Movies

Opinion: Actors and writers celebrated last year’s labor victory. Now the cheering seems premature

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Opinion: Actors and writers celebrated last year's labor victory. Now the cheering seems premature

As a lifelong movie enthusiast who has witnessed the ebb and flow of Hollywood’s tides, I can’t help but feel a twinge of melancholy as we enter another fall filled with uncertainty in Tinseltown. The once-golden land of dreams now seems more like a battleground where artists, writers, and crews are forced to navigate the ever-shifting sands of an industry in flux.

Exactly one year ago, Hollywood encountered a situation where actors’ and writers’ unions went on strike during Labor Day, leaving studios scrambling to adjust their movie release dates and put together prime-time TV lineups with minimal original domestic scripted series. The Emmy Awards, typically marking the beginning of the new television season, were delayed until January.

After resolving the previous labor disputes before Thanksgiving, it seems the entertainment industry is once again bracing for an autumn season marred by discontent. Talent and crew members are voicing concerns about decreasing job opportunities, while studios are enacting layoffs due to falling stock prices, declining network valuations, and troubling mergers. Looking back, it appears that last year’s standoff may not have been as favorable for everyone as initially thought.

Even though it meant enduring prolonged breaks from work and dealing with the associated pain, writers and actors chose to make a firm, moral stance against production companies and streaming platforms. This was in response to a changing business landscape that they believed was denying them a reasonable wage for their contributions.

Despite continuous claims from studios that they too were grappling with change in their industry, the guilds managed to sway public opinion, painting studio executives as adversaries, and eventually, companies caved to the demands of writers and actors on crucial points. Compromises involved wage hikes, improved health and pension benefits, streaming-based incentives linked to viewership (a realm where concrete data had been scarce), and protections against AI replacing human writers and performers.

“Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA’s executive director, expressed amazement when he examined the contract, stating that in general, it was simply outstanding,” he told Deadline in December, after the membership had approved the agreement. He predicted that over $1 billion in contract benefits would be realized.

Since then, the tale has largely unfolded with the somberness of an Ingmar Bergman production. Actors, scriptwriters, and behind-the-scenes personnel have been compelled to seek alternative employment just to make ends meet, while a steady flow of firsthand accounts from Hollywood’s heartland sparked a series on trade site The Wrap called “Hanging On in Hollywood.”

In an interview with NPR in June, Corey Grant expressed that things were tough before the strike, but they’ve become even more challenging now. He described the decrease in job opportunities as a possible retaliation from studios and a response to the strike.

It’s plausible, but looking at recent news headlines indicates that there might be a focus on profits driving these reductions as well. Streaming companies have invested heavily in gaining more subscribers, yet they haven’t effectively balanced the financial implications of their declining traditional broadcast networks and cinema releases.

Warner Bros. Discovery has let go of over 1,000 employees (including myself, as a former CNN employee), and they’ve informed investors that the value of their networks, such as TNT, CNN, and the Discovery Channel, is currently estimated to be $9 billion lower than it was just a few years ago.

According to The Times, this decline is being viewed as a significant adjustment across the entire industry. Paramount, too, is devaluing its network assets by billions and letting go of around 16% of its workforce. Additionally, they are in discussions to sell off the remaining parts of their company.

Streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are now choosing their content more carefully – this is partly due to cost-cutting measures and also because they’ve found success with shows obtained from other countries at lower costs. For instance, global hits such as the South Korean drama “Squid Game” or the British black comedy “Baby Reindeer” are examples of less expensive acquisitions that have proven to be profitable.

This summer has seen a handful of pleasant bright spots: Disney’s impressive earnings at the box office from the sequels “Deadpool & Wolverine” and “Inside Out 2,” which together have amassed close to $3 billion globally.

The grim reality, though, points to an industry in a painful state of flux, mirroring the digital transition that overwhelmed the newspaper industry.

It appears that although fall is typically associated with optimism due to the arrival of new TV shows and a shift from summer blockbusters to prestige films, the overall atmosphere in Hollywood is devoid of such feelings. Actors and writers who rightfully celebrated their contractual victories last year face an unfortunate development in 2024 – increased wages and better residuals mean little without access to jobs that can provide both immediate and long-term benefits.

Brian Lowry previously served as a media critic for both CNN and Variety, and was also a journalist and columnist with the Los Angeles Times in the past.

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2024-09-02 13:33

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