Hollywood On Strike!!
by Paul Bernardo paulieb2003@gmail.com
So Hollywood went on strike. Not Hollywood – just the SAG/AFTRA and the WGA. For some reason, the DGA went along with everything and they re-negotiated a contract with he studios no problem. I guess their needs are different.
So the WGA, Writers Guild of America, went on strike first. Saying things are totally not fair, AI is becoming more and more prominent in the industry and writers are vulnerable to whatever might happen. Studios said, AI? Big deal. and refused to come to the table to talk.
Then about 9 weeks later, the big guns came in. SAG/AFTRA said the same thing and added the horrible pay system for streaming platforms. A TV show used to mean 9 or 10 months of work for actors, and a contract for 3 seasons to start, then move on from there with new limits and new pay grades.
Well with Netflix, Amazon, MAX, Hulu, etc, now they shoot everything at once, about 3 or 4 months of work, and hold on to the series until everything is finished and the marketing plan is in place, then release the entire series in one day.
The platform then can wait up to 2 years to decide if they want to do season 2 or not. All this time, the actors are in limbo, with no pay and not knowing what is happening. So instead of having an income for most of the year with a summer off, then back to work on the series for a Sept debut – the actor works 4 months on a series at a time, with years off in between. A completely different lifestyle and pay style, which none are happy with.
So that’s one aspect of it all. Let’s talk about the other aspect of things – the money. Now we all know Hollywood cooks their books, and have done so for many generations. This is why they settle out of court, like in the ScoJo lawsuit. Scarlett Johansen said she was cheated out of money because they released a film on a streaming platform, not in the theaters, so she filed to see their books. Well, Disney gave her what she wanted right away. Why? Because their books are done in Never Neverland. When an actor wants money the film was a massive flop, when the press asks about it, the film was a massive success. So they play both sides and have been for a very long time.
Well now that streaming is part of our culture, things have to change. Platforms claim to lose money every year – yet say shows were brilliant successes, and you can’t have it both ways and actors want to know what’s going on. If an actor agrees to residuals or part of the profit – they need to know the books. An actor is taking a lesser salary up front to get back end points – yet the studio says there are no back end points, and they save money. Taking advantage of an employee is a good way of looking at it.
Not ever actor is a millionaire either, which a lot of people think. Only 10% of writers make a living at writing, the rest hold down other jobs to survive and make rent. Less than 2% of SAG/AFTRA members are millionaires. As of 2014, 70% of SAG/AFTRA members earn less than $16,000 per job.
So while you see Brad Pitt, and Clooney and Will Farrell and the superstars making millions upon millions, that is not the norm. There are currently over 160,000 members in the SAG/AFTRA unions. We only hear about the big ones, the millionaires, the globetrotters of the world who have houses in every country. They make headlines, but they are not the guild. They are the very lucky ones.
SAG/AFTRA are striking for AI purposes, and for pay purposes, which have changed dramatically since the last contract was negotiated.
WGA are striking just to be able to have a staff position, and to limit AI writing or re-writing scripts and shows.
Pretty basic stuff are being fought over, and to be honest, with both unions not working, the studios will just continue to release what projects already have been done, since Directors can still work, and then wait out the strike to see what happens.
Actors and writers can and usually do have other jobs to fall back on, studios do not. Their money will dwindle, but their salaries are already so bloated with $24 million dollar annual salaries – maybe they can hold out longer than we think.
This may all come down to board members pressuring the CEO’s to negotiate. Wall Street seems to be the strong arm here that could apply the pressure needed to remedy all of this. If stocks start going down, jobs will be threatened, and that just may be the thing to bring us all together.
