The months-long Hollywood Strike finally ended on Nov. 8, after the heads of major studios agreed to a deal with SAG-AFTRA, which is the union representing Hollywood actors and other performers.
The workers had been on strike since July, after joining their screenwriters in boycotting major Hollywood studios because of low wages and being severely underpaid and advocating for change across the board for all major film personnel.
“We are thrilled and proud to tell you that today your TV/Theatrical Negotiating Committee voted unanimously to approve a tentative agreement with the AMPTP. As of 12:01 a.m. PT on Nov. 9, our strike is officially suspended, and all picket locations are closed,” the union said in an official statement after the deal was finalized.
The union also re iterated that the contract was worth well over a “billion dollars” and they had the technology that would “protect members from the threat of AI.” The threat of AI has been so glaring in Hollywood lately because as screenwriters and other jobs have been lacking, studios are relying on AI bots to write them scripts instead, and a big part of this deal is to protect the human element and make sure that does not happen going forward.
As part of the deal, the union will be getting an 11 percent increase in wages, better healthcare and retirement benefits, and higher percentages of profit when it comes to the streaming of shows. The protection from AI taking jobs was a huge element, as a lot of people in the industry were scared that studios would go to a cheaper option that could get them a lot of easy content. Many of the demands in the strike were similar to the ones made by the WAG, Writers Guild of America, five months earlier, and were to align with an overall haul in the payment of workers in the film industry. WAG writers ended their strike on Sept. 27 after an agreement was reached. The screenwriters ended up settling first, and now the actors are getting their repartitions as well.
In the final weeks of the strike, George Clooney and other A-listers started becoming more involved, hoping their power and voices would do something and change was eventually made.
Many people are excited for what’s to come in 2024 in Hollywood, as there is going to be an influx of new films coming out after the end of 2023 was very slow due to the strike holding a lot of things back. 2024 is expected to have a lot of highly anticipated film releases, including Deadpool 3, Madame Web, Beetlejuice 2, Imaginary, Mean Girls, Gladiator 2 and more.
Many people around Mercy are excited for these releases to come soon, as student Emilio said “I have been waiting on Beetlejuice 2 for years. The fact they got Jenna Ortega to play Lydia’s daughter and she’s my favorite actress I have been wanting to see it, and its finally here I am thrilled its over.”
Another student, Adelina, had said the new Mean Girls is going to be her summer “mood hopefully” and going to be this year’s version of Barbie. “Last Summer it was be a Barbie now we’re going to be Mean Girls I can’t wait.”
However, questions regarding these films are still being asked, as no one knows how long it’ll take for Hollywood to start developing solid films needed to be placed into production.
Daytime talk and late-night TV like Saturday Night Live have also continued and done well with flying colors, and the industry has been saved from what was becoming a shady time. Now that 2023 is in the past, 2024 should be a really highly rated and anticipated year for the film and TV industry, where a lot of cutting-edge material comes out, and wows viewers like it had been before the strike had happened.
