The California wildfires have to date killed at least 25 people, destroyed or damaged more than 12,000 structures and put about 300,000 people on evacuation orders. It has also had a major impact on business, most notably that of Hollywood.
Rumours have circulated online that the Oscars, set to take place on 2 March, could be postponed, but the Hollywood Reporter called these “baseless” with no changes to the date planned. “We will get through this together and bring a sense of healing to our global film community,” organisers said.
The Hacks star Jean Smart, who recently won a Golden Globe for the role, has called for the Oscars and all other awards shows this season to be seriously revised. On Instagram, she wrote: “I hope any of the networks televising the upcoming awards will seriously consider NOT televising them and donating the revenue they would have gathered to victims of the fires and the firefighters.”
Stephen King shared her sentiment this week. “Not voting in the Oscars this year,” King wrote. “IMHO they should cancel them. No glitz with Los Angeles on fire.”
The entertainment industry is estimated to create $43bn in wages every year for the Californian economy and recent events have not only forced a pause in the short term but also raised concerns over long-term recovery.
“This kind of catastrophe just could not have come at a worse time for the industry or for the city in general,” Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw said this week on the industry podcast The Town.
Hollywood had already been dealing with the effect of Covid on both production and cinema attendance before the dual writers and actors strikes of 2023 added further disruption. Last year’s US box office topped out at $8.75bn, a steep decline from 2019’s $11.3m total.
Premieres for films including The Last Showgirl, Wolf Man and Better Man were cancelled while production on shows such as Grey’s Anatomy, Suits: LA and Hacks was briefly put on hold with the latter award-winning comedy also losing a key location when a mansion owned by Smart’s character was destroyed. A statement from the area’s official film office FilmLA noted: “Many places beloved by nationwide audiences may never return to the screen.”
On his return to his nightly show after a brief break, the late-night host Jimmy Kimmel called it “a sickening, shocking, awful experience” with one fire burning just two miles away from his studio.
The sky-rocketing cost of shooting in the area had already caused many productions to relocate elsewhere to places such as Atlanta, where the majority of Marvel films are made. Figures released this week showed that LA shoot days in 2024 were down by almost 6% from the year before, representing a historically low level.
IATSE, the union representing below-the-line employees in Hollywood, still estimates that about 8,000 workers live in areas affected by the fires.
The start of the year is traditionally a vital month for the annual awards season yet since the fires began, the Oscar nominations have been postponed twice (now set to be announced on 23 January), the Critics Choice awards have been moved to an unspecified February date and multiple events surrounding the Grammys have been cancelled.
The Grammys are still scheduled to take place in Los Angeles on 2 February but organisers have decided to focus on “a renewed sense of purpose” aiming to fundraise for those affected.
Beyoncé, who leads this year nominations, has donated $2.5m to the newly launched LA Fire Relief Fund while also postponing a major announcement this week. The singer’s mother, Tina Knowles, is among the many locals to have lost their homes in the past week.
Other celebrities whose houses have been destroyed include Jeff Bridges, Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore, Joshua Jackson, Anthony Hopkins and Adam Brody. “I am devastated and gutted for those of us who’ve lost so much,” Moore said on Instagram. “I’m absolutely numb.”
This week stars from Jamie Lee Curtis to Leonardo DiCaprio to Taylor Swift have donated large amounts to relief efforts. “The fires in California have devastated so many families, and it’s been heartbreaking to see these stories unfold,” Swift wrote on Instagram. “So much suffering, loss, and destruction.”
Entertainment companies have quickly followed with Netflix, Disney and Paramount among those contributing.
In response to the devastation, a FireAid benefit concert has been announced, with proceeds to help those affected, with reported headliners including Lady Gaga, Billie Eilish and Gwen Stefani. The Eagles have already donated $2.5m to the cause.
Thursday also saw Donald Trump announce three “special ambassadors” to Hollywood just days before his second inauguration. Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight will assist the president with “a great but very troubled place” that “has lost much business over the last four years to Foreign Countries”.
Next week also sees the start of the Sundance film festival, which takes place in Utah yet involves a large contingent of Californians affected. Organisers have chosen to go ahead, with a statement calling the process of coming together at this time “both healing and catalytic”.
One of the major premieres is a drama called Rebuilding, starring Josh O’Connor as a rancher who loses everything in a wildfire and ends up at a Fema camp where he finds a new community. The director, Max Walker-Silverman, called it an “attempt to imagine a beautiful future in our uncertain warming world”.
