When film was first developing, before sound was in movies, writers were creating scenes more than writing stories. The story was given to the writers and the writers would create a list of shots and make schedules. These stories were rarely original with a very small script, if at all, so nobody cared about who owned the work or had copyright. As movies became more advanced, with dialogue and longer run times, people cared about new stories more and wanted ownership, so in 1933, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) was founded. This is a labor union to protect writers from unfair wages, to standardize contracts, and to promote fairness for writers.
The development of the movie industry also led to the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers, or the AMPTP. The AMPTP is the trade association that negotiates guild and union contracts for most of the industry. Some of the companies that make up the AMPTP are Walt Disney Pictures, Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, Netflix, and hundreds more. With the success of streaming services, it has completely changed how writers get paid and their schedules. Because of this, writers work for longer periods of time for less pay. They can’t even rely on the steady residuals (long term payments) that they had once gotten from broadcast TV because the shows can’t rerun and users have unlimited access to titles under streaming services and shows aren’t paid for individually. This led to writers’ median pay declining by 23% over the last ten years.
Earlier this year, the WGA held a vote between its members to see how fair their wages are, and 99% of votes had shown that they do not believe that they are being treated fairly. The votes showed that the writers wanted better compensation, better residuals, staffing requirements, protection from AI job interference, and other protections for job fairness. On March 20, 2023, the WGA and the AMPTP started to negotiate terms to satisfy the writers’ demands, but negotiations were stalling. By May 1st, the WGA and AMPTP still are not able to agree on the deal on the set deadline. This started off the WGA strike, which had a 97.9% approval rate of the writers, with many actors advocating in favor of the strike, like Adam Sandler.
On May 2nd, the day after the strike had officially started, many late night shows were shut down temporarily, like Jimmy Kimmel Live! Eventually, an anonymous executive from the AMPTP had said, “The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses.” AMPTP has denied this statement, but the strike has continued for 7 months now without an end in sight. Disney’s CEO, Bob Iger, even stated that the demands of the WGA were way too unreasonable. For comparison, Elemental made 484.2 million dollars worldwide and cost 200 million dollars to make. If you add in the marketing budget, which is around 100 million, then Elemental made Disney around 284.2-184.2 million dollars in revenue. It seems that all of these companies share this same sentiment, as on August 4th, the WGA, again, negotiated with studios, but failed to reach a deal. Representatives of WGA say that AMPTP was willing to negotiate writer-specific TV minimums and AI, but wasn’t willing to negotiate with any other demands. The writers’ strike is still ongoing to this day, but AMPTP has shown that they will try to stall as long as possible to force the writers to come back to them.
Some shows that the writers’ strike has affected the release dates are The Last of Us season 2, the final season of Kobra Kai, the final season of Stranger Things, and tons of other shows have been delayed or canceled. California alone has reported over 3 BILLION dollars in losses and it’s estimated that they are losing 30 million dollars daily. Currently, there are about 11,500 Hollywood writers on strike, and 160,000 actors on strike as well. One problem with the demands, is that they want a minimum of 6-12 writers on these shows and this number will vary depending on how big the show is. This is my only problem with the strike because I prefer quality over quantity, and having too many writers for a show that doesn’t need it can cause it to be watered down or just worse. Overall, it is disgusting that corporations can openly plan about letting their writers lose their homes, so they don’t have to pay them fairly. I hope that the writers’ strike will end soon and with the writers coming out on top, getting the pay that they need.
Sources:
https://www.coverfly.com/the-history-of-the-wga/
https://hiddenremote.com/2023/08/14/is-the-writers-strike-still-going-on-updates-on-the-wga-strike/
Questions:
When do you think the strike will stop?
Do you think the strike will be successful?
Do you agree or disagree with the strike?
Replies
I belive that writers should get fair pay. They have spent so much time on their writings and its not fair that they don't get paid very well for their hard work. I understand if some writers think that going on strike will help support their cause.
Great topic choice and super job with your summary Ben. You are an excellent writer!
I think the strike will end when the writers get equal pay to what the actors get because the writers are doing the script work where the actors are just acting it out and it's really making the writers mad. Plus I don't know when the writers are going to stop the strike but I hope it is soon
I agree that the strike should end soon with writers getting the pay they deserve. I also agree that viewers of the shows might get irritated that they aren't getting a new show.
I think the strike will stop once the writers get at least fair pay. It is unfair that actors earn way more than the writers when it is the writers that are making script for these movies and tv shows. Without any scripts, there would be nothing to act for. I hope the strike is succcessful and I agree with the strike.
I think that the strike will end once the writers start to get what they're going on strike for. I hope that it is successful, but deep down I think that they are not going to get everything that they want. I agree with the writers going on strike, they put in so much work for so little pay.
I hope that the strike will be successful and the writers come out on top. For a lot of people writing is all they're passionate about and it would be heartbreaking to see people out of their jobs because corporations can't deal with giving out fair pay. Although I heard another story of corporations asking actors for scans of their faces so future movies can be entirely AI generated. The actors, of course, refused. That along with the writers strike makes me wonder what the future of the film industry will look like.
I agree that AI could be a problem for writers and actors because corporations would see that as an inexpensive alternative for writers. However, I don't think AI is good enough yet to completely take over actors jobs, but AI seems more of a threat for writers instead of actors.
I'm not sure when the strike will stop, probably when people start getting what they want, which most likely won't happen. Writers just want more money and recognition for all their work. I think the strike could be successful but I'm not sure. It's a 50/50 kinda thing. I agree with the strike because these writers work super hard writing and perfecting these papers and articles, just to get thrown under the rug and not get paid enough for their work.
I agree that writers aren't getting paid enough for the work they are putting in, compared to how much the companies they work for make off of them. I also agree they might not get what they are asking for, but I'm staying optimistic that they will.
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