Thousands of screenwriters will go on strike today, after unsuccessful negotiations with the platforms and studios concerning the increase of their remuneration. The members of the board of directors of the union have thus carried out the threat that weighed on Hollywood until then. A strike that will result in the interruption of programs such as " late-night shows " and significant delays for films and series scheduled in 2023.
The television and film scriptwriters demanded an increase in their income: between inflation and the increasing salaries of executives, their salaries are stagnating - or even falling. This social movement echoes the one in 2007, which brought the audiovisual sector to a standstill for 100 days and cost more than two billion dollars in total. A movement of such magnitude, which the audiovisual world feared and wished to avoid.
A significant disagreement in this struggle concerns the calculation of the remuneration of screenwriters: they receive either a percentage of the receipts or a fixed sum paid for each broadcast of the film. An amount considered " far too low in view of the massive international reuse ", as explained by the WGA, Writers Guild of America. The role of streaming is then at the heart of the matter: the authors of internationally successful series receive the same amount each year, determined in advance, despite the massive reuse of their work.
TheAlliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), representing the studios, says that the salaries paid to writers have never been so high. Executives say they are facing unprecedented economic pressure, forcing them to reluctantly take layoffs.
The film industry also points to the competitive nature of the business, requiring them to cut expenses to meet investor demands. Thus, they deny having used economic difficulties as a pretext to establish their position during the negotiations that were not successful. On the contrary, according to them, it is a very real crisis.
