The Executive – Movie Industry Tycoon | PC Review

I was fortunate to be a young adult in the prime of independent films in the 90s. When Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith, and Richard Linklater made their first films, I was there. I was inspired when Robert Rodriguez made El Mariachi for $7,000 or, my idol, Kevin Smith made Clerks by selling his comics and maxing out credit cards. It made me believe that I could do it, too.

Life, obviously, took a different path. Video games allow us to vicariously live out our dreams. Aniki Games brought us The Executive – Movie Industry Tycoon, published by Goblinz Publishing and Maple Whispering Limited, to do just that. It’s a fully immersive and realistic view of life as the CEO of a movie studio.

Run the Studio

Your beginnings are the same, regardless of difficulty. You start with 30 million dollars. The difference is in payback. Easy – You inherited the money and don’t have to pay it back. The remaining difficulties increase the stakes of paying back, higher interest or the party that you owe could make your life more difficult.

Otherwise, the story is simple. Make movies that make money and, hopefully, win awards!

Holy Smokes That’s a Lot of Options

After a rather lengthy introduction to all of the things you can click on and control, you jump right in! You get a limited number of genre options at the beginning of the game. I wanted my first film to be a low budget horror movie, but horror was not an option yet. So, I chose a political drama. From there, you select your director. A list of directors are provided to you along with ratings. These ratings are public opinion, overall ability, and another rating that indicates if they are a good fit directing the genre of film that you chose.

All of the pre-production, during production, and post-production options are thorough. I want to emphasize that word: thorough! You can decide on how you want to spend your budget. A political drama like mine needs no special effects, so take the budget away from that and increase your spending on sets. You can decide on your lead actor/actress; you get to choose more as you move through the game. 

Actors, Actresses, and Directors are playfully named with a method I had to look up: Spoonerisms. Instead of Diane Keaton, you get Kiane Deaton. Instead of John Waters, you get Wohn Jaters. You get the idea. It’s playful and fun. Giving a nod to some legends while not actually using their name.

When the movie is released, you watch how the film performs at the box office. Then you create a report and move forward! The more success you experience, the larger your movie studio becomes. For example, more employees whose performance you have to monitor, multiple movies being produced at the same time, or dealing with public relations problems.

Fun and Suitable Look and Sound

The Executive – Movie Industry Tycoon has crisp solid graphics. The game takes place entirely in the office or in the numerous option interfaces, so I’m glad the graphics are as good as they are. There’s not much more to say; the interfaces are intuitive and well designed. 

The music is reminiscent of movie soundtracks, think glitz and glamour. During the gameplay, the music is a perfect background. Much like the graphics, the music doesn’t need to be front and center. It’s exactly what you would hope for in a game like this.

Final Verdict

The Executive – Movie Industry Tycoon is exactly what I want in a game of this type. Making movies was a dream of mine and this game gives me just about everything I could want to scratch that itch except for writing the film myself or rubbing shoulders with famous people at awards shows. The decision making is impeccable, and the struggle of being a small studio is well represented. Managing a growing studio, with a team of employees whose performance needs to be monitored, is as realistic as the challenge of making sure your company is profitable so that they can all be paid. Young adult version of me is smiling ear to ear and wishing I could play it even longer on a daily basis.

The one thing I might say against it? It’s a video game that recreates a job. If you already have a full time job, playing a game that is essentially a job recreated may not be every gamer’s cup of tea. But, 100% it was mine.

To hear me talk more about The Executive – Movie Industry Tycoon, be sure to listen to the March 14, 2025 episode of The Gaming Outsider podcast.

This review is based on a PC copy of The Executive – Movie Industry Tycoon provided by Jesus Fabre for coverage purposes. As of the time of this writing, it is exclusive to this platform.