The scene at Disney in Burbank on Friday, the 144th day of the Writers Guild strike.
Lesley Goldberg/Staff
Warner Bros. Discovery head, David Zaslav, now acknowledges the validity of the writers’ demands for significant changes in Hollywood’s compensation system.
Zaslav told The New York Times in a comprehensive new profile that he has no regrets regarding the agreement reached between studios and the Writers Guild of America for a new three-year contract on Sept. 24.
“They are right about almost everything,” Zaslav said. “So what if we overpay? I’ve never regretted overpaying for great talent or a great asset.”
In the deal, writers received an increase in pay, minimum show staffing requirements, and protections against AI, among other gains. Yet studios resisted the writers’ demands for months resulting in a strike that lasted a brutal 148 days that brought the industry to a near-halt. In July, Disney chief Bob Iger called the writers’ proposed changes in compensation “unrealistic.”
Zaslav’s suggestion that writers might now be overpaid will likely strike some detractors as ironic given that the executive famously received $246 million in compensation in 2021. WGA board member Adam Conover previously countered, “That’s about the same level as 10,000 writers are asking him to pay us collectively, all right?” For further context, if combining the Writers Guild, SAG-AFTRA and Directors Guild contracts, the total cost is “closer to the high end of our $450 million to $600 million yearly cost estimate,” according to Moody’s Investor Service detailed on Nov. 10.
The Times profile points out that the writers’ and actors’ strikes ultimately saved WBD plenty of money, but that Zaslav has been sluggish to greenlight new projects that could bolster the company’s bottom line amid his extremely aggressive, and controversial, cost cutting. Even with executing $3 billion in cuts, the company lost $400 million in the third quarter. The board’s confidence in the executive, the story notes, remains firm.
The story follows the latest in Warners’ self-inflicted headaches: The announced shelving, then un-shelving, of another movie, Coyote Vs. Acme — a live-action and animation hybrid that briefly seemed doomed to follow the same fate as last year’s Batgirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt, which were dumped for tax write-offs. After creative community outcry, the company has since reversed course and plans to shop the film to studios and streamers, though one congressman, Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro, is now calling for the studio to be investigated for “predatory and anti-competitive” practices.
