Hollywood is experiencing an unprecedented event that hasn’t been seen in over six decades. Thousands of actors and writers are joining forces, picketing outside movie and TV studios, causing production to come to a halt.
Among the crowd of picketers outside Walt Disney’s Burbank studios is Demetri Belardinelli, known for his role in the TV show Silicon Valley. He and the other 160,000 members of the SAG-AFTRA union voted to strike after failed negotiations with the studios. The actors have joined the picket lines alongside the Writers Guild of America, who began their strike on May 2.
Despite the sweltering heat, the picketers remain determined. Belardinelli expresses the collective sentiment, stating, “None of us want to continue this strike. But the studios have to meet our demands.” This joint strike is a rare occurrence, with the last one happening in 1960, under the leadership of Ronald Reagan.
The tensions between the unions and the studios, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, are at an all-time high. As the major studios face financial challenges due to streaming investments and declining TV business, industry insiders anticipate a prolonged strike.
In response to financial challenges, Hollywood giants Disney, Warner Bros, and Paramount are implementing cost-cutting measures. Their stock prices are also under pressure. The halt in work on new films and TV shows disrupts future releases, just as the industry is recovering from the production delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Tim Nollen, an analyst at Macquarie, describes the SAG-AFTRA actors strike as more disruptive than the WGA writers strike, which began earlier this year.
The key issues driving the strike include declining royalties in the streaming era and concerns over the use of artificial intelligence. Writers fear receiving lower pay for adapting scripts generated by AI programs, while actors worry about the use of their digital likenesses without compensation.
Emily Cheever-Mallonee, a writer and strike captain, explains, “Both the writers and the actors have noticed a substantial change in the way we are paid and in the way we are treated by big streamers and legacy companies alike. It is worth fighting for residuals at a time when you have some of the biggest hits on streamers paying us less money than ever.”
These strikes coincide with the cinema owners’ first full summer movie slate since 2019. However, SAG rules prevent actors from promoting new movies, impacting the release of highly anticipated films like Barbie and Oppenheimer. Promotion plays a vital role in raising awareness and studio executives and analysts express concern. Universal has even canceled the New York premiere of Oppenheimer.
Bob Iger, Disney’s CEO, expresses frustration, calling it the “worst time in the world” for work stoppages, considering the industry’s nascent recovery. However, his comments have stirred anger among union members, leading to mocking signs outside Disney. Fran Drescher, president of SAG, criticizes Iger’s remarks as “terribly repugnant and out of touch, positively tone-deaf.”
Despite Iger’s influential position, the divide between the studios and unions remains. Cheever-Mallonee highlights the irony of Iger’s comments at a billionaire’s ranch after Disney announced his increased salary. She states, “I think that the public sees through the B.S. when a multimillionaire is saying something like that.” She predicts that relations will become “a little nastier” before a resolution is found.
Over 300 leading Hollywood stars, including Jennifer Lawrence and Meryl Streep, have expressed support for the possible strike action in a letter to SAG-AFTRA leadership. They emphasize the importance of taking a tough line during negotiations.
Some Hollywood executives argue that the unions have rejected a strong pay offer from the studios, considering the industry’s precarious state. One executive calls for compromise, stating, “With an industry crawling its way out of the near-death experience of three years of the pandemic, this is the essential moment to meet in the middle.”
The strike will also have economic repercussions for California. The previous writers strike in 2007-08 cost the state an estimated $2 billion, but it did not cause as significant a production shutdown as the current strike is expected to. Additionally, small businesses that have already struggled through the pandemic, such as cinemas, florists, caterers, and hairdressers, will feel the indirect effects.
Cheever-Mallonee acknowledges the impact of the strike on non-unionized workers and their jobs. She affirms, “We’re essentially fighting for the continuation of all of our jobs. We don’t strike lightly and we don’t strike for fun, right?”
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