How Canadian-made artificial intelligence is helping Hollywood write better scripts

Jurassic World, Avengers: Infinity War, the latest in the Star Wars franchise, Solo: Movie theatres, as usual, are jam-packed with sequels this summer. Hollywood is addicted to sequels for one reason: A proven concept can reduce the risk of failure in a business where hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake. But some Canadian tech entrepreneurs believe the the odds of making an original hit movie could be greatly improved -- and so could sequels -- with the help of artificial intelligence. "Hollywood is using very primitive data analytics," said Jack Zhang, of Greenlight Essentials in Kitchener, Ont. His company's software analyzes movie plots, audience profiles and box office ticket sales to predict a film's future success and help identify who will watch.