Winter has come

As we head into the second half of 2025, I wanted to share some scattered thoughts on the chilly state of the industry.

A favorite parlor game these days is asking at every social gathering, “What are you watching?” Quickly followed by, “When was the last time you went to the theater?” The results, while more empirical than scientific, are alarming. Of the twenty non-industry folks I’ve asked over the past few weeks, exactly zero have stepped into a movie theater in 2025. Some haven’t gone in over a year.

Yes, my methodology is about as rigorous as cooking a hot dog with a magnifying glass, but one thing is clear: Audiences have never been this hesitant to return to the theatrical experience. Why that is could fill far more column inches — and require more IQ points— than I currently have on hand. But one thing’s certain: If this trend continues, going to the movies may soon be treated like a rare cultural outing. Opera, anyone?

Each new quarter brings more data confirming YouTube’s relentless growth. What was once a niche app on the fringe has now fully replaced TV, radio and music apps as the first stop for content consumption. One of the most fascinating things about YouTube is how it has rendered the role of the gatekeeper essentially obsolete.

Traditional filmed programming typically passes through at least half a dozen layers of approval before it ever reaches an audience. That entire chain of command has been collapsed into something startlingly simple: an audience of one. This immediacy and directness has fundamentally altered the relationship between creator and viewer.

It’s no wonder so many young creators are choosing to bypass traditional media altogether. Why jump through hoops and ladders when you can create content on your own terms? On YouTube, there’s only one decision that matters: yours.

Over lunch, a highly respected film producer and seasoned mentor of mine told me he’s quietly plotting his exit from the industry. Nowhere near retirement age, his thinking was to step offstage so that others could have their turn stepping onto the proscenium. His one regret? He’s not convinced he’s leaving the business in better shape than he found it.

There’s something both noble and suspiciously cinematic about putting the ball down before someone rips it from your hands. After decades of hustling and Russian roulette, he’s choosing to walk away on his own terms? That’s a lot to unpack — for him, and for me.

As I enter the twentieth year of my career (which feels impossible to type, by the way), I’ve found myself thinking more about luck — and just how much of it I’ve had. We work in an industry that worships at the altar of grind. Every new milestone gets chalked up to passion, perseverance and an almost delusional sense of purpose. But let’s be honest: Luck plays a role. A big one.

Luck — that maddening, amorphous force that threatens to turn all our carefully curated “hustle” narratives into a happy accident. There’s that adage: “It’s better to be lucky than good.” And while I’d like to believe I’m both, the truth is there have been plenty of moments where I was neither particularly sharp nor especially deserving … and yet, somehow, things broke my way.

And it’s worth noting that luck, not to diminish the work, but to recognize the full picture. Because sometimes, it really is just a coin flip. And when it lands heads-up, the least you can do is say thank you.

In closing, as I look ahead to the second half of the year, I remain cautiously optimistic. Yes, the data paint a grim picture, but still we listen to the passionate voices of our better angels—the dreamers, the believers—who hold out hope that a new wave of films will reignite the magic of the theater-going experience.

Of course, it’s entirely possible that audiences have moved on for good, and those of us holding out hope can be seen as cultural relics — dinosaurs clutching shortwave radios. But for now, we keep the lights on and the faith alive.

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Thomas Suh is the founder and managing director of Systeme D Entertainment, a filmed media and entertainment company that specializes in content acquisition, management and production for film and television. "Room Tone," the title of Suh's column series, refers to the ambient sound of a space in which filming takes place. Thomas Suh can be reached at tommysuh@me.com ― Ed.