KATE THOMPSON DAVY: The economics of technology hits the big screen
With more than 170,000 actors, writers and others in the US film industry on strike, this protest may cost industry billions
As I write this, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) enters its tenth week of its strike against the film and television studios of Hollywood, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). The latter includes Amazon, Apple, Disney, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount, Sony and Warner Bros Discovery.
The spirits and numbers of the strikers were buoyed last week by the decision of the Screen Actors Guild — American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) to join them in the stayaway. WGA reportedly has about 11,500 members, and SAG-AFTRA represents a group of some 160,000 film and television actors. This is the first time in six decades that both unions are on strike together, and all the signs point to this being an extended protest that could cost the industry billions. According to Vox, the 100-day writers strike of 2007-08 resulted in $2.1bn lost to California’s economy alone, and the longer it drags on the more the ripples arou...
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