The co-founder and CEO of AI video-generation firm Runway has proposed a controversial new model for Hollywood film financing. Crist贸bal Valenzuela suggested studios should use a $100 million budget to produce 50 movies instead of a single blockbuster, arguing it would increase the chances of commercial success.

Speaking at Semafor鈥檚 World Economy Summit, Valenzuela stated this approach represents a shift from viewing film as a singular artistic investment to treating it as a "quantity problem." His comments come amid ongoing tension between the creative industries and the rapid integration of artificial intelligence tools.

Industry Pushback and Practical Adoption

Valenzuela acknowledged the controversy but claimed "things are changing fast," attributing early skepticism to fear and misunderstanding. He asserted that Runway's technology, now valued at over $5 billion, is already deployed with major studios to reduce costs across pre-production, scripting, planning, and visual effects.

This shift is not theoretical. The upcoming $70 million film "Bitcoin: Killing Satoshi" reportedly used AI to slash its production budget from an estimated $300 million. Major players like Amazon, Sony Pictures, and studios in India are also employing AI to cut costs, with director James Cameron endorsing the technology as a means to sustain blockbuster production without layoffs.

The "Crisis of Creativity" and a Flood of Content

The Runway CEO framed his argument around a "crisis of creativity," driven by current economic incentives. He compared video production to publishing, claiming 25 million books are produced yearly

"The world is in a much better place because there鈥檚 more people who manage to tell a story," Valenzuela said, promoting a model of flooding the market. He concluded, "the best movies are yet to be made because we haven鈥檛 heard from probably, like, the billions of people who haven鈥檛 had access to this鈥echnology."

Criticism and the Path Forward

The proposal challenges the core belief that backing the right creative team is the path to success, reducing it instead to a numbers game. Critics of the tech industry dispute that scaling creativity with AI automatically yields more great art.

Despite this, Valenzuela and Runway are betting on widespread adoption, with the technology already integrated at scale to bring production costs down "everywhere" in the filmmaking process.