Ben Affleck Reveals the Real Reason Hollywood Movies Are Struggling

Let’s get real for a second about the state of movies. Ben Affleck, a guy who’s seen Hollywood from every angle—struggling indie actor, overnight Oscar winner, tabloid magnet, superhero, you name it—just went full truth-teller about why the entire system is starting to crumble. And surprisingly, he doesn’t blame streaming, TikTok, or ‘kids these days’. His target? The industry itself, and all the ways it quietly stuffed originality out the side exit.

How the Movie Machine Tried to Eat Its Young

Affleck isn’t making this up from some distant A-list perch. He knows firsthand what it’s like to beg, scrape, and scrape up the cash for a cheap movie. Back in the real early days—before ‘Good Will Hunting’—he says he was pounding pavement for films made on pocket change by Hollywood standards (think a quarter-million, maybe a million if you got lucky). Which, yeah, sounds like a lot, but was actually the indie movie version of minimum wage.

The key back then? You could take risks and mess up, and still have a shot at your next movie. Now, he says, the number just to get in the door is so high that unless you’re betting on a sure-thing, nobody’s gambling on you at all.

'I thought it shouldn’t be that the barrier to entry is so high. There should be, and there are, but it needs to improve, tiers where you can come in and do something that’s not trying to be a very big commercial movie. Take some risks. Do something interesting that still uses professional people.'

Translation: There used to be a shaky ladder for new voices and offbeat ideas. Now there’s more like a greased pole, and only the sequels and remakes are really getting a grip.

Chasing Rebates, Leaving Hollywood In the Rearview

Then there’s the question of why even movies that look and feel “California” are being shot everywhere but. Affleck’s pretty up-front about it: money, pure and simple. States and other countries are dangling tax breaks that basically pay filmmakers a third or more of their budget just to leave L.A. in the dust.

'It’s one thing if you’re talking about five percent of the budget. When it’s thirty or forty percent of the budget, you’re fucked. You really have no choice.'

And this isn’t just about pampered movie stars—Affleck says the real cost is when the crews (the people who actually make the movie happen) get lured away. He’s tried to keep some shooting in L.A. (see: ‘The Accountant’ and ‘Animal’), but Hollywood’s core is being hollowed out one permit and one plane ticket at a time.

Where It’s Actually Cheaper to Film (Quick Breakdown)

• Georgia, New Mexico, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Texas, New Jersey: All offer gobsmacking tax credits that make L.A. costs look laughable.
• England: London’s rebate structure is so rich that blockbusters (yes, even the ones set in California) are ditching Hollywood completely.
• Governor Gavin Newsom has tried upping incentives for California, but it’s not keeping up.

The Domino Effect: Same Stuff, Less Soul

What’s it all lead to? According to Affleck, everyone is so terrified of financial risk that every new movie looks a whole lot like the last one. Big risks get pushed to the side, original scripts get buried, and we’re all stuck watching remixes. The frustration is real, and not just for him—he’s echoing what plenty of other big names have been saying.

Other Stars Sound Off (And They Don’t Hold Back)

Affleck isn’t the only one raising the alarm. Here’s how a few more Hollywood heavyweights see it:

• Jennifer Aniston: Got emotional when someone called her one of the last true movie stars. She says the whole 'glamour' thing is on life support, and can’t stand the influencer–social media game that dominates attention now. (Fact: she only joined Instagram to sell her own brand, and still landed 40 million followers.)
• Natalie Portman: Told Vanity Fair she sees two sides: movies may not be the center of pop culture anymore, but that also means there’s new room for passion projects and global art. If you squint, that’s half-full optimism.
• Martin Scorsese: Admitted to The Guardian he almost never sees movies in theaters now because the crowd just kills the experience.

The short version: even Hollywood legends are worried that movies are fading into the background noise of algorithms and franchise bloat.

Is Affleck Nostalgic, Or Just Proving a Point?

Here’s what hits hardest: Affleck’s not really crying for the “good old days”. He’s flat-out saying, if the system doesn’t change, there would be no career for the next Matt Damon or even for someone like his younger self. No ‘Good Will Hunting’, no brick-by-brick rise to stardom—just a closed club where the same ideas churn until audiences click away.

So: Is Hollywood evolving, or just quietly getting risk-averse and, frankly, a little boring? Would your favorite movie from the nineties even get made in 2024? Hit the comments, tell me I’m wrong, or pile on if you agree.