It’s 3:01 am ET on Wednesday, September 27th, and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) reach an agreement to end the 148 day long writers strike. The agreement allowed writers to return back to work, and will remain in place until May, 2026. But what were they even striking over? And what did they gain from shutting down production from coast to coast?
First off, pay was a huge issue for writers across the board. With the rise of streaming services, and streaming-exclusive shows, the residuals that writers would earn for reruns of shows, have become smaller and rarer. Many writers relied on those residuals to make ends meet and survive between contracts, and from an ethical perspective, with contract lengths getting shorter (an issue we’ll touch on later), writers deserve more compensation as their writing reaches new audiences and continues to delight.
With this new contract, writers will see pay raises of up to 5%, with more in May of 2024, and 2025 on the horizon. Benefits, like healthcare and pension, are increasing too, ensuring this generation of writers can survive to write another day. In terms of residuals, big budget projects are seeing more residuals for writers, even those on streaming services, minimum residuals are increasing by a quarter, and new bonuses for writers are in place for when shows and movies succeed and reach huge viewership. These are huge wins overall, especially as the nature of Hollywood in recent years has tended towards fewer writers on sets, shorter contracts in the writers rooms, and fewer opportunities for career growth, like moving up to producing and directing. These were addressed in the new contract too, guaranteeing career growth and stability for tens of thousands of writers.
The largest win, and the most current with the times, is the influence of AI or Artificial intelligence on the writing industry. We can understand how automation replaced the factory line, or even cashiers at the grocery store, but the written language? Truth is, artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly important in content creation, mitigating the impact of future strikes on the entertainment industry. Look at ‘Secret Invasion’, which instead of paying animators, used artificial intelligence image generation for a title sequence. Notice anything off about that passage? The sentence ‘artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly important in content creation’ was written by ChatGPT. It begins to make sense then, that AI use in writers rooms was a primary concern of the strike. Ultimately, a compromise was found. Studios can use AI, but have to meet with the WGA twice annually to discuss these plans. Furthermore, writers whose writing has been used to train the studios language models can now sue, a new safeguard in the age of AI image and text generation.
It’s not just the WGA, however. SAG-AFTRA, or the Screen Actors Guild, is also striking for much of the same reasons. Better contracts, benefits, pay, and protection of their images in training AI models. For the sheer length of the writers strike, 148 days, and the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, Hollywood won’t ever be the same. While late night and talk shows can return, think Jimmy Kimmel, SNL, and Fallon, production for shows and movies are still at a halt, scripts will be sitting around with nobody to act them out.
This strike is historic, and while we won’t know the full impact until later down the road, looking at the last monumental strike- that of 2007 and 2008- The LA economy lost out on upwards of $2.1 billion, and that strike lasted 100 days.