Film technology innovator and Strada co-founder Michael Cioni confronts how the creator economy is transforming Hollywood in his recent industry keynote. His presentation, “Is This the End of Hollywood?” analyzes the growing tension between traditional media and the creator economy, offering both sobering warnings and strategic pathways for the future of professional entertainment. As creator economy platforms like YouTube reshape audience expectations and consumption habits, Cioni outlines how Hollywood can adapt rather than resist this fundamental shift.
Michael Cioni is always an interesting guy to hear talk – he’s literally been at the heart of Hollywood’s technology for decades, and we’ve talked to him several times before – at last year’s NAB, we also awarded them one of our coveted CineD Best-of-Show Awards for NAB (submissions for this year’s awards are open still).
The competitive moat that became a barrier
In his recent keynote at the HPA summit, Cioni begins by describing how Hollywood built an impressive “competitive moat” over decades, centered around the pursuit of high quality. This moat consists of specialized talent, bespoke technology, sophisticated distribution systems, standardized practices, and professional organizations, including trade groups, unions, guilds, and professional associations like the HPA.
“Hollywood has built this incredible competitive moat… It’s this barrier that protects you from bad actors,” Cioni explains. “But there’s a byproduct of this competitive moat… in order for us to maintain that quality, we introduced a lot of friction.”
Cioni argues that this friction permeates the entire process – from production and post-production to distribution, exhibition, and marketing. Even consumers bear this friction by waiting in lines or for weekly episode releases. Until now, the exceptional quality justified these inconveniences.
The early adopter’s perspective
Positioning himself as an early technology adopter, Cioni shares how his early career taught him two crucial lessons: betting on emerging technology can initially work against you (he failed in school for using digital tools when his teachers demanded analog), but if you bet wisely, you can be “catapulted so far ahead” when that technology becomes standard.
Starting a Youtube Channel
Visual artist Kitty Peters guides you through the entire process of starting a YouTube channel, from choosing a niche, setting up your studio, breaking through challenges, and figuring out how to make money along the way.
This perspective informs his analysis of Hollywood’s current situation, where he sees many businesses “acting on their momentum and no longer their propulsion” – coasting rather than driving forward with new energy.
The zero-friction alternative
The turning point, according to Cioni, came in 2005 with YouTube’s emergence. While initially dismissed as a failed dating app pivot with the slogan “Broadcast Yourself,” YouTube represented something revolutionary: storytelling without friction. This spawned the creator economy – an ecosystem where the ability to create, edit, and distribute content has virtually no barriers.
Technology migration to general purpose
As the creator economy grew, it pulled established companies toward it. Cioni cites several examples of manufacturers who shifted from specialized products to general-purpose technologies:
- RØDE: Transformed from a niche microphone maker to a market leader by adding USB connectivity, selling millions of units
- RED: Introduced digital cinema cameras at $17,000 that record to files when the industry was still using film and tape (check out our recent feature on Jim Jannard’s origin story of RED)
- Blackmagic Design: Purchased Resolve and released a Mac version, now downloaded by several million users
- Dolby: Moved professional theater technologies like Dolby Vision and Atmos into consumer spaces
The creator economy also birthed entirely new companies focused on serving content creators: Aputure, Blue, Condor, Creme Source, DJI, Frame.io, Beastgrip, CapCut (with 300 million monthly active users), Moments, SmallRig, and Splice.
“This is going to change everything,” Cioni warns. “This is the threat that we’re really facing… a new community that has changed the sphere of influence.”
CapCut is the world’s most popular editing system. They have 300 million monthly active users.
Michael Cioni
Changing consumer tastes and the podcast revolution
Cioni highlights how consumer tastes have shifted dramatically. “About 10 years ago, only about 50 of you ever heard a podcast,” he tells the audience. “Today, I bet half of you listened to one on the way here.” He points out that video podcasts represent the fastest-growing market for media and entertainment, with 84% of podcasts now including video elements. “It’s like radio video, and it’s a completely new invention. This format didn’t even exist, and Hollywood had nothing to do with it and has no idea what to do about it.”
