By Jesse Marshall
With the film industry changing faster than ever, now impacting large and small productions in Hollywood. Most fo these changes are for the better, but many are getting between agreements previously made amid industry unions and studios. As tensions rise in LA, it becomes more and more likely each day that the Writers Guild of American will end up striking, which as seen in 2008 and 1988, can have temporary, but still catastrophic results for the industry.
The state that Hollywood is currently in is not new for the business, and a similar situation has been seen before during the 100 day strike from Nov. 5th, 2007 to Feb. 12th, 2008. This strike was devastating for the industry, then having to scrap together projects and writers with often poor results. Films like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Terminator Salvation, Quantum of Solace, etc. all were impacted by the strike and received heavy criticism as a result. Having gotten the script merely 2 hours prior to the strike, Quantum of Solace found itself in an extremely difficult situation, having a barely rudimentary script but unable to make changes and maintain a level of quality. Lead actor Daniel Craig spoke on the project, stating that “We had a bare bones of a script and then there was a writers’ strike and there was nothing we could do. There was me trying to rewrite scenes, and a writer I am not.”(Indiewire). Other projects like Star Trek (2009) also struggled with the strike as director JJ Abrams was unable to film any rewrites he made to the script as it was in production, because while he was still directing the film he couldn’t work as a writer, being a member of the Guild. This strike reportedly cost the LA film industry economy “upwards of $3 billion” (Forbes). The same issues could be right around the corner for Hollywood once again.
Currently, the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers have a contract that expires on May 1st. Negotiations to renew this contract have already begun, starting on March 20th, with a sure strike in the future if an agreement cannot be met between the two organizations. The main issue being discussed during negotiations are the writer’s residual fees that all screenwriters are paid when their work is playing for reruns. This is all coming during a particularly risky period financially in the film industry, with streaming not being the reliable revenue source it was expected to be, the post-pandemic still weak box office, and the lack of physical sales in the modern market. Studios have already begun layoffs, canceling projects, and lowering budgets; so they could be wary to negotiate a deal that doesn’t benefit them more so. Over on the TV side of streaming, television is hitting record numbers on various streaming services. This is great for studios but because the average season of a show is down to 8 to 10 episodes a season, while in the past an average season would be 20 plus episodes. The Writers Guild wants residual fees to change to match current TV trends as current residual fees are too low to be a consistant source of income.
Television Networks are already prepping for the potential strike by having each major show wrap before the May 1st deadline, hopefully avoiding any script problems that may occur. Tension lies in the industry that will stay until the negotiation is settled, and screenwriting may be provided again. In addition to the Writers Guild, the Directors Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild also contract deadlines around the corner with the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers, with the Directors Guild having concerns of industry trends affecting their compensation as well.
Works Cited:
Journalism 2.0 