Today, we have in our hands a new technology that could create a movie with a computer in hours. Many people think these technologies could destroy cinema. But will AI eliminate cinema in 20 years? Or will it help us generate our own masterpieces?

We are currently witnessing continuous development in AI industry. Three years ago, we had just a small seed, of what today can generate movies. This exponential development, is making us wonder about what we will be able to generate in 20 years from now.

If we think about unlimited time, talking about decades, is just a matter of time to generate our own media in seconds, created by and for ourselves. Taking this as something inevitable, it is easy to think about those hypnotic videos, that we already have in some platforms of 'Social Media'.

And what will happen to cinema when that time comes?

I. Cinema is more than the film industry

It is important to distinguish between Cinema as an art form and the film industry as a business.

The impact on the film industry it is driven by a significant optimization in film-making process. There are some examples of what happens when a business is suddenly, in terms of few years, capable of producing more than twice as much with half the resources. I want to write on another occasion about this. In essence,the long-terms result is usually the emergence of new industries, expanding the market and decreasing barriers to entry. It does not eliminate demand, but rather transform it into new quality demands.

Nowadays, thousands of movies are being created every year, but we still mostly watch projects with large funding. It is important to remember: marketing is more relevant than we think. Take a look about at big productions, for example: Batman, Interstellar, Dune, Avatar, etc. All of them are centered around merchandising, filled with publicity and on hiring famous actors to tell us stories that fit our culture perfectly. And that machine of big-production cinema will still be there no matter what technology exists.

Creating big productions and sellings large amount of movie tickets is more about corporate business than film-making process. And that its not going to change in the long terms. People will always pay to see a movie at the theater, because if consumer demands change, the business will adapt the product.

II. Cinema as art

Cinema, as an art form, is about humanity: emotions, sensitivity, and meaning.

That is why some films transcend time.

Transcendent art will be always scarce. It requires a genius artist to create it. For example, anyone with a pen is able to write a book, but we still do not have masterpice novels every year. The same rule applies to cinema, even with AI models that could generate a movie for anyone. Generating movies instantly will not bring us an amount of masterpieces. Sorry. Instead of thinking about destruction of cinema, we must think about the new industries that will emerge from this technological disruption. Film industry certainly will be transform, but those changes will be noticeable for those people working within the industry, not to us. We will still go to the theater, and still watch movies featuring famous characters, actors and avatars.