Sobering statistics
Cioni supports his argument with eye-opening data (check this Nielsen report):
- The average American bought only two movie tickets in 2023
- 33% of all media is now consumed on mobile devices by adults, not just Gen Z
- YouTube represented 10% of all television viewing in July 2024
- 50% of YouTube is now consumed on television rather than on mobile devices
“YouTube is the startup for creativity. YouTube is the new television,” Cioni states, quoting YouTube’s CEO.
Success stories at the intersection
Cioni highlights several positive examples of traditional media engaging with the creator economy:
- Netflix exploring podcast content
- Amazon becoming a distribution path for MrBeast
- “Talk to Me,” a horror film made by YouTube creators for $4 million that earned nearly $100 million and achieved a 94% Rotten Tomatoes score
He suggests these successes aren’t rare flukes like “The Blair Witch Project” but could be replicated “52 weeks a year if you just knew how.”
The shrinking technology gap between Hollywood and the creator economy
In the presentation’s most dramatic demonstration, Cioni showed footage of the same interview shot with three drastically different cameras:
- A $90,000 ARRI Alexa Mini (the “gold standard” of professional cinema)
- A $7,500 Fuji GFX 100 (a “65mm sensor capable of 8K recording in ProRes LOG at 15 stops”)
- A $1,200 iPhone 16 with a B-Script depth-of-field adapter (allowing cinema lenses on an iPhone with “13 stops of dynamic range”)
The setup also featured affordable RØDE wireless microphones ($300 for a three-pack) and compact, powerful Aputure lights controlled via Bluetooth.
“A camera that costs closer to $100,000 and $1,000 is not that dramatically different,” Cioni observes after showing the comparison. “It’s all about accessibility… This is the visual proof that accessibility has gotten so narrow that we need to think twice about it.”
A path forward for each sector
Rather than presenting a doomsday scenario, Cioni offers specific recommendations for different industry segments:
For everyone: “Learn to influence the influencer.” – The creator economy already reveres Hollywood through memes, references, and emulation. The industry can leverage this to positively influence creators.
For manufacturers: “Build a technology migration path” that serves both professional and creator markets simultaneously. Companies maintaining niche specialty products are “taking an enormous risk.” He advises against spending resources on one-off solutions for specific directors or productions.
For vendors: “Separate the creative stack from the tech stack.” – Creative service bureaus should focus exclusively on creativity, as they cannot outpace the technology development in the creator economy. Vendors should consider infrastructure-as-a-service models like Sohonet.
For studio technology teams: “Relax on these standards and practices” that impede innovation and speed. “We do not need a list of cameras that are approved for us to shoot on anymore,” he argues, pointing out that the creator economy operates without these constraints.
For studios: Focus on exhibition, distribution, and marketing – “Your power is in exhibition and distributing and marketing because you can take a small film like ‘Talk to Me’ and you can get it in front of a hundred million people.”
Bridging a new future between the creator economy and Hollywood
Cioni concludes with a call to action, urging the industry to reconsider its traditions and embrace change. “What got us here is not going to get us there,” he emphasizes. “If we really believe that the saving of our industry is going to be based on trying to get it back to where it was in 2019, we’re going to lose it all.”
Instead of attempting to return to pre-pandemic models, he advocates for “draining” what’s left of the competitive moat and using it as a bridge to connect with the creator economy.
“Our future is going to be fantastic if we work together directly with them, but our future is going to be very, very scary and dire if we just try to protect ourselves,” Cioni concludes. “The Hollywood that we can make successful… it’s not about ‘survive through ’25,’ we can thrive. We just have to admit that it’s going to look a lot different.”
The message is clear: Hollywood can still thrive by focusing on high-fidelity narrative content while welcoming and collaborating with creator economy participants – a formula that could preserve what makes traditional media special while tapping into new creative and technological possibilities.
Where do you see “Hollywood” going? On the one hand, traditional theatrical distribution is clearly under pressure, and so are Hollywood’s features – on the other hand, highly produced streaming content is still doing remarkably well, and that’s in addition to YouTube. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
