What's Happening in Hollywood?

Article by Shriya Chowdavarapu, TPT Staff Writer

The alliance of motion picture and television producers also known as AMPTP is a specific organization that is funded in order to keep film production companies running. This is something known as a trade association. This association is in Los Angeles, California and helps many tv shows represented and streamed. Netflix, Comcast, Sony, Walt Disney, and many other streaming services out there and in the AMPTP association. The Writers Guild of America is a group of over 11,000 people that write scripts for some of the most popular tv.shows out there. They write the tv shows and movies that you know and love so much.

They had an ongoing dispute with AMPTP about their contract and different deals and treatments. This dispute went on for around 6 weeks and they did not come to an efficient conclusion. WAG had a contract with AMPTP that had previously lasted three years but that three year term ended on May 1st, 2023. Since AMPTP did not make a fair deal that was fair to WAG the WAG decided to go on a strike On May 2nd, 2023 they went on a strike. The last strike before this occurred in 2007 and lasted for about 100 days. After that strike, California’s economy was suffering due to how much money they lost due to the strike. It was over 2 billion dollars that they had to make up for. This strike meant that they would no longer write any scripts for the AMPTP or any streaming services. The WAG was fighting for better wages, better deals, better pay structure, etc. The WAG gets very underpaid and their pay can also be very inconsistent which causes many problems. Overall, they deserved better treatment and they decided that it was time for a strike. Due to this strike many tv shows were backed up and upcoming movies and tv shows were also delayed. The writers have been protesting outside of huge media outlets headquarters in order to bring attention to the situation.

On September 27th, 2023, the strike was declared over.. This strike lasted 148 days and has been a very important issue in the Hollywood industry. Writers Guild of America and the writing studios have reached a deal that ended the strike. The deal enclosed that their pay rates would be better and the contract has enclosed better things as a whole. This contract with the AMPTP has been renewed for another 3 years. The AMPTP had put forth this deal to the WAG and the WAG as a whole had to vote in favor of the deal. Since they voted in favor of the deal the strike was said to be officially over. This meant the shows that have been delayed have resumed production and movies that were supposed to come out but were delayed to the strike have resumed filming as well. Of course, everything will not go back to normal right away, but things can now slowly go back to normal. Shows can start resuming and production can start resuming, but there are still many things that have to happen in order for the WAG and the studios to completely go back to normal since they were on strike for about 5 months. This strike was one of the longest strikes that has happened in history. This strike was the first writing strike that has occurred since 2007, and is also one of the longest writing strikes that has happened making it a very important event in Hollywood history. The deal that AMPTP and WAG came up with has not been shared out to the public, but was said to be a pretty good deal that WAG was happy with. The agreement included many aspects of what WAG was protesting for and things that they wanted. For example, higher minimum wage, protection, employment, etc.

Sources:

https://www.vox.com/culture/2023/9/24/23888673/wga-strike-end-sag-aftra-contract

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2023-05-01/writers-strike-what-to-know-wga-guild-hollywood-productions

https://www.nytimes.com/article/wga-writers-strike-hollywood.html