[ While guild members would love to get back to work, the one
thing they’re not going to do after months on the picket lines,
whatever the studio’s strategic game plan when the strike began, is
roll over and play dead.]
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AS HOLLYWOOD’S STRIKES PASS LABOR DAY, HOW STUDIO CHIEFS MISREAD
THE WRITERS ROOM  
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Brian Lowry
September 4, 2023
CNN
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_ While guild members would love to get back to work, the one thing
they’re not going to do after months on the picket lines, whatever
the studio’s strategic game plan when the strike began, is roll over
and play dead. _

Picket line formed by writers that are on strike in New York City.
Outside on location of the Marvel Studios Disney+ TV show, Daredevil:
Born Again (filming/working title of Out the Kitchen)., Creative
Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 photo

 

If Hollywood studio chiefs have a reputation as skilled dealmakers, a
Labor Day that finds their key employees still out on strike
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four months underscores just how badly they misread the writers room.

The history of Hollywood labor actions has seen major companies rely
on their deeper pockets to absorb the pain and wait out their
employees. Arguably, that advantage appears even more pronounced
today, with the studios joined at the bargaining table by huge
corporations like Amazon and Apple, which operate their own streaming
services as they expanded into the programming game.

The studios, whose Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers
is known as the AMPTP (of which CNN parent Warner Bros. Discovery is a
member), clearly seem to have anticipated that scenario unfolding in
these negotiations. Whether true or not, the perception that the goal
was to crush guild resistance was stoked by a now-notorious quote
attributed to an anonymous executive on the trade website Deadline
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“The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start
losing their apartments and losing their houses.”

What the studios somehow missed, or chose to ignore, was the shared
belief by the guilds representing writers and actors that this
represents an inflection point for the entertainment industry, forcing
them to take a stand now. So rather than shaking their resolve, such
inflammatory sentiments strengthened it, based on the assumption that
it’s better to bite the bullet and stick together now, hoping to
avoid another extended work stoppage over the next contract, or the
one after that.

Indeed, writers and actors have rallied around the notion their
current sacrifices will benefit not just them but the generations that
follow them. As a model for that they point to 1960 – the last time
the Writers Guild and Screen Actors Guild struck at the same time,
when Ronald Reagan was president of the latter – that yielded
signature concessions regarding residuals, or performers sharing in
studio revenue over time.

While studios might not have much credibility when it comes to
pleading poverty, they have a point fretting about the future. The
shift toward streaming has upended traditional consumption of both
movies and television, casting dark clouds over their business.

 

Disney CEO Bob Iger angered writers by saying they were "not
realistic" with their contract demands.  (Photo:  Apple  //  CNN)
Disney CEO Robert Iger
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usually one of the most polished corporate leaders – gave the guilds
billboard fodder by seeking to drive home that warning, telling an
interviewer what they’re seeking is “not realistic,” citing the
fragility of the current climate.

It’s hard to deny that Hollywood – whose fortunes have often been
built and shaken by new technology – has reached another crossroads.
Although writers and actors can legitimately say that the current
streaming-driven malaise isn’t their fault, it is their problem too,
especially if the companies cut back on production, which is a
legitimate concern.

Still, executives like Iger have become poor messengers for fiscal
responsibility. Guild leaders shrewdly turned the conversation back to
studio bosses’ stratospheric income levels, citing, for example, the
$50 million earned by Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos in 2022, prompting
a non-binding shareholder vote
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the company’s executive-compensation packages in June.

While minutia about residual payments and how many writers a streaming
series employs don’t lend themselves to debate in the court of
public opinion, the studios do appear to have lost that battle, as
traditional efforts to undermine support for “greedy” actors and
writers – whose best-paid members earn millions as well – have
largely failed.

In terms of public perception, Los Angeles Times columnist Mary
McNamara
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persuasively that the studios have already lost the PR war, signaling
that it’s time to swallow their collective pride and make a deal.

Of course, meeting most of the guilds’ demands will cost the studios
additional millions each year, likely heightening financial pressures
that have already resulted in layoffs and spending cuts. In that
sense, settling the strikes won’t necessarily put an end to
Hollywood’s growing (or perhaps more accurately, shrinking) pains.

Yet if these giant companies still think making movies and TV shows,
whatever the challenges, is a business worth being in, they’re going
to need somebody to write and act in them. And while guild members
would love to get back to work, the one thing they’re not going to
do after months on the picket lines, whatever the studio’s strategic
game plan when the strike began, is roll over and play dead.

_[BRIAN LOWRY is a senior writer for CNN, focusing on everything from
TV streaming to film news.]_

* Hollywood
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* Writers
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* WGA
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* WGA Writers Strike
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* Hollywood Strikes
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* Hollywood studios
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* corporate profits
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* Labor Unions
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* Strikes
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* residuals
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* streaming
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* royalties
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* Cable
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* AI
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* artificial intelligence
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* Films
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* movies
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* television
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* writers room
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* Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers
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* AMPTP
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* Culture
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