Traffic lights display green to indicate "go ahead".

To green-light is to give permission to move forward with a project.^[1] The term is a reference to the green traffic signal, indicating "go ahead".

Film industry

In the context of the film and television industries, to green-light something is to formally approve its production finance and to commit to this financing, thereby allowing the project to move forward from the development phase to pre-production and principal photography. The power to green-light a project is generally reserved to those in a project or financial management role within an organization. The process of taking a project from pitch to green light formed the basis of a successful reality TV show titled Project Greenlight.^[2]

At the Big Five major film studios in the United States and the mini-majors, green-light power is generally exercised by committees of the studios' high-level executives.^[3] However, the studio president, chairman, or chief executive is usually the person who makes the final judgment call.^[3] For the largest film budgets involving several hundred million U.S. dollars, the chief executive officer or chief operating officer of the studio's parent conglomerate may hold final green-light authority.^[3]

Popular culture

The film Shot Caller (2017) portrays the use of the term in another context. In prison and gang culture, to "greenlight" someone is to put a "hit" on their life.^[4]

References

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