When Hollywood productions packed up and left Georgia, Trilith Studios — the sprawling, $2.6 billion complex built by Chick-fil-A chairman Dan Cathy — suddenly went quiet. Once the home of Black Panther, Captain America, and Spider-Man, its soundstages now sit largely empty as major studios shift overseas in search of cheaper labor and new incentives, according to Bloomberg.
Film spending in Georgia has dropped sharply, from a record $4.4 billion in 2022 to $2.6 billion last year. “The movie business is slow in Georgia right now,” said Atlanta attorney Tom Harrold, who helped craft the state’s film tax credits.
To adapt, Trilith is betting on a new kind of star. The studio plans to dedicate about 35% of its space and resources to influencers, YouTubers, and other digital creators. “We have to skate where the puck is,” said CEO Frank Patterson. “We have to wrap our arms around this next generation of storytellers.”
Bloomberg writes that the pivot began in August, when filmmaker and influencer Jeremy Garelick, whose American High videos have more than 10 billion social views, struck a deal to base his operations at Trilith. “Buildings don’t build an industry,” Garelick said. “People do. And ideas do.”
It’s a major shift for Cathy, Georgia’s richest man, who envisioned Trilith as an entertainment utopia — complete with luxury homes, restaurants, and training programs for writers and filmmakers. Backed by his family’s trust, Cathy continues to expand the campus, adding a $400 million performing-arts center and investing in media startups tied to the creator economy.
Executives say the move reflects a broader reality: the cultural center of gravity is shifting from Hollywood to online platforms, where creators like MrBeast and Dhar Mann command global audiences. As Patterson put it, 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.
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