In the digital realm, gear does not have such longevity. For filmmakers expected to continually push technology to its limits, the constant upgrade cycle is a curse. Think it’s annoying feeling pressure to upgrade your cell phone every year? Try operating an F/X house pressured to upgrade every piece of equipment and every piece of software, every year.

“It’s people! Soylent Green is People!”

OK, so you’re a filmmaker working on a romantic comedy with no space battles, no dinosaurs, and no talking animals or babies. But your film still costs as much to make as Terminator 2. What the heck?

The answer is people, and I’m not talking about the salaries of the stars. The push towards casting young unknowns to carry franchises (think Jennifer Lawrence, Shailene Woodley, Andrew Garfield, etc.) is actually driving star-related costs down from where they were a decade ago. Nowadays when you hear about a film star making tens of millions of dollars from a single project, it’s likely the result of a revenue-sharing deal, not because they got $20 million upfront, guaranteed, a la Jim Carrey in The Cable Guy.

Every time you see a film budget in the news, the figure is most likely inflated.

No, I’m talking about the other couple hundred names you see in the end credits of a film. On a major Hollywood production, those hundreds of people will give many months of their lives to a production, taking care of everything from catering to costumes, and they need to be compensated accordingly. As the costs of living raises, so do the costs of everyone working on any given film, and no amount of technology can make living in Los Angeles (or New York, or Vancouver) any cheaper.

And when Hollywood productions leave North America seeking a less expensive workforce (or a workforce subsidized by foreign tax incentives), the goal isn’t usually to spend less money, but to get more bang for the hundred million bucks they were already planning to spend. (Sadly, for many of these films, you get what you pay for, with the end product reflecting the work of less experienced craftsman).

It’s getting harder and harder to get people off their couches

Movies have gotten bigger because TV has gotten better. So Hollywood film execs are doubling down on “spectacle,” maximizing every inch of the screen at your local multiplex, not to mention releasing more films in 3D and IMAX.