OpenAI pulled the plug on its viral video platform Sora earlier this week, less than a year after its splashy debut—by which point much of the creative industry had already moved on.
For many in the creative industry, the shift has been less about abandoning AI video and more about redefining where it actually adds value—away from pure generation and toward supporting the broader production process.
“The truth is we had already moved on to other tools that better fit the way our creative teams work,” Tim McCraken, SVP creative and AI, BarkleyOKRP told ADWEEK. According to McCraken, while Sora showed “huge promise” it didn’t really match up with the agency’s workflows. “We experimented with it and kept watching how it evolved, but consistently found ourselves gravitating toward tools that better matched the way ideas actually get developed, refined, and moved through the agency.”
OpenAI’s release of Sora in 2024 rattled the entertainment industry, where concerns quickly mounted that its ability to generate high-quality video from text could displace human creators. The company doubled down last year with an updated version that produced more realistic footage, added audio capabilities and improved physics—intensifying backlash across Hollywood.
Alongside the model, OpenAI launched a standalone iOS app that quickly gained traction, hitting 100,000 installs on day one, climbing to the No. 1 spot on the U.S. App Store and reaching 1 million downloads faster than ChatGPT, according to Appfigures. OpenAI also rolled out a developer version of Sora, which has also been discontinued.
Disney also pledged a $1 billion stake in OpenAI and had plans to license its characters to Sora, but the deal reportedly never materialized.
OpenAI’s pullback on Sora comes as the company sharpens its broader strategy—prioritizing products with clearer utility for both enterprises and everyday users, as well as more scalable revenue streams like advertising.
In recent weeks, the company has consolidated its core offerings, folding tools like its ChatGPT desktop app, coding assistant Codex and browser capabilities into a more unified product experience. The company is also building an ads manager, ADWEEK previously reported, signaling that it’s serious about growing its ad business.
