On Sept. 27, 2023, the troublesome writers’ strike in Hollywood was finally put to a halt. An agreement was reached between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, ensuring the numerous television shows and movies that have been on hold will begin to resume production in the near future. However, this consensus may be tentative, further preventing many new TV shows and entertainment from being released.
The lengthy strike began when the new contract between WGA East, WGA West, and Hollywood Studios was to be made. It is required that every three years a new agreement be made, mentioning new rules and regulations not brought up previously.
However, tensions between writers and major studios have been high due to the popularity of streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+, and Hulu. Companies have thoroughly invested in these money-promising services, but writers’ sources of income have continuously been dropping as a result.
Compensation for the writers of TV shows and movies has been declining, causing feelings of anger and resentment among them. Artificial Intelligence, more commonly known as AI, has been contributing to the cuts from human writers as well. These advanced sources are being used to write televised entertainment in place of human beings who need to be paid. AI ensures that people will no longer be needed to write and create scripts, putting more people out of jobs and more money in executives’ pockets.
AI’s ability to create storylines at the literal push of a button and the unfair compensation of writers is what caused this strike. It was only recently, this past September, that the protests ended, and the strike came to a close. The WGA’s leadership board had voted to end the strike, however, they also came up with a list of demands to add to the new contract, consisting particularly of rights that would increase writers’ pay and ensure that AI would not take over their jobs.
Now to what everyone wants to know: When are TV shows and movies going to start coming out again? The answer is that they are expected to start up again, but slowly, as production needs to be organized and planned before anything else can happen. Unfortunately, most movies scheduled to release this year have been moved to 2024 as a result, such as ’’A Quiet Place: Day One’’ and ’’Dune: Part Two.’’ New shows are also most likely going to be released at a much slower rate, as everything has been thrown off as a result of this strike.
Currently, SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) is on strike. While the WGA was on strike, SAG-AFTRA decided to stop and protest as well, not just for monetary increases, but as a safeguard to prevent AI from taking their jobs as well. SAG-AFTRA joined the writers on strike on July 14, making it the first time since 1960 that they have been on strike at the same time. However, as stated, the writers have concluded to tentatively put the strike to a halt, whereas the actors are still fighting for their rights. As of recently, studio CEOs and SAG-AFTRA have started to negotiate a deal, in order to end the other strike which has disrupted the world’s entertainment industry.
The 2023 writers’ strike has reached its conclusion after a shockingly long period of time, with entertainment of all sorts to resume production as soon as possible.
