TheGrill 2024: Navigating Change for Those Who Plan to Survive the Disruption

There are any number of ways to clock the sea changes underway in the entertainment world, most of them personal and life-changing for people in this industry. The changes are real, and it is evident that there will be winners and losers.  

But they may not be who you expect them to be. 

Start with AI. The arrival of artificial intelligence has moved past the panic phase to where we are now: What does it mean for me? 

At this year’s annual TheGrill conference, held Tuesday at the DGA Theater Complex, experts from Hollywood’s major studios will address where the industry’s biggest content producers are focused. We will hear from AI companies themselves who will talk about the ethics that continue to raise concerns for IP and copyright holders. And we will hear from creatives about how they are using AI to drive efficiency in their work and allowing them to stretch their abilities well beyond where they thought possible. 

At the same time: yes, some jobs will be made easier. But some jobs will be lost.  

This once-in-a-generation technological shift leapfrogs so many other changes that technology has brought to entertainment and media. But it is not the only change that is shifting the macroeconomics of our business, as is evident by the frustrating downward pressure on entertainment stocks.  

The stock prices of Hollywood’s historic major studios — Disney, Warner, Paramount — are down by 40% or more in the past three years. Disney and Warner are celebrating their centennials this year, and shares of Warner and Paramount are down 70% in the last five years. Meanwhile, Netflix, the streaming giant founded in 1997 as a mail order DVD rental service, stands at $701 per share at this writing. 

This is creating its own cascade of changes. 

Thousands of job losses have happened this year alone in cuts at Paramount, Disney, Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery and Lionsgate, in a full employment economy. These companies are adjusting to the new economic realities. 

TheWrap has written about independent producers changing careers; below-the-line veterans surviving on unemployment checks; production professionals starting side hustle jobs like Emmy-nominated hairdresser Sallie Ciganovich, who cuts hair in her backyard. 

Some sectors are being hurt more than others. Independent film has been in crisis for some time – even the best movies at Sundance have a hard time finding distribution. There’s the decline in reality TV production, as TheWrap wrote about Monday. And we have delved into what the results of a pivot to streaming five years ago has brought legacy Hollywood companies — and what that portends.

If ever TheGrill’s conversation about the changes technology has brought to the creators of content mattered, it’s right now. 

When we started TheGrill 15 years ago, entertainment looked very different. Netflix had only barely started a streaming service. Twitter was brand new. Facebook was still in its early years. Some guys had sold YouTube to Google for $1.65 billion, which seemed pretty crazy at the time.  

The box office was healthy. Cable television brought in billions of dollars to Comcast, which had just bought NBCUniversal, as well as to carrier companies like Charter, Cox and AT&T, and to Hollywood’s entertainment conglomerates like Viacom and Disney.

The streaming revolution is painful, but these changed consumer habits are here to stay.  

In response to all this, the industry is in the midst of a realignment, and it is what we will explore with our speakers, including Peter Guber, who led Sony and has Mandalay Pictures along with ownership in the L.A. Dodgers and the Golden State Warriors; and Jeff Sagansky, who has not only led CBS and NBC when networks were king, but now is a central figure in the drive for public investment via SPACs (Special Purpose Acquisition Companies), in his case for DraftKings and Lionsgate Studios. 

We’re excited to bring the smartest minds and most dynamic thought leaders to TheGrill this year. Those who will not only survive the shift that’s underway, but find the opportunity and prevail.