Hollywood's collapse is accelerating faster than anyone predicted.
The studios that once dominated entertainment are scrambling to survive.
And a Chick-fil-A billionaire made one move that confirms Hollywood's slow death.
Marvel packed up and left Georgia's biggest studio empty
Dan Cathy built an entertainment empire in Georgia that made Hollywood executives jealous.
The Chick-fil-A chairman poured $2.6 billion into Trilith Studios, a sprawling 1,200-acre complex south of Atlanta that became home to some of the biggest blockbusters in movie history.¹
Black Panther, Captain America, and multiple Spider-Man films were all shot on Cathy's soundstages.
Marvel Studios treated Trilith as their East Coast headquarters for nearly a decade.
Then the bottom fell out.
Disney's Marvel suddenly packed up and moved overseas in search of cheaper labor and fresh tax incentives.
Film spending across Georgia crashed from a record $4.4 billion in 2022 to just $2.6 billion last year.²
"The movie business is slow in Georgia right now," admitted Tom Harrold, the Atlanta attorney who helped craft Georgia's film tax credits.³
Trilith's massive soundstages now sit largely empty.
The complex that once buzzed with activity producing billion-dollar franchises has gone quiet.
A Christian businessman sees what Hollywood elites refuse to acknowledge
Most studio owners would panic when Hollywood abandons their facilities.
Cathy did something the coastal elites running entertainment companies can't comprehend.
The devout Christian who keeps every Chick-fil-A closed on Sundays recognized that traditional Hollywood is dying.
He didn't chase after studios that might never return.
Instead, Cathy announced plans to dedicate 35% of Trilith's space to digital creators, YouTubers, and influencers who built audiences without Hollywood's permission.⁴
"We have to skate where the puck is," Trilith CEO Frank Patterson explained. "We have to wrap our arms around this next generation of storytellers."⁵
The pivot started in August when filmmaker Jeremy Garelick struck a deal to base his operations at Trilith.
Garelick's videos have racked up more than 10 billion views across social media.⁶
"Buildings don't build an industry," Garelick said. "People do. And ideas do."⁷
That's pure American entrepreneurship.
You don't need Hollywood gatekeepers telling you what stories to tell anymore.
Self-made creators are destroying the corporate media monopoly
The numbers expose Hollywood's dirty secret.
Goldman Sachs predicts the creator economy will hit $480 billion by 2027, nearly doubling from $250 billion in 2023.⁸
Regular Americans with cameras and internet connections now command audiences that dwarf what most Hollywood productions deliver.
These creators built their empires from scratch without studio backing or corporate distribution deals.
Remember when Joe Rogan's podcast moved more votes in the 2024 election than all the major broadcast networks combined?
That wasn't an accident.
Evan Shapiro, who tracks the media ecosystem, says November 2024 marked the moment creator media surpassed corporate media in global relevance.⁹
The talking heads on CNN and MSNBC are still pretending they matter.
Meanwhile, independent voices are reaching tens of millions of Americans who stopped trusting corporate propaganda years ago.
While corporate media has grown at about 5% annually, creator media has exploded at over 25% growth rates.¹⁰
Hollywood keeps making the same woke garbage with the same tired formulas.
Creators are connecting directly with audiences and leaving studios in the dust.
According to surveys, 60% of consumers trust creators who feel relatable and authentic.¹¹
Everyday Americans trust regular people over polished corporate messaging.
Who would have thought?
Cathy keeps building his vision while Hollywood crumbles
Most business owners would cut their losses and walk away.
Cathy is doubling down.
His family trust continues expanding the Trilith campus with a $400 million performing arts center and investments in media startups tied to the creator economy.¹²
The complex now includes luxury homes, restaurants, and training programs for writers and filmmakers.
Cathy built an entire town around content creation based on the same values that built Chick-fil-A into America's most beloved fast-food chain.
"Dan wants to make the world a better place," said Jeff Stepakoff, who runs the Trilith Institute training school. "Trilith is his vision, his legacy."¹³
That's the difference between a Christian businessman who believes in building something lasting and Hollywood executives chasing the next quarterly earnings report.
Georgia remains second only to Hollywood in soundstage space with over 3 million square feet available.¹⁴
But those stages increasingly sit empty waiting for productions that moved to the UK or other countries.
The Georgia Film Office reported the state hosted 412 productions in fiscal year 2022.¹⁵
That number has dropped sharply as major studios shift operations overseas.
Cathy recognized this trend before other studio owners because he wasn't blinded by Hollywood arrogance.
His pivot to creators positions Trilith to thrive regardless of what the coastal elites do next.
Hollywood's woke arrogance finally caught up with them
Studio executives spent decades convinced their model was untouchable.
They controlled distribution, owned the talent, and decided what content reached audiences.
More importantly, they controlled the message.
Want your movie distributed? Better make sure it checks all the right diversity boxes and preaches the correct political sermons.
The internet destroyed that monopoly.
Now anyone with a camera and internet connection can build an audience larger than most TV shows without bowing to Hollywood's ideological demands.
Creators don't need studio executives lecturing them about representation and inclusion.
They don't need corporate committees approving their content.
Social media platforms give them direct access to global audiences hungry for authentic voices instead of corporate propaganda.
And those audiences are voting with their attention.
Micro-creators with smaller followings deliver 2.4 to 6.7 times more engagement than large-scale corporate content.¹⁶
The numbers expose Hollywood's fundamental problem.
Audiences want authenticity and connection, not another superhero movie where the female lead is more powerful than all the male characters combined.
Studios keep churning out sequels, remakes, and woke lectures disguised as entertainment.
Creators are building loyal communities by being themselves and respecting their audiences.
Patterson summed up the shift perfectly: "The future of storytelling may not belong to movie studios at all — but to the people who built their own from scratch on social media."¹⁷
Cathy's Trilith Studios just confirmed what everyday Americans already know.
Hollywood's golden age is over.
The self-made creators won.
And a Christian businessman who closes his restaurants every Sunday to honor the Lord figured it out before all the "experts" in Los Angeles.
¹ Brett Pulley, "Chick-fil-A Tycoon's Movie Studio Swaps 'Spider-Man' for Influencers," Bloomberg, October 24, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ Ibid.
⁴ Ibid.
⁵ Ibid.
⁶ Ibid.
⁷ Ibid.
⁸ "Creator Economy Trends Report 2024," MBO Partners, September 11, 2025.
⁹ John Koetsier, "Creator economy: the $250 billion tailwind behind influencer marketing," Singular, January 5, 2025.
¹⁰ Ibid.
¹¹ "Creator Economy vs Influencer Marketing in 2025," impact.com, July 23, 2025.
¹² Brett Pulley, "Chick-fil-A Tycoon's Movie Studio Swaps 'Spider-Man' for Influencers," Bloomberg, October 24, 2025.
¹³ Ibid.
¹⁴ "Behind the scenes at Trilith, Georgia's largest studio," Georgia Entertainment, November 11, 2024.
¹⁵ "Georgia Made Film & TV Productions Generate $4.4B for State," Georgia Department of Economic Development, August 1, 2022.
¹⁶ "Creator Economy vs Influencer Marketing in 2025," impact.com, July 23, 2025.
¹⁷ Tyler Durden, "Hollywood's Slow Death Continues: Chick-Fil-A Billionaire Turns Movie Studio Into Creator Hub," ZeroHedge, October 27, 2025.
