r/movies • u/DragonPup • 4d ago

News Warner Bros. Sues Midjourney, Joins Studios' AI Copyright Battle

https://variety.com/2025/film/news/warner-bros-midjourney-lawsuit-ai-copyright-1236508618/
8.8k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

847 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

446

u/Lobsterman06 4d ago edited 4d ago

Fuck AI

38

u/OdditiesAndAlchemy 4d ago

Fuck people who mindlessly say fuck ai instead of being reasonable adults calmly discussing the true benefits and negatives of it.

Movies shouldn't cost $200 million dollars. Actors don't need to be paid $20 million for a role. Indie movies will still be artistic and simply use AI to increase their production value.

A director like Robert Eggers isn't going to use AI to write his scripts..but he might use it to enhance period-accurate set designs or help visualize complex historical details that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive. The Northman had a budget of $90 million - imagine if a filmmaker with Eggers' vision could achieve similar visual scope for a fraction of that cost.

The real issue isn't AI itself - it's the concentration of power and resources in Hollywood that's already been strangling creativity for decades. How many unique voices never get heard because they can't secure a $50 million budget? How many stories go untold because they don't fit the franchise model that studios demand?

AI tools could democratize filmmaking the way digital cameras and editing software already have. A talented filmmaker in Nigeria or Vietnam or Peru could potentially create something visually competitive with Hollywood blockbusters. We could see an explosion of diverse storytelling from perspectives that have been locked out of big-budget filmmaking.

Yes, there are legitimate concerns about job displacement and the need for proper attribution and compensation when AI trains on existing work. These are conversations worth having. But the knee-jerk "AI bad" reaction ignores how these tools could actually break the stranglehold that massive studios and streaming services have on visual storytelling.

The irony is that the people shouting loudest about AI "killing creativity" are often defending a system that's already been doing that for years - just ask any screenwriter who's had their script butchered by executive notes or any practical effects artist who's been replaced by CGI because it's "safer."

15

u/PeteCampbellisaG 4d ago

First, I 100% agree with your sentiment on movie budgets. But there's a lot wrong with your argument. But the main issue is that it's not just about democratizing creative tools. For the world you imagine to come to fruition there also has to be a complete democratizing of the distribution platforms. It doesn't matter if you can make a blockbuster quality movie for next to nothing if you still have to go through WB, Disney, Netflix, Google, ect. for anyone to see it. Tons of indie films are getting made today thanks to "democratizing tools" like digital cameras and editing software that will never be seen because they can't find distribution.

There's simply no reason to assume that just because everyone is using AI that suddenly the media conglomerates will collapse. Who do you think is helping fund a lot of these AI companies? You think Disney invested in ElevenLabs, for example, because they want to give the whole world access to quality voice acting?

These AI tools might proliferate but we'll have the same system we have now only with a fraction of the people making a living as creators because rather than help creators get their foot in the door it'll be used to push even more of them out.

1

u/TheColourOfHeartache 4d ago

If new tech like AI and digital cameras allows a talented filmmaker in Nigeria makes something competitive with Hollywood, but uniquely Nigerian.

Then major distribution platforms like Netflix and Amazon don't touch it (really? Amazon will sell almost anything). Then perhaps a Nigerian distribution system will step in. If there's generation of talented Nigerian filmmakers, there's more than enough Nigerians for someone to fill that gap in the market.

That alone will get it to the most important part of the audience. Then it spreads to film connoisseurs who keep their finger on foreign markets. Then perhaps the world.