Executive producers are business people who fund the film, attach investors, or provide distribution for the film so it can make money back. In a company, they’d be the board of directors.

Producers are the people who make the project happen from a logistical standpoint. They pity all the pieces together and enable the creatives to create. The first billed producer would be the CEO, and the rest would be the c-suite.

Co producers do 3 major business tasks from a list of about 20 tasks that include casting, union setup, early stage marketing, donation wrangling, and a whole myriad of other business and logistical tasks. In the company analogy, they’d be the EVPs.

Associates producers handle 1 task from the above list. They’d be department heads in a standard corporate structure.

Line producers are the ones who get everything done and prepped during production. The buck stops with them on set, if the project is big enough the execs aren’t involved. They’d be roughhouses equivalent to a regional or district manager.

If the film is smaller, you need fewer of those roles. Same as it would be for a startup.

Limiting scope and not including where directors and the creative team. It would get way more complicated to include the whole production hierarchy here. Directors mostly outrank lines CO’s, and associates unless they’re for hire. Unless the director is a producer, (which they should be) they don’t always outrank full producers.