The industry saw the gains in the motion picture and sound recording sectors.
TV and film production in Los Angeles was slow to recover from the industry-wide strikes last fall, according to new data released by FilmLA. Scripted TV production ticked up slightly in the fourth quarter compared with the prior three-month period, but still remained far below historic levels. And feature film production continued to decline even after the strikes ended. The WGA strike ended on September 27 after nearly five months, and the SAG-AFTRA strike concluded six weeks later, on November 9.
There was a time when streamers — led by Netflix, burning a hole in its balance sheet with annual negative cash flow in the billions — were banking on double-digit subscriber growth. And they were spending on content like there was no tomorrow. Well, tomorrow came.
The council told various departments to identify any resources or policy changes needed to expedite the local film and television production in town.
Lowell Peterson‘s tenure as executive director of the Writers Guild of America East was destined to be bookended by strikes. After 15 years at the helm, Peterson will step down from his post as of Nov. 15 when his current three-year contract expires. WGA East leaders credited Peterson with nearly doubling the size of its membership and rebuilding the union’s staff and infrastructure since he took the helm in May 2008. That was three months after the Writers Guild of America concluded a 100-day strike against Hollywood’s largest employers.
The Writers Guild of America announced Monday that 99% of the 8,525 members who cast ballots voted to ratify the deal. The agreement was widely touted as a win by leaders, and widely praised by members, with major gains in payment, size of show staffs and control of artificial intelligence in scripts. The result of the vote taken over the past week was never really in doubt.
The film and TV sector lost 7,000 jobs in September alone.
The governing boards of the eastern and western branches of the Writers Guild of America and their joint negotiating committee all voted to accept the deal, two days after the tentative agreement was reached with a coalition of Hollywood’s biggest studios, streaming services and production companies. After the vote they declared that the strike would be over and writers would be free to start on scripts at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.
Crucial steps remain for the writers, who technically remain on strike, and for other workers awaiting a return to production of new shows. The next phase comes Tuesday, when the governing boards of the two branches of the Writers Guild of America are expected to vote on the tentative agreement reached by union negotiators with Hollywood studios.
The potential end of the Hollywood writers strike sparked a jump on Monday in movie and streaming industry stocks, led by Warner Bros Discovery and Paramount with shares of Disney, AMC Entertainment, and Netflix also rising. Warner Bros and Paramount were the biggest gainers, up 1.44% and 1.5%, respectively. Disney rose 0.5%, while AMC was up 0.6%. Netflix edged higher by 0.5%.
Tentative Deal Reached To End Hollywood Writers Strike. No Deal Yet For Actors
Union leaders and Hollywood studios reached a tentative agreement Sunday to end a historic screenwriters strike after nearly five months, though no deal is yet in the works for striking actors.
A deal in the negotiations between the WGA and studios CEOs to end the nearly five-month long writers’ strike looks within sight. During the meeting Saturday at the AMPTP Sherman Oaks office, the parties appear to have untangled their stalemate over AI and writing room staffing levels. With Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, Universal’s Donna Langley, Disney’s Bob Iger and Warner Bros Discovery’s David Zaslav participating from afar, attorneys are said to be deep-in working on final language for a three-year deal.
“The WGA and AMPTP met for bargaining on Friday and will meet again on Saturday,” the guild confirmed in a note sent out to members at 9:41 p.m. Friday. “Thank you for the wonderful show of support on the picket lines today! It means so much to us as we continue to work toward a deal that writers deserve.”
The Writers Guildl of mericaA is heading back to the bargaining table with the CEOs of Netflix, Disney, Universal and Warner Bros Discovery on Friday. “The WGA and AMPTP met for bargaining today and will meet again tomorrow,” said the guild in a message to members after a long session Thursday night. Executives Ted Sarandos, Bob Iger, Donna Langley and David Zaslav are all anticipated to be in attendance Friday, along with AMPTP President Carol Lombardini and a praetorian guard of lawyers. On the other side, WGA chief negotiator Ellen Stutzman, along with David Goodman and Chris Keyser, will also be in the room at the AMPTP’s Sherman Oaks offices.
The Writers Guild and studios and streamers are set to meet again Thursday for further talks on a new contract for scribes. After a long, CEO-attended session Wednesday that one insider described as “very encouraging,” the WGA and the AMPTP will return to the latter’s Sherman Oaks offices on Sept. 21, we’re told.
