A strike by actors and screenwriters in Hollywood would cause losses of 3,500 million euros

Dispute between Hollywood actors and screenwriters —currently on strike— and the major studios are a “losing battle” that could cause more than 3.554 million euros in damage to the US economy, according to several experts consulted. “Assuming that the actors’ strike lasts from 30 to 60 days, adding the screenwriters’ strike (which has been on strike for several months), it is estimated that there will be losses in excess of 3,500 million euros,” says Kevin Klowden, head of global strategy at the Milken Institute in California.

Even today, the negative impact of the cessation of operations is leading analysts to consider the conflict a “no-win” conflict, even when both sides find a solution.

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) launched a historic walkout on Thursday, July 13 – the first to run concurrently with a walkout from the Writers Guild of America (WGA) in 63 years – after failing to reach an agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).

This has paralyzed the production, recording and promotion of audiovisual projects, affecting not only people from the entertainment industry, such as cinemas and foreign television channels, but all supporting sectors, in the same way as catering companies, construction, clothing rental, cleaning, logistics, transport, etc.

Actors demand regulation of artificial intelligence (AI), higher fees in the compensation artists receive each time they are served streaming selling production rights to a new market, as well as raising minimum wages, among other demands.

While AMPTP opposes petitions stating that the industry has not yet fully recovered from the pandemic and that the economic model of subscription-based streaming platforms remains unstable and unprofitable.

“Both sides acknowledge that the industry has changed thanks to streaming and practically all of them are discussing how they will share the money generated from the platforms,” Robert Thompson, professor at Syracuse University (USA) and founder of the Bleier Center for Television, told Efe.

duration and future

Analyzing the length of strikes in other Hollywood strikes in the past, Mark Young, an entertainment expert and professor at the Marshall School of Business (USC), thinks it’s “very complicated” to try to predict how long this situation will last, but predicts it could be several months.

Thompson also cannot estimate an exact end date for the strike because he believes the issues to be resolved in the negotiations are “much more complicated” than in previous strikes.

“There are no signs that the strike will end soon. Frankly, I don’t believe it will be resolved in September. There doesn’t seem to be any movement in that direction,” Thompson explained.

Klowden is a bit more optimistic about this and sees the possibility of the hiatus ending at the end of August to avoid serious effects on the recording and production schedule of more titles.

“I think everybody will be pushed to at least get closer to some kind of agreement, even if it’s short-term,” Klowden noted.

The expert even opined that unblocking the AMPTP negotiations with SAG-AFTRA would cause the WGA to reach an agreement in its agreement as well.