SAG-AFTRA actors and Writers Guild of America writers walk the picket line during their ongoing strike outside Netflix offices in Los Angeles, California, US, September 22, 2023.
Credit: Reuters Photo
The Writers Guild of America, which represents more than 11,000 screenwriters, reached a tentative deal on a new contract with entertainment companies Sunday night, all but ending a 146-day strike that has contributed to a shutdown of television and film production.
In the coming days, guild members will vote on whether to accept the deal, which includes most of what they had demanded from studios, including increases in royalty payments for streaming content and guarantees that artificial intelligence will not encroach on writers’ credits and compensation.
“We can say, with great pride, that this deal is exceptional — with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership,” the writers guild’s negotiating committee said in its email to members late Sunday.
But the strike’s end doesn’t mean Hollywood is back at work. Tens of thousands of actors remain on strike, and the only shows that could restart production in short order are those without actors, such as late-night and daytime talk shows.
The deal came together relatively quickly after talks resumed Wednesday. That ended a hiatus of nearly a month, a period when each side insisted that the other was the one refusing to negotiate.
The last sticking point involved AI, according to three people briefed on the talks.
The writers’ union leadership told members that all picketing would now be suspended. The union, however, encouraged members to join the striking actors’ picket lines, which will resume Tuesday.
In addition to the striking actors, more than 100,000 behind-the-scenes workers — including directors, camera operators, publicists, makeup artists, prop makers, set dressers, lighting technicians, hairstylists and cinematographers — in Los Angeles and New York will continue to stand idle, many with mounting financial hardship. Some A-list members of the writers guild pressed for a return to negotiations, citing the pressure on idled workers.
Studios have also been hurting: The stock prices for The Walt Disney Co, Warner Bros Discovery and Paramount Global have dropped, and analysts have estimated that studios will forgo as much as $1.6 billion in global ticket sales for movies that were initially scheduled for release this fall but were pushed to next year because of the actors strike.
The tentative deal came after several senior company leaders — including Disney CEO Bob Iger; Donna Langley, chair of the NBCUniversal Studio Group; Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos; and David Zaslav, who runs Warner Bros. Discovery — got directly involved.