The WGA sent out a note Monday: “The WGA and AMPTP now have a confirmed schedule to bargain this week, starting on Wednesday. You might not hear from us in the coming days while we are negotiating, but know that our focus is getting a fair deal for writers as soon as possible. We’ll reach out again when there is something of significance to report. In the meantime, please continue to demonstrate your commitment and unity by coming out to the picket lines – for yourselves and fellow writers, SAG-AFTRA, other unions’ members, and all those in our community who are impacted by the strikes,” the guild noted.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said Friday night that the studios remain aligned, and pushed the Writers Guild of America to respond to its latest offer. The AMPTP was responding to the WGA’s call earlier in the day for one or more of the member companies to break away from the alliance and negotiate a separate deal. The WGA suggested that some of the legacy studios may be willing to accommodate the writers’ demands.
Top TV producer Ryan Murphy is launching the Ryan Murphy Productions Assistance Fund “to support the exceptional casts and committed crews” of the company’s shows who have been impacted by the ongoing writers and actors strikes. The fund is starting with $500,000.
Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman, actors Paul McCrane (ER) and Paul Scheer (The League), among others, will partner with The Union Solidarity Coalition for a live fundraising event next month to benefit TV and film crew members financially affected by the current work stoppage.
The WGA surprised Universal Studios by turning up Thursday evening to the opening of its annual Halloween Horror Nights event in the Valley. A group of writers, thought to be around 50 of them, turned up to the entrance of the NBCUniversal-owned theme park to leaflet as thousands of customers were streaming in to get their fill of frights. The plan is to hand out around 5,000 flyers to give horror fans an idea of why they’re striking.
Two challengers in the SAG-AFTRA election are urging the union to bring in an outside mediator to help resolve the actors strike, which has gone on for nearly two months. Maya Gilbert-Dunbar, who is running against Fran Drescher for president of the union, argued that guild leadership has been too passive, and needs to show more urgency in restarting talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. “Chain your asses up to the damn door of the Sherman Oaks building to show how serious you are,” Gilbert-Dunbar said. “People’s can’t afford this. Strikes were never meant to last months and months. An effective strike should be short and sweet.”
WBD’s David Zaslav Says Industry Must Focus And Fight To Resolve Strikes As They Spill Into The Fall
David Zaslav said today that Warner Bros. Discovery had anticipated putting Hollywood strikes in the rear-view mirror this month, but with no end in sight, he added that “we” would “fight” to find a resolution. “I was in L.A. the last two days, and we really have to focus as industry — and we are trying — to get this resolved in a way that is really fair and everyone feels fairly treated,” he told investors at a Goldman Sachs media conference. “In our guidance, we said that this would be resolved in September. And here we are in September. And this is really a very unusual event to have. The last time it happened was 1960. And so what we did is, we just said we are really going to fight to get this resolved.”
The Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA will rally on Thursday at Amazon Studio in Culver City to highlight their push a bill that would provide unemployment insurance to striking workers in California. Striking writers and actors in New York and New Jersey are already eligible to receive unemployment benefits after 14 days on the picket line, but not in California.
Amid an ongoing strike, the Writers Guild of America East begins voting today on its new council members, including the successor for longtime president Michael Winship. With the strike environment generating solidarity across the WGAE and its WGA West counterpart, it would seem that the election would be a straightforward affair with WGAE members on the same page about what they want from their guild. However, this election comes not much more than a year after the guild reached a compromise to address the WGA East’s rapid growth in recent years by creating three “work sectors” for membership: Film/TV/Streaming, Broadcast/Cable/Streaming News and Online Media.
Skydance Media CEO David Ellison called the creative process a “community” where “both sides of this disagreement actually need one another to move forward. So, my hope is that we can find a path to compromise so that everybody can get back to work and we can position ourselves for success going forward.”
The tired familiarity of the reality-heavy network schedules is a reminder of the issues that led to the work stoppages.
The financial impact of ongoing actors and writers strikes has a number on it now, or one at least, as Warner Bros. Discovery said today it’s looking at a hit of $300 million to $500 million in adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) for 2023 due to the work stoppages.
In recent days, some in the U.S. have begun to discuss success-based residual metrics that already exist in parts of Europe, most notably with Netflix. The systems are driven by European copyright legislation that ensures “authors” receive what business affairs execs would call “fair and appropriate compensation,” and can broadly be seen as a reward for making a show or film that cuts through globally.
Negotiating committee co-chair Chris Keyser says the union does not “begrudge the companies their success or deny their struggles” and that “we all must succeed together.”
The writers strike reached the four-month mark on Saturday, and as Hot Labor Summer moves to autumn, there is still no sign that it will be over any time soon. The Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have not talked in two weeks. Both maintain that the ball is in the other’s court.
Blowing through financial reserves, below-the-line union members are concerned about their leverage in upcoming contract talks.
The disclosure was revealed in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest employment report.
New York City filming permits declined 53% year over year in August, which marked the first full month of the year during which both the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television and Radio Artists were on strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.