The AI App That Could Supercharge A24
Cursor shares the same big investor as the indie studio, and is on the cusp of reprogramming everything from development to production to VFX
I write every other Tue. for paid subscribers and recently covered the Chinese AI that should scare you; the billion-dollar opportunity in eternal celebrities; and why OpenAI’s Ghiblification moment should be a wake-up call for Hollywood.
For more than a century, Hollywood’s studio system has survived revolutions big and small — from the rise of television to the collapse of DVD revenue to the streaming wars that turned tech companies into movie studios. The impact of these revolutions was slowed by the slow, grinding force of star systems, existing IP and talent.
While studios were bought and sold, merged and forgotten, nothing could change the way television shows and films were really made — or at least these changes were mostly on the margins. The main reason why: There wasn’t enough money at stake for venture capital to seize opportunities that would truly revolutionize Hollywood.
Compared to the tech businesses up north, how many unicorns (businesses valued at $1 billion or more) could be conceived? Even if there was a cool, disruptive idea — say, a business that automated certain visual effects — how big could it really be? There are only so many Marvel movies. Could you ever build a $1 trillion business on the back of Hollywood as Netflix recently said it hoped to do by 2030?
But AI puts us in a new era. In the two and a half years since generative AI went mainstream, people have searched for the applications that could justify all the investment being poured into the tech. Now the first one appears to be here, and its implications for Hollywood could be profound.
You wouldn’t initially think that software designed to make coding easier would be the thing to upend the entertainment industry, but tools like Cursor, the biggest AI application development system on the market (though there are others), allow anyone — even if you have no programming abilities — to code apps that can do whatever you can dream up. Think of it as AI’s Apple App Store moment, opening up countless new businesses and opportunities.
Earlier this spring, I saw people in the AI Twitter community promoting the idea that “the next billion-dollar companies will be TINY teams ‘Cursifying’ specific professional workflows.” At the top of their list, improbably, was this:
Cursor for screenwriting: script editor that helps generate dialogue and plot elements
Who’s gonna make $1 billion automating screenwriting? How is that your number one business idea?
Then I decided to use Cursor myself, and that’s when I realized that Hollywood is a kind of a testing ground for this disintermediation. It’s a high-profile, shiny example for tech to prove that whole businesses can be disrupted. Think of it as the Spanish Civil War before WWII, a dress rehearsal for a new kind of battle.
When you see what can be done, you’ll realize how “vibe coding” (as it’s known) and Cursor — the startup behind it just raised another $900 million to be valued at $9 billion — could affect thousands of jobs and billions of dollars. The select few who can build the best apps fastest will dismantle and rebuild the way Hollywood has been doing things for 100 years. While some ways that Hollywood works could definitely benefit from fresh thinking (Richard Rushfield recently wrote about four outsiders fixing what Hollywood won’t), this is the kind of radical change that should terrify or thrill you, depending on where you sit.
In this issue, I’ll show you:
How I built an app to do YA development in a matter of hours
What Cursor apps will do to VFX, localization and dubbing, marketing and distribution and even screenwriting
Why A24 may be best positioned to adopt Cursor and justify its hype and valuation
Two other studio players with the temperament to “Cursify” themselves and the business
Why Hollywood is like a 1960s auto assembly line and Cursor could bring it into the modern age
What it all potentially means for jobs
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Erik Barmack is a working producer and the founder of Wild Sheep Content. He also runs a news site dedicated to AI in the entertainment industry called AI in Hollywood.