Why it matters: A second strike could completely paralyze Hollywood.
Hollywood is already 80 percent closed since the writers went on strike on May 2. While some television shows and movies continued filming, the writers were surprisingly effective at stopping shows in production. If the actors join them on the picket lines, productions will shut down completely, a reality that will have a significant effect on local economies in Los Angeles and other filming locations such as Atlanta and New York City. During the last writers’ strike 15 years ago, the Los Angeles economy lost an estimated $2.1 billion.
The effects of a double strike would soon be coming to your television too, with network shows going into reruns and a probable proliferation of reality television. Also, actors would no longer be able to promote new movies, a reality that already exists in large part because the writers’ strike forced late-night shows to shut down.
Background: Streaming and AI are bringing change.
Not since Ronald Reagan was president of the Screen Actors Guild have the writers and actors gone on strike at the same time. At the time, the actors were fighting over the remnants paid for licensing movies for television. Today, the actors want to provide higher wages and better residuals in an entertainment landscape where studios struggle to turn a profit after investing billions of dollars in streaming. The actors are also concerned about how their likenesses could be used with the advent of artificial intelligence.
Guild members authorized the strike in early June, with 97.9 percent of members voting yes. On June 24, Fran Drescher, the president of SAG-AFTRA, and Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the guild’s national executive director, informed members that they “remain optimistic” about the talks. They added that negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the trade body that negotiates for the studios, had been “extremely productive”.
A video prompted a group of more than 1,000 actors, including Ms. Drescher, to sign a letter urging union leaders not to settle for a lesser deal. “We are prepared to strike,” the letter reads.
On June 30, the union announced it had extended her contract until Wednesday, while the parties continued to talk.
What’s Next: Could a deal still happen?
After the parties spent the weekend negotiating, it remained unclear whether they were any closer to a resolution. Should they fail to reach an agreement by midnight Pacific time on Wednesday, some 160,000 SAG-AFTRA members will join the 11,000 writers already on the picket line.
