During the fall season, the film industry went through a major writer strike which effected many released and upcoming films that were in development and released. Many noted a surge of lackluster movies, shows, & trailers with films that were unwanted and some being a letdown.
But why did the writer strike happen? After the yearly negotiations for the minimum wage for the writers broke down in the beginning of May the Writers Guild of America known as the WGA formed a strike that gained support from almost 98% of the members. Most television studios and streamers usually replace a main writer’s room with small room which cut down the number of writers which upped the work amount and often were given a reduced wage amount. Most programs would have someone hire a full crew of people to figure out a script for a season then confirm if they were even following through with the project, and if they do most workers would be fired after the outline of the script for the story was created.
What was the solution to the problems? After 148 days of fighting with support from a multitude of television writers and actors a contract was created that granted new guarantees. The contract provided higher minimum number of writers that will be hired for every show, variety writers will be given the same in streaming as they are in T.V. which means better pay for screenwriters and better health and pension for the writing teams, and script fees for staff writer for the first time. This contract also grants protection from A.I. writers that confirms they cannot write or edit scripts and cannot undermine a writer’s rights and credits. And for the first-time writers get a success-based residual which means the more a show or movie is streamed or watched the more the writers will be paid for the work.
What Movies were affected by the writer strike forcing them to be delayed consist of the films, “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” and “Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire” are some of the larger named films that were set out to be released in the first months of 2024 but was suspended into the middle of the spring season. Some films that came out during the summer like “Grand Turismo” when it was set to be released months before the summer but since it was a part of the strike it was postponed all the way to the end of August.
