I thought I would know pain by the end of 2021 and be able to recognize and identify it and see it coming from afar.
Friends, 2022 taught me what I didn’t know about squats.
My personal horror juxtaposed with the media and entertainment and the ones played for women across the country: R.I.P. Roe v. Wade and what we revered as the Supreme Court.
At the end of the year and into 2022, losing my mother to COVID a week after my daughter’s wedding was a blow that came in slow motion. The loss of a close personal relationship (no more details here, but hey, love sucks) was a sudden blow. Four of us in TheWrap family said goodbye to parents who weren’t planning to go yet this year.
Everything paled beside the drumming of young people dying of suicide and drug overdoses. Sadly, we’ve grown accustomed to headlines of people dying in their 20s or 30s. It’s a terrible trend that affects rich and poor, famous and obscure alike. According to the latest statistics available from the Centers for Disease Control, suicide rates and total suicides increased by about 4% from 2020 to 2021 in the United States. Overdose deaths increased by 15% over the same period.
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So, all in all, it’s no wonder we’re scared, worried, cautious, and prepared for bad news. When that bad news arrived in 2022, we were already exhausted by the sicknesses and lockdowns and pandemics of the last two years – and Hollywood had no face left of the game anymore.
When that fateful Netflix earnings report came out in April, the deluge began as it showed a shocking drop in subscribers and predicted further setbacks. Suddenly, investors have lost faith in the entire streaming business model. Shortly after that, six entertainment companies rushed into the dead end first.
Fear hit Wall Street, and stocks crashed across the board. As a result, entertainment companies like Netflix have begun to beat the sharp pullback in spending.
Disney, on the other hand, has gone from bad to worse, spending millions on Disney+ and insulting the entire LGBTQ community with its misguided approach to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” laws. By the time Disney’s board threw in the towel at his CEO Bob Chapek in November and begged former CEO Bob Iger to come back, the years were gone. The stock is still down 45% year-to-date.
At the same time, Warner Bros. Discovery found it needed to cut back to stay financially healthy after $50 billion in debt. This means cutting staff by the thousands and unplugging movies and shows in production, as well as other shows already on his streaming platform, angering both consumers and his creative community. I let
While the streaming industry was in turmoil, the box office was still on the mend. Analysts and studio estimates expect the year to end with about $7.35 billion in ticket sales from the United States and Canada, down 35% from the pre-pandemic year of 2019. movie, but I doubt it will return to its former highs.
The only saving grace in the humility of these behemoths was…. much of the tech industry was getting worse. Facebook’s value plummeted as the metaverse appeared to be stillborn. This was an embarrassing turn for Mark Zuckerberg, who until just recently was one of the richest and most powerful men on the planet.
We all know the ongoing drama that quickly engulfed Twitter after last month’s takeover by Elon Musk, who started the year as the richest man in the world. The company cut nearly 75% of its workforce as it began
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Meanwhile, TikTok became the subject of bipartisan allegations in Washington, where Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Brendan Carr called for a ban in the United States, and a bill proposed to do so.
And by the end of December, it seemed that ChatGPT, a very smart AI tool, could endanger another tech goliath, Google, by displacing search. .
So it’s all bad. The slump in stock prices has frustrated Hollywood executives, but for the thousands of employees who lost their jobs this year, the problem is more directly existential.
Let me omit the many stories I hear from people who have lost their jobs. It’s a Hollywood tic to stick to the “I’m fine!” attitude. when it’s clearly not. Many had already been forced to adjust to the gig economy and its uneven wages, but life as a free agent isn’t the same as being craft service ready.
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This year also marks the end of nearly three years for me, from Harvey Weinstein’s second rape trial in Los Angeles to Donald Trump’s announcement of another presidential run, or the third strain of the COVID virus to the Southwest. It was a fresh reminder of the turmoil that had plagued us all. On Christmas Eve, airlines are making a fuss all over the country.
Enough to make you believe in a universe tilted towards a certain destiny.
But the pendulum of life swings. We can say it’s time to go back to better times. At this point, I think caution and conservatism will be synonymous in Hollywood and perhaps elsewhere as we step cautiously into the uncertainty of 2023.
If you are experiencing mental health-related distress or are concerned about a loved one who may be in need of crisis support, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.Editor’s Note : From 2011 to 2020, the total age-adjusted suicide rate increased from 12.3 to 13.5 per 100,000 people. During the same period, the proportion of men increased from his 20 per 100,000 to his 22. The proportion of women increased from her 5.2 in 2011 to her 5.5 in 2020. source: Suicide Prevention Resource Center.
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