In this week’s column, California Sports Lawyer® CEO and Managing Attorney Jeremy M. Evans examines the growing perception that Hollywood is in chaos—and explains why the industry is not collapsing, but reorganizing around a sports league–style economic model that is missing the very system that makes sports work.
Sports did not eliminate conflict between management and talent; it institutionalized it.
You can read the full column below. (Past columns can be found, here).
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Hollywood looks chaotic right now. Strikes, shrinking production slates, and consolidation suggest an industry in retreat. Beneath the noise, however, something else is happening. Hollywood is not collapsing—it is reorganizing around a sports-style economic model that leaves out the system that makes it work.
The Illusion of Chaos
On the surface, Hollywood looks unstable in its entertainment production and distribution. Strikes, shrinking content slates, and platform retreats suggest an industry in disarray. The consolidation and sale of once-dominant brands such as Paramount, Warner Bros., and MGM are often cited as proof of decline, as their libraries are absorbed to feed streaming platforms like Amazon and Netflix.
In reality, Hollywood is not collapsing. It is reorganizing—specifically, around sports league-style economics. Hollywood is copying the sports model while leaving out the most important element for sustained success.
Entertainment Adopts the Sports Model—Halfway
Hollywood has shifted away from star-driven economics toward intellectual property portfolios and franchise-driven strategies. Control has centralized around studios and platforms, much like leagues and teams control decision-making in professional sports. Talent increasingly functions as labor within closed ecosystems where the franchise matters more than the individual actor or creator.
Financial risk has also changed. Rather than betting on individual projects, studios now spread risk across franchise systems and vertically integrated distribution platforms. The appeal is predictability. While Hollywood borrowed the control and scale of the sports model through IP-franchising, it ignored the system that keeps sports economically balanced.
Why This Model Is Breaking Entertainment
The IP-franchising model is straining Hollywood because, unlike sports, there is no true revenue-sharing mechanism among studios and streamers. Governance is fragmented. Studios, platforms, producers, and guilds operate with misaligned incentives and competing self-interest.
Talent has pushed back against this structure without any institutional upside. Strikes are not an anomaly; they are a structural response to an imbalance of power. Without a system that aligns risk and reward across the ecosystem, conflict becomes the default rather than the exception.
What Sports Got Right (Early)
In professional sports, revenue sharing is not a concession—it is a stabilizer. Centralized media rights create long-term certainty for teams and leagues alike. Collective bargaining is not merely a labor protection mechanism; it is the economic framework of the industry.
Unions advocate for higher compensation, but within a predictable and contained system. Sports achieved stability through centralized media rights, revenue sharing, and labor agreements that set economic boundaries across the league. That predictability attracts investment, increases franchise valuations, and helps sustain the product without constant disruption. Sports did not eliminate conflict between management and talent; it institutionalized it.
The Missed Lesson (and the Warning for Sports)
Hollywood resisted structure for decades in the name of independence and leverage. Sports embraced structure to preserve the health of the ecosystem. Now Hollywood is discovering structure indirectly—through mergers and acquisitions—after losing leverage to social media, streaming platforms, and YouTube.
At the same time, sports risk repeating Hollywood’s mistakes. Compensation matters, but without structural limits and system-wide balance, escalating pay can create envy, instability, and imbalance. Labor peace is not sustained by money alone; it is sustained by agreed-upon rules.
The Real Question
Hollywood does not need more stars. There is no shortage of talented actors who are never seen. It does not need more platforms or more lawyers to draft increasingly complex deals. What Hollywood lacks are systems that align risk, reward, and control across the industry.
Sports leagues built those systems decades ago. The question is whether Hollywood is willing to learn from them—and whether sports leagues will remember why those systems worked in the first place.
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About Jeremy M. Evans:
Jeremy M. Evans is the Chief Entrepreneur Officer, Founder & Managing Attorney at California Sports Lawyer®, representing entertainment, media, and sports clients in contractual, intellectual property, and dealmaking matters. Evans is an award-winning attorney and industry leader based in Los Angeles and Newport Beach, California. He can be reached at Jeremy@CSLlegal.com. www.CSLlegal.com.
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