Will AI-Generated Movies Succeed? This Director Says…

Published: June 16, 2026

By India McCarty

Director Ron Howard thinks there’s a chance AI-generated movies could succeed at the box office — as long as they have the support of audiences.

“It’s going to be, again, up to the audiences to determine what appeals, what resonates,” he said while speaking at the Runway AI Festival.

Howard continued, “It’s going to ultimately be determined by us. What’s worth our time? What are we invested in? What values do we care about? Do we care about knowing the alive actors on screen and connecting with them for that reason, or which I think won’t ever go away, but are we also fully willing to invest in characters that are synthetic?”

“There are already CGI characters, there are already animated characters. So, I think the answer is, we don’t really know, but I expect there’s room for all of it,” he concluded.

Ron Howard says audiences will decide whether or not AI movies succeed:

“It’s going to be, again, up to the audiences to determine what appeals, what resonates. It’s going to ultimately be determined by us. What’s worth our time? What are we invested in? What values do we care… pic.twitter.com/YhPviep9p0

Related: How Does Hollywood Really Feel About AI? It’s Complicated.

— Variety (@Variety) June 12, 2026

The director acknowledged that he shares some of the concerns anti-AI creatives have about the technology, saying, “It’s all our job to worry about it, think about it, experiment with it, learn from it and talk to each other and work on it. But it’s going to evolve, and audiences are ultimately going to tell us.”

Howard isn’t the only director that has come out in support of AI use in movies. Recently, Martin Scorsese announced he was joining AI firm Black Forest Labs as an adviser.

“Cinema is a young medium, only around 125 years old, so we have to be open to how it can evolve,” the director said in a statement posted to the Black Forest website. “I utilized 3D with HUGO and de-aging technology for THE IRISHMAN. Now, with this tool, I can share what I’m visualizing more clearly and efficiently to my creative team — the production designer, art designer, and cinematographer — for them to build on to enrich cinematic intelligence.”

Other filmmakers have expressed their opposition to AI, most notably, Steven Spielberg.

While Spielberg, appearing on an episode of the “IMO” podcast, said he is “kind of withholding judgment” on the tech. The JURASSIC PARK director explained, “Where I don’t love AI is where it takes a position, or there’s an empty chair at a writer’s table, and there’s six writers and an empty chair and there’s a computer in front of the empty chair and it is the seventh writer.”

“I’m not willing to substitute, you know, because I don’t really believe in its sentience. I don’t believe there is any substitute for the soul. I don’t think that is an algorithm that’s inventible, if there is such a word,” he continued. “I think a computer that thinks it feels more than we feel is anathema to the way I was raised and how I’ll practice my own trade of producing and directing in the future.”

It appears that Hollywood is still divided on the use of AI in movies and television.

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