Greenlight

In the context of the film and television industries, to greenlight is to give permission to proceed with a project.[1] It specifically refers to formally approving its production finance and committing to this financing, thereby allowing the project to proceed from the development phase to pre-production and principal photography. The power to greenlight 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] The term is a reference to the green traffic signal, indicating "go ahead".

At the Big Five major film studios in the United States and the mini-majors, greenlight 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 greenlight authority.[3]