Hollywood’s summer of strikes: Three questions

|
Chris Pizzello/AP
Stephanie Sanditz, a member of both the writers and actors guilds, pickets outside Netflix studios on Aug. 9, 2023, in Los Angeles – the 100th day of the writers strike.
  • Quick Read
  • Deep Read ( 5 Min. )

In Hollywood, the only thing that lasts forever is “The Simpsons.” But the twin strikes by writers and actors are beginning to feel endless, too. 

The Writers Guild of America has been picketing for over 100 days. In July, it was joined by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. Both unions spent much of the summer at an impasse in their respective contract renegotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. On Friday, the writers union and studios agreed to formally resume negotiations.

Why We Wrote This

Hollywood’s twin strikes have so far cost California’s economy an estimated $3 billion. With writers and studios agreeing to resume negotiations, what would it take to reach agreement?

No one can predict how long the twin strikes will last, says Brian Welk, senior business reporter for IndieWire, a film industry site. But, he adds, “I do think it’s going to be prolonged.”

The two sides are in a financial game of chicken to see who will be first to blink. 

Neither strike has yet entered record-breaking territory. The longest actors strike in history ran for six months in 2000, while the longest writers strike was for 154 days in 1988.

In Hollywood, the only thing that lasts forever is “The Simpsons.” But the twin strikes by writers and actors are beginning to feel endless, too. 

The Writers Guild of America has been picketing for over 100 days. In July, it was joined by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). Both unions spent much of the summer at an impasse in their respective contract renegotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. On Friday, the writers union and studios agreed to formally resume negotiations.

Why are they striking?

Why We Wrote This

Hollywood’s twin strikes have so far cost California’s economy an estimated $3 billion. With writers and studios agreeing to resume negotiations, what would it take to reach agreement?

Both unions overlap in two major issues at the core of their disputes with studios. The first is how producers will utilize artificial intelligence. Actors and writers want to protect their jobs by implementing guidelines over the use of AI. The second, and predominant issue, concerns royalty rates. Writers and actors have traditionally been paid for their work each time their movie or TV episode airs in reruns. The streaming business model has rendered that model of compensation outdated. 

“Now each individual piece of content doesn’t necessarily make money on its own,” says Ben Fritz, author of “The Big Picture: The Fight for the Future of Movies.” “It’s just one thing that you may watch on a streaming service that you pay maybe $15 a month for. And most significantly, the streaming services like Netflix and Max and Disney+ do not tell anyone how many times something is watched.”

The studios argue that they have yet to turn a profit from streaming services. (The one exception is Netflix.) They believe that the additional labor costs and residual payments that unions are asking for will make it even more difficult to get out of the red. 

“Those contracts obviously constrain the studios and what they can do. And they’re saying, ‘You know, that isn't fair. We should wait until we figure out the model,’” says Mr. Fritz. “The unions’ position is: If we wait until you've got a healthy model that you like and then we come begging for a piece of it, it’s going to be too late. Then you're going to have us over a barrel.”  

Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
Actors and writers walk the picket line during their ongoing twin strikes outside Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, Aug. 2, 2023.

What does that mean for new TV and movies?

In early August, Ryan Reynolds attended a game with the Welsh soccer team Wrexham AFC, which he co-owns. He brought along a special guest: Hugh Jackman. Weeks earlier, the duo had been filming “Deadpool 3,” featuring Mr. Reynolds as the titular character and Mr. Jackman as Wolverine. It was one of the first productions to halt filming due to the actors strike. If picketing continues, Mr. Reynolds may see many more games this season.

“Deadpool 3” is among 73 productions that are now on hold. Productions on hiatus include sets in Australia, Morocco, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. The strike’s impact was even felt at the end of the yellow brick road in Oz. A cast of witches in the cinema adaptation of the musical “Wicked” has put down its broomsticks and picked up protest signs. 

Some big-name actors, including Anne Hathaway, Paul Rudd, and Dakota Fanning, are still filming. SAG-AFTRA granted waivers to 58 movies and four TV series that aren’t affiliated with any of the major studios represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. 

Due to the long lead time of cinema releases, the delays may not be noticeable for a while. But both Disney and Sony Pictures recently pushed back the release dates of several 2024 movies. 

The impact is more immediately noticeable on TV. In place of scripted series, the networks’ fall schedules are loaded with reality shows and sports. CBS is importing Season 1 of the hit Kevin Costner drama “Yellowstone” from sister streaming network Paramount+. Meanwhile, it’s easier than ever to win big on “Jeopardy!” With its writers on strike, the game show’s new episodes will be recycling old questions. 

Finally, spare a thought for Tim Burton. The director had been in Vermont with Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder filming a long-awaited sequel. (The name should not be spoken three times  – we’ll mention it just this once: “Beetlejuice.”) The production had just one sequence left to film when the strike hit. Since the shutdown, several props have been stolen.

What could lead both sides to come to an agreement? 

No one can predict how long the twin strikes will last, says Brian Welk, senior business reporter for IndieWire, a film industry site. But, he adds, “I do think it’s going to be prolonged.”

The two sides are in a financial game of chicken to see who will be first to blink. 

Neither strike has yet entered record-breaking territory. The longest actors strike in history ran for six months in 2000, while the longest writers strike was for 154 days in 1988.

In July, Dwayne Johnson made a seven-figure donation to the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Emergency Financial Assistance Program. Since then, a number of other A-list actors have also donated more than $1 million each. It’s a big boost to the union’s 160,000 members. But many of them have already had to take out loans from the Screen Actors Guild credit union. 

On the other side, the studios and streaming services appear to be united. But how long before individual companies break ranks and push the others toward settlement? It depends on whether movies and TV are core to their business, or just one division within a multiproduct corporation like Amazon and Apple.

“Not all the studios are created equal,” says Mr. Welk. “Disney at least has parks to fall back on, and other things. But if you’re just a content company like Paramount or Warner Bros. and now you can’t produce shows ... you’re going to start to feel the pinch.”

Netflix, the only profitable streaming service, seems best equipped to weather the strike. It has a deep pipeline of content to draw from, says Mr. Welk. Even so, there may be a limit to how long subscribers will be happy to subsist on leftovers of USA’s “Suits” while new episodes of premium originals such as “Stranger Things” are delayed by the strikes. 

Several other factors may propel a resumption of negotiations. One economist estimates that the writers strike, which has passed 100 days, has cost the California economy $3 billion. The state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, may get a starring role in this drama. He recently offered to help broker a deal between the writers and studios, which have returned to the bargaining table. If they come to an agreement, that may put pressure on actors to follow suit. At some point, the end credits will roll on this story.

Correction: This article has been updated to include the correct title of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Emergency Financial Assistance Program.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Hollywood’s summer of strikes: Three questions
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/2023/0814/Hollywood-s-summer-of-strikes-Three-questions
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe