By Kevin Smith, Southern California News Group
It appears both sides are in it for the long haul.
The Writers Guild of America strike hit the 100-day mark on Wednesday, Aug. 9, and the Guild and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers appear to be far from reaching a labor agreement.
Chris Thornberg, an economist and founding partner with Beacon Economics, figures that won’t happen anytime soon.
He attributes the continuing impasse to the wealth of viewing options now available to customers through Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus and a host of other streaming services.
“Hollywood has changed sharply in the last 20 years,” Thornberg said. “Things have always been limited by distribution channels. In the grand old days we had movies theaters and 14 TV stations — no more, no less. But with more distribution channels added, they can suddenly make more and more money off of existing content.”
And for the time being, customers still have plenty to watch.
“It’ll be a long time before people start screaming for new content, because now you can just recycle existing shows and movies,” Thornberg said. “This could go on for quite a while.”
One of the key sticking points in the labor dispute is the residuals from streaming media. The WGA, which represents 11,500 screenwriters, claims AMPTP’s share of the residuals has significantly reduced writers’ average incomes compared to a decade ago.
Writers also want artificial intelligence, such as ChatGPT, to be used only as a tool that can help with research or facilitate script ideas and not as a tool to replace them.
Those same concerns are shared by SAG-AFTRA, the labor union that represents about 160,000 media professionals, actors and entertainers. SAG-AFTRA launched its own strike against AMPTP on July 14.
As with striking WGA writers, actors have expressed concerns about the use of artificial intelligence, noting that it could be used to replicate their likeness without compensation.
The last WGA strike, which started in 2007 and lasted for 100 days, cost the city of Los Angeles an estimated $1.5 billion, according to NPR. Forbes predicts the cost of the two concurrent strikes could exceed $3 billion.
Disney CEO Bob Iger addressed the ongoing writers and actors walkouts during the company’s quarterly earnings call on Wednesday.
“Nothing is more important to this company than its relationships with the creative community. That includes actors, writers, animators, directors and producers,” he said. “It is my fervent hope that we can quickly find solutions to the issues that have kept us apart these past few months. And I am personally committed to working toward this result.”
Chris Keyser and David A. Goodman, who co-chair the WGA’s negotiating committee, have called the 100-day mark in the WGA’s strike a “milestone of shame.”
“It’s a day of infamy for the AMPTP,” Keyser said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s shameful. Either they cannot get it together or they intentionally are not getting it together.”
The two sides last met for negotiations on Aug. 4, but Keyser said he doesn’t know when talks will resume.
“It’s impossible to get inside their heads,” he said. “They could be negotiating among themselves about what they’re willing to offer. “I’m not surprised that no one has broken off yet because the AMPTP process has been highly effective for them in putting downward pressure on labor.”
The impasse has already delayed a variety of TV and film productions.
“Challengers,” a romantic sports comedy-drama starring Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor, is a prime example. The film was supposed to hit theaters on Sept. 15, but director Luca Guadagnino and Sony have decided to push its release to April 26, 2024, according to Deadline.
“Minecraft,” a highly anticipated live-action film based on the popular video game series, was set to begin filming in August. But production has been suspended for the strike. Warner Bros. had set the release date for April 4, 2025, but that may be delayed, company officials said, depending on how long the walkout lasts.