It has been almost four months since the historical Hollywood strike by WGA started in early May. On the other side of the negotiation table is the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), representing Hollywood studios and streamers such as Amazon, Apple, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix, and NBCUniversal, among others, but there’s no clear scope of the two parties reaching any agreement.
It’s the longest interruption of TV/film production in the US since the pandemic. In the meantime, films and series such as American Horror Story (Season 12), Billions (Final Season), Blade Runner 2099, Cobra Kai (Final Season), Emily in Paris (Season 4), and Stranger Things (Final Season), among others, got impacted. The level of the impact varies; some productions were forced to shut down their writers’ rooms during the pre-production or suspend the physical production on set leading to a significant delay, or some decided to wrap their shoot by shooting the final few days/weeks of the shoot without showrunners.
However, the situation became much more serious, yet chaotic when SAG joined the strike in July in an alliance with WGA. The start of the strike coincided with the theatrical release of the most highly anticipated film of Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer which the actors walked out of its world premiere. Other films were impacted similarly, where they were forced to go on without stars or cancel the events. A-list names, including Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, Charlize Theron, Joaquin Phoenix, Jamie Lee Curtis and Ewan McGregor seemingly signed the A SAG-AFTRA letter expressing willingness to strike. This is the first time in 60 years that both unions for writers and actors have gone on strike against AMPTP at the same time since 1960.
How Long Will the Strike Last?
It is still in the mist. Studios released new proposals to WGA with details on AI, data transparency & residuals. Writers from other countries, including non-English speaking parts of the world, support the strike as well, including a Swedish writer, Alex Haridi known for the Netflix series Love and Anarchy. Taking a look on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, where you can bet on bookmakers in Japan, odds on when the strike ends are provided. (Speaking of which, according to the odds provided by one of such bookmakers, the WGA strike is predicted to last longer than SGA’s. The odds for both of them to finish on the same day is 6.0, which is way higher than the odds provided by the same bookmaker for “2023 to be the hottest year on record” being 1.37) The strike is no longer just about Hollywood. People all over the world are paying close attention.
The strike reached its 100th day on August 9th. In an article by Deadline, it’s suggested that the strike would last until “not Halloween precisely, but late October”. It would potentially last till Christmas, or even through early 2024. There could be writers and actors who struggle financially. Would studio executives be able to drive past those who fight for their security on avenues of Hollywood?
What do writers (and actors) want?
Perhaps nobody expected this to last so long, but what exactly are the focus points of the negotiations that have caused such an enormous split between the studios and the heart of the content creation: writers and actors? In case you have missed the whole thing till now and are too embarrassed to ask, here is a brief recap of the argument:
Writers demand an increase in minimum payment in all areas of media, including writing compensation from pre- to post-production, residuals, increased contributions to pension and health plans, and overall protection for writers. To clarify, as of August 2023, the main focus brought up by WGA is as follows: 1)Higher compensation, 2) Residuals, 3) protection from AI, 4) Mini-rooms, and 5) Exclusivity contracts.
According to a recent WGA report, the median weekly writer-producer compensation has declined 23 percent over the last decade. According to the WGA, half of all writers now work in streaming, where they work at the minimum wage regardless of experience, often for fewer weeks, and get paid fewer residuals for new and pre-existing shows.
“Mini-room” is a scaled-down writers’ room that hires fewer writers for shorter periods of time, in comparison to the traditional writer’s room in TV production. In mini-rooms, writers often pay less as well.
Protection from artificial intelligence is a new concern that emerged only recently with the development of generative AI chatbots such as chatGPT. Some readers might have been surprised by the level of text content, images, and videos that generative artificial intelligence could create. Actors are worried they will lose control of their lucrative likenesses, whereas writers could lose credit or lose a writing job itself in the fight against AIs. Hence the rights and protection from contents generated by AI is crucial in this strike.
Scope For An Agreement?
As written above, on August 11th, the studios publicly disclosed their new proposals for WGA. While many screenwriters and actors are picketing, taking huge risks for their lives and financial situations, Hollywood executives are not completely free from anguish either.
In recent years, Hollywood studios have become more and more franchise/mega-budget film-driven. Significant delays in the release of those tent pole films that are already on calendars for the following years would easily lead to huge increases in cost, and studios are not so well off that they can afford to ignore those delays as if nothing. Additionally, the negative impact on studios could be too big to just ignore. Many writers have been calling for solidarity, posting on their social media images of them picketing the streets, and the spread of negative images against the studios could eventually keep consumers away from cinemas.
