After being hinted at for a long while, it has finally happened. The writers of the Writer’s Guild of America has gone on strike once again. On April 18th, 97.85% of members of the WGA labor union of screenwriters in the USA agreed to go on strike if they fail to reach an agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents the major film and television studios of Hollywood by May 1st. No deal was agreed upon and because of that, today officially begins the newest strike among the WGA.
Of course, this is not the first time a strike has occurred involving writers in film and television. No one could forget the strike that occurred from November 5th, 2007 to February 12th, 2008. Despite the strike only lasting for a little over three months, film and tv quite suffered the next few years because of it. With tv, it mostly involved talk shows with well-known people such as Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, Craig Ferguson, Conan O’Brien, Bill Maher, David Letterman, Jay Leno. With film, well…..let’s just say we got Michael Bay’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and leave it at that.
Just like that the strike that took place in the 2000s, the main talk shows that are more well-known will be affected by the current one that just happened. The shows of Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, and Bill Maher were all shut down immediately due to the writers of those shows taking part of the strike and will be cancelled until further notice. And I’m sure movies will take a huge affect by this with the coming years that will offer plenty of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallens for our viewing pleasures.
When looking at the way film is going now, a strike involving writers is the last thing that needed to happen. Theaters had been taking it a hit in the 2020s thanks to the global pandemic which pretty much encourages plenty of folks out there to just stay home and watch something instead of going out and spending their hard earned money to see it in theaters. Sure, there are a few exceptions such as Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water but there’s not nearly enough experiences being made strictly for the big screens that have many people motivated to watch them outside of their own home. So much so, that more and more movies are now being release digitally as soon as possible in the hopes of being able to make the quickest buck imaginable before the said movie becomes out of the conversation. You don’t believe me, Evil Dead Rise is going to be available on digital next week, which would be just THREE weeks after it came out in theaters. Whether that’s due to the recent success of streaming services and studios feeling they can gain more viewership through is beyond me but no doubt it’s taking a hit.
That being said, the writers of the entertainment industry deserve all the credit and respect in the world for standing up for themselves because they feel like they are not being paid fairly. After all, these are the folks that are writing the scripts for the entertainment that we watch and consume. It’s only fair that they deserve a good portion of the credit whenever a certain show or film is a success. Yes, directing, acting, the visual work, and soundtrack are important things to a production but so is writing. If there’s anybody that deserves a fair wage to writing the scripts and screenplays to these successful and even non successful entertainment content, it’s the writers.
Despite it being the worst time for a writer’s strike, it’s also the most proper one. The Covid-19 pandemic has went on for over three years now and we have been slowly working out way to get things back where they used to be. There should not be any salary concerns for those in Hollywood since a good portion of the movies and shows affected by the pandemic have come out now. If there is, then I think that says more about the higher ups that refuses to pay the writers fairly than it says about Covid. If that is the case, then this strike is 100% warranted. And if AMPTP thinks it isn’t, then they better find a way to resolve it ASAP or else films and television will take a even bigger dive nose in quality than it did after the last strike.
Speaking as someone that inspires to be a writer, I 100% support the WGA entirely. They are far from perfect but they are undoubtedly the hardest working men and women in the entertainment industry and we would not get all these stories if it weren’t for them. Because of all that and more, they deserved to be paid properly. I hope the situation resolves quickly so this won’t affect the future of film and tv too badly but if it does, then the AMPTP and anyone else that supports them will have no one to blame but themselves with the dreadful aftermath that will come for this.
Nevertheless, the 2023 strike of the Writer’s Guild of America has commenced. This day, May 2nd, will be yet another important day to look back upon as the start of something big.
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