At one point in time, Hollywood was seen as the golden road of media. It was where all the major studios had their operations run. A place of prestige, gold, and accolades remains forever, right? Well, it appears that time waits for no one, as recent developments in the animation industry have shown. This is bigger than the infusion of AI, but it’s clearly a trend that’s making many folks more resistant to Hollywood than ever before.
Between 2013 and 2017, California’s share of the highest-grossing films dropped from 67 to 27 percent. Similarly, from 2019 to 2024, animation employment declined by 5 percent. The ones who saw the major rise in employment were New York (18%), British Columbia (72%), and Ontario (13%). A sign of things to come and grow.
Furthermore, Disney opened its Vancouver Studio in 2021. Its first project: “Moanna 2” (2024), which became a $2 billion box office hit for the company. An example that shows that California has a structural problem in regards to the state’s disadvantage of not being a place for high-value animation jobs as it used to be.
There has been an amendment to decrease the $1 million budget for eligible projects in a bid to include children’s programming, which operates in smaller budgets. Plenty of companies are outsourcing international workers to help with their pipeline of IPs and projects.
To note, COVID played a big role in this development, considering the guidelines and health concerns. However, now that we’re back to normal, these studies and reports are becoming troubling for the industry. If California is not careful, then global leaders such as Canada and Australia will continue to take over their place.
