118 long days for screenwriters, actors, filmmakers, and film crews all over the US. That’s how long the Hollywood actor strike lasted. At midnight on November 9th, 2023, a tentative agreement between the studios and the guild was reached.

During these 118 days, major Hollywood studios and film productions were on hold – including major blockbuster movies and television shows in mid-production.

Widely anticipated movies like Dune: Part Two, Poor Things, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-verse, Gran Turismo, and a slew of other films had their release dates pushed back for several months. Simultaneously, hit TV shows like The Boys season 4, The Bear season 3, The Mandalorian season 4, Emily in Paris season 4, Euphoria season 3, and several other top networks shows have halted production and pushed back premiere dates.

This comes 44 days after the Hollywood writers’ strike, held for similar reason, reached their agreement on September 27th, and was ratified on October 9th. The WGA strike lasted even longer, taking 150 days before reaching a deal.

Details of the Deal

As far as the actor’s strike goes, we don’t actually have the exact details yet. The union has chosen to keep it on the low. What we do know is that it is a 3-year contract that includes a $40M streaming bonus, and the price of the actual deal rumored to touch $1 Billion.

For the foreseeable future, TV and film is back.

Is Hollywood Saved?

While this is good news, the strikes still came during a would-be resurrection in the industry. FX’s The Bear (now on Hulu) has received critical acclaim and is quickly being named a successor alongside HBO’s The White Lotus, and True Detective as being the best TV shows still airing since Better Call Saul and Succession aired for the last time.

When The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and Game of Thrones dominated TV for so long, nowadays it’s hard to really pinpoint what the best ongoing show really is. It’s the talk of the day that the golden age of TV has passed us by.

On the other hand, cinema was graced by the return of the classic summer blockbuster, with Mission: Impossible, Asteroid City, Sound of Freedom, Barbie, and Oppenheimer all showing during the same weekend, the last two being the double-feature that took the world by storm. This would be followed by Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, David Fincher’s The Killer and Ridley Scott’s Napoleon this fall which brought cinephiles some much needed anticipation.

During the strike, however, actors were not able to promote any of their on-going films, and films in pre and post-production were sidelined for nearly the entirety of the summer.

The streaming industry had been skidding for some time due to shows getting dropped and canceled after one season, with lesser and lesser quality shows made in their place, and price hikes and bundle packages that were simply ridiculous for many household consumers.

Even with streaming’s issues, though, it is still much cheaper than cable. But the increasing frustration between viewers and services like Netflix, Disney, Hulu, etc. isn’t helping matters. If less revenue pours in from viewers, it starts to put into question who is at fault for TV dying. The writers creating the content, or the corporations pulling the strings?

For me, it’s very easy to go with the latter, as companies like Netflix, Disney, and so on have moved away from the very policies and decisions that made them so successful in the first place.

Quality content, password sharing, and easy accessibility were the staples of Netflix’s dominating run in the early 2010s, nearly murdering DVD stores like Blockbuster and putting a stranglehold on cable, who most users today only use cable for news and sports anyway.

Disney and Netflix have also come under fire from viewers due to select campaigns aimed to increase diversity and representation efforts that, to many, have come across as ‘tokenism’ or ‘virtue signaling’ rather than actually embracing diverse voices. Many people have been critical of Hollywood and a lot of its executives, accusing them of not only being greedy, but taking advantage of the diversity movements that have been trying to change the industry standards for decades now.

A lot to unpack in that last paragraph, but that’s likely a can of worms for a different article. You can glean more from the Forbes’ article on Netflix’s failed Queen Cleopatra ‘experiment’.

This strike also came after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 which was yet another prolonged stoppage of film and television. These would be the largest since the writer’s strike in 2007-08.

Reportedly, the aftermath of the 2023 strikes costed Hollywood and the greater Southern California region a loss of over 45,000 jobs and an estimated $6.5 billion net loss.

What Caused the Strike?

If you on the outside looking in at the whole strike fiasco, you may be overwhelmed by the onslaught of acronyms thrown out there, so let’s clear up the air on all of the terms you’ll want to know:

WGA

WGA stands for Writer’s Guild of America, a labor union for screenwriters. According to Wiki, the guild is home to over 11,000 screenwriters.

DGA

DGA stands for Director’s Guild of America. Represents the interests of TV and movie directors in the US and abroad.

SAG-AFTRA

SAG-AFTRA stands for the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. They are an American labor guild that merged in 2012 to protect the rights of media professionals from exploitation under the executive studios and producers they work for.

AMPTP

AMPTP stands for Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. They are the ones who negotiate trade and union contracts.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, don’t watch any movies or television, or simply don’t pay close attention to Hollywood (can’t say I’d blame you), you’re probably aware that there’s been an on-going strike, but weren’t aware of the details until now.

Here’s a quick run-down:

• March 2023 – WGA votes nearly 99% in favor of better pay, better staffing, and protection against AI technology. Negotiations with AMPTP stall. Deadline for new contract is set for May 1st.

• April 2023 – WGA strike authorization is approved by 97.7% vote.

• May 2023 – Strike begins. WGA vote to unanimously hold strike until a new contract is made. Work stoppage halts night show programs and TV writing. Drew Barrymore steps down as host of MTV Movie & TV Awards.

• June 2023 – SAG-AFTRA vote 98% to join strike, asking for better pay and protection from AI. The DGA reach a deal with the AMPTP for better wages and residuals. The Boys season 4 is postponed.

• July 2023 – SAG-AFTRA joins the WGA strike, asking for better pay and protection from AI. Cast of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer walks out of UK premiere.

• August 2023 – Negotiations with AMPTP fail. Strikes continue. Dune: Part Two is postponed to 2024.

• September 2023 – WGA reach three-year $223M agreement with studios. New contract ensures streaming bonuses, better pay, and AI limits.

• October 2023 – WGA deal is ratified. SAG-AFTRA negotiations break down.

• November 2023 – Strike ends. SAG-AFTRA reach three-year deal. Includes $40M streaming bonus.

What you also may not have known is that the President played a key role in ending the deal too. In a statement he made this November, US President Joe Biden gave his input on the whole ordeal, saying that the deal “allows our entertainment industry to continue telling the stories of America.”

So, what now?

The strike proved a lot. It proved that the writers and actors are able to stand in solidarity to oppose rich, corporate executives who rumored they may let the strikes play out long enough until they could no longer afford their apartments or So-Cal houses. A pretty despicable line, and while it’s a bit hazy about whether or not it was actually said, a strike lasting over 100 days over fair wages from an industry that regularly rakes in billions of dollars should speak for itself.

It is inspiring to see. After all, if they could do it, so could we.

Not to mention, this was the first major strike against Artificial Intelligence. While the agreements of both unions ensure “AI limits”, they do not seem to condemn AI entirely.

Given what we know of AI now versus when ChatGPT was first launched, it is safe to say this will not be the last time we see an industry calling against its usage. It ought to be a tool to enhance the quality of one’s work, not to replace their work altogether. Not to mention, its “art” is riddled with disturbing errors and inaccuracies that could be spotted immediately by a trained eye.

Machines were meant to handle the heavy labor, while humans create the art. Instead, we’ve entered a reality where just the opposite has happened. The WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes have reminded us that there is strength in numbers, and I believe we should embrace that fact.