Hollywood Writers’ Strike Threatens Theater Industry in America

Screenwriters in America are fed up with the dangers threatening their industry and causing them an “existential crisis.” Behind Hollywood’s glamourous festive looks, film and television writers are plagued by major problems. , and enter a general strike that threatens the industry and the emergence of new products.

“The studios are trying to turn our work into a bunch of small jobs,” says Sarah Fisher, who attended the protest in front of Warner Bros.

10 years later, he worked as an assistant on major series, including the “Agents of Silence” produced by “Marvel”, at the age of thirty he was accepted as a member of the Writers Guild of America, which represents 11,500 screenwriters. industry, and Hollywood called for a strike not seen in 15 years.

Fishermen are not the only ones facing a similar situation in the sector. The model adopted by television of series of about 20 episodes per season, which allows people to work for longer periods of the year, was negatively affected after the emergence of streaming platforms, especially Netflix.

Seasons of series aired through these platforms only consist of six to 10 episodes, which means less work, the smaller the number of writing teams at this time and the more challenging it is to gain experience.

“A lot of my friends ended up writing successful series and started working as Uber drivers,” says Fisher.

The scriptwriting industry has always faced challenges because Hollywood productions are not continuous, but today it’s no longer a “viable career,” says 34-year-old Brittany Nichols.

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Nichols says all the financial security that allowed screenwriters to continue in their non-working hours has disappeared. After 10 years in the industry, getting paid to re-present a work he wrote on a streaming platform is trivial.

“These amounts are almost worthless,” he says. “I can’t buy a slice of pizza with them.” “On all the series I co-wrote, the creators would hire me for six, eight or 10 weeks,” he says.

The minimum wage for a screenwriter, the lowest position, is still $4,500 per week. However, many screenwriters interviewed by AFP can’t work more than a few weeks a year. They all point to the hidden costs of their careers, and between what they pay a lawyer and their taxes, half their paychecks are gone.

With the advent of streaming platforms, the industry has become precarious. Statistics from the Writers Guild of America show that half of screenwriters in the television industry earned the minimum wage set by the union in 2022, while a quarter of them earned similar wages in 2014.

Even seasoned screenwriters are affected by circumstance. Some of them, like Adam Bawa, see what’s happening as a sign of Hollywood sinking into the culture of Silicon Valley, where Netflix and Uber were founded.