Hollywood has been the stuff that dreams have been made of for more than a century and a quarter now. It has given us epic movies, larger-than-life film stars and directors and elevated the age-old art of storytelling into a spectacular audiovisual extravaganza.
From cowboy westerns and Biblical tales to war movies and from classics like Gone With The Wind to comic superheroes like Superman and Batman, Hollywood has been a part of everyone’s growing-up years, youth and old age- a constant reassuring companion that makes you look at everyday life with curiosity, awe and wonder. It made life worth living.
Yet we have, in our collective wisdom, decided to turn our back on that wonderful edifice of entertainment, spectacle and knowledge and replace it with what- the creator economy?!
What is the creator economy?
The creator economy comprises everyday people using modern technological tools like smartphones, digital cameras, laptops, and digital software to create content (text and audiovisual) for other people, which they monetise through ads, product promotions, subscriptions and memberships, digital products, and myriad other channels.
The content creation industry, aided by the technological revolution, has given Hollywood and other traditional media a run for their money in vying for audience attention. Rather than watch movies in cinema theatres, hundreds of millions of people prefer to consume audiovisual content available on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook across every genre under the sun on their smartphones, tablets, and laptops.
Size of the global creator economy
Not only do these platforms provide customised entertainment as well as information on the go, but they also provide a viable income stream to millions of content creators and influencers around the world. The global creator economy market size is expected to touch $310.4 billion this year and reach a whopping $1345.5 billion by 2033. As many as 200 million people worldwide consider themselves to be creators. According to Deloitte,50 million content creators create content for 5 billion social media users worldwide, making the creator economy a buzzing hub of activity.
Size of Hollywood
At $50.9 billion, Hollywood has a modest turnover compared to the burgeoning creator economy. A mere 407000 people work across the motion pictures and sound recording industry in the USA, which includes those associated with Hollywood. So, Hollywood is really a pygmy compared to the creator economy, and the number of people who are gainfully employed in this industry is constantly dwindling.
The creator economy is gargantuan compared to Hollywood
In sheer size and financial heft, Hollywood is no comparison to the creator economy. However, it is in the colossal loss of its social capital, or to use a more political term, soft power, that Hollywood has suffered its biggest fall from grace. It is not its Oscar-winning movies and caped crusader fantasy franchises that have an all-pervading influence on communities and societies around the world.
On the contrary, it is social media influencers rising from amongst the ordinary people around the world who carry tremendous clout with peoples across nations. If young people come out on the streets in support of a movement anywhere, it is social media that influences them. Politicians these days worry much more about their online support base than the number of people who turn up for their public meetings and rallies.
While Hollywood is largely about the entertainment industry, the creator economy drives business itself. Brands know that they will get more bang for the buck chasing influencers than they will possibly get by signing up waning Hollywood celebrities at exorbitant prices. Things were tough as it is for Hollywood for quite some time now, but the advent of cutting-edge technology, especially AI, has in all likelihood put the final nail in the coffin of that venerable industry.
The Hollywood writers strike a few years back in protest against the use of AI in writing was an early sign of things to come. Today, AI has pervaded every aspect of filmmaking, ranging from pre-production and actual physical production to post-production. As a matter of fact, social media is already full of short films or reels which have been created entirely from scratch, right from writing and scripting to filming and composing the music to filming with virtual actors using virtual voiceovers.
The creator economy is not just much bigger than Hollywood; it is fast becoming a way of life for hundreds of millions.
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