Director says AI cut his film's budget from $80M to $1.5M, but distribution remains the bottleneck
DavidmComfort · x · 2026-10-22
Per Variety's exclusive, director Tom Walsh estimates his children's book adaptation "Merry the Christmas Witch" would have cost $80 million without AI — the final budget was $1.5 million. Author Bobbi Hess, a 70-year-old technical writer, called the adaptation "a perfect marriage" of subject and technology.
The poster notes that even with collapsed production costs, distribution will be one of the toughest issues for AI films, as traditional gates stay closed to new stories and filmmakers.
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