Guest Column

This month marked the official merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. into Skydance, uniting two iconic Hollywood studios under one banner. A wave of restructuring has swept through the industry, touching everything from organizational charts to libraries, release schedules, and entire companies. The pressure to adapt is mounting, with a recent forecast predicting a record-breaking $10.1 billion North American box office for 2026, though it still falls short of 2019's figures.

The industry's decision-making process, however, remains largely unchanged. A senior executive at a major studio explained that decisions are largely left to individual users, rather than being mandated from the top. While data and analytics tools are now available, their adoption remains limited by habit and authority. The industry has a history of reinventing itself with advancements like sound, color, digital cameras, and visual effects.

However, the business side has lagged behind. Traditionally, major decisions, such as planning a slate, evaluating campaigns, and greenlighting scripts, still rely on a single analyst’s spreadsheet. Despite the surge in competition from games, social platforms, and the creator economy, the film and television business has failed to keep pace.

Inertia prevails, stifling innovation. A few brave souls experiment with new tools, but without top-level support, these innovations rarely take hold. The cost of implementing new data-driven practices is often evident in the time it takes to draw insights from trailers, which can take a week instead of hours. Many believe they can build their own solutions, but this process typically takes years, while market trends change constantly.

Established companies have already embraced external tools for speed and efficiency. Netflix, for instance, moved its data operations to Amazon's cloud after a major database failure in 2008, focusing on building its unique strengths. While some studios have begun to appoint AI leaders, most energy remains focused on production aspects rather than decision-making processes.

Hollywood has always embraced change, but the industry's decision-making practices remain stubbornly antiquated. The solution lies in appointing a senior executive to oversee decision-making, ensuring that better information can inform choices about what to produce, how to price it, when to release it, and how to market it.