Hollywood is about to face another huge challenge: a writers’ strike.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Writers Guild of America’s bargaining committee for its 2023 contracts is concerned.
The committee’s membership includes longtime union officials and writers from many genres. However, no “pattern of demands” has been announced, nor has a public membership meeting been summoned. Other guild members are wondering what the committee’s response will be to current contracts ending on May 1, while top executives are preparing for a strike.
“This is going to be a peculiar period that will test our capacity to figure out whether or not we can get some of the things we need in a perilous economic position,” said a seasoned television writer. The pundit also stated a 20% chance of a strike following the expiration of current WGA contracts.
Difficulties in the Warner Bros. Discovery
This development follows months of terrible news and headlines for several film and television studios, most of which involved Warner Bros. Discovery. In securities filings on December 14, the business expected write-offs relating to content and development expenses to range between $2.8 billion and $3.5 billion, which is at least $800 million higher than initial predictions.
As a result, the company now estimates that the overall restructuring and impairment charges resulting from the combination of Warner Media and Discover will be up to $5.3 billion.
Warner Bros. executives have reportedly chastised Black Adam star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for allegedly releasing phony numbers about the picture. According to Matt Belloni of Puck, the stolen information was “packed with incorrect assumptions,” such as “almost all movies of this size would eventually pencil out when every window is exhausted over years and years.”
According to reports, Warner Bros. Discovery has begun “railing against” Netflix’s payment terms at the request of CEO David Zaslav. It is allegedly owing to Zaslav’s dissatisfaction with how Netflix frames its contracts, which spread production funds over eighteen months to two years. According to an alleged Warner Bros.
Discovery insider, Zaslav’s perspective is as follows: “That’s an unusual way of looking at it. It’s obviously how the industry works and how Netflix works. He’s being paid handsomely by Netflix, and the firm is pleased. It’s as though he suddenly realised what the payment terms were.”
