Why do actors and writers fight for residuals and why can't studios and streamers just pay them what is being asked? It's a lot more nuanced than you would think. bit.ly/VarietySubscribe / variety / variety / variety
So it takes them longer to become profitable. Okay. They're still going to become profitable. Paying writers and actors nothings makes them never profitable and hurts the viewer and fellow worker. They can weather bad timing, people can't. Plus, there is enough money overweight at the top to make things more equitable.
This video is on the studio side. But they are the ones who invested so much money in streaming only to realise it is not as profitable as TV or DVDs or cinemas and are now crying poor.
So every 3 years the studios and script writers/ actors unions come together to re- negotiate their business models. Since 2012 up to the present, that was roughly about 3 to 4 table sessions where this situation could have been addressed sooner. I don't have all the answers because I am outside looking in and I am not in that industry. But it seems to me their unions should tightend ship and saw how it would get to this point for their union members years ago. I have a sneaky suspicion the studio owners forcasted long in advance how they could rake in huge profits at the expense of the silence of their counterparts, especially since viewer streaming was catching up to reg broadcast tv viewership and was beginning to outpace it. I am probably wrong. If so please enlighten me.
Even if streamers aren't profitable at the moment, these companies still make billions of dollars from all sorts of revenue. Especially now that big tech like Amazon and Apple (literally two of the wealthiest companies in the world) are in show business. I mean, David Zaslav alone makes over $200M a year, and WB has been doing pretty poorly since he took over. If anything, it would be infinitely easier for the studios to just give actors and writers what they're asking for (which is honestly quite reasonable) instead of delaying their movies and shows, which is going to cost them even more money in the long run. To quote Colin Farrell, greed turns the smartest people into the biggest fools.
Yes they can make less shows or the folks earning millions could take less. The other reason they're striking is because AI is currently unrestricted basically. I'd love to hear this broken down as well.
I honestly think this is something that is has to happen. For how the industry was going on the recent years and also for how satured we all were with movies and series. It is good for the whole industry give itself a moment to wait and star thinking what are they doing wrong
Need to also focus on the ppl at the top like Bob Eiger who gave an interview about the SAG strike from a retreat for billionaires they don't care since their paycheck won't decrease, they'll probably get a bonus
This video is biased. Streaming companies and studios feel the need to put distance between the outside world and their internal metrics. Why not just tell the curious public how each title is performing? Why? Because it allows the studios/services to control the narrative, so outsiders don’t really know the actual wins vs. losses around programming. Writers and actors do currently receive fixed residuals for their work on streaming services, but they are not tied directly to the success of a show. But the residuals should be tied to a shows success. That is one of the reasons to strike!
I’m all for their protest. But I do want to say most of these writers need to do better a job. Not even half of new media released the past 5 years are creative or compelling. And most that are, are from independent companies.
But who gets to pick which projects get made? It isn't the writers. All of the creative burnout of sequels and reboots is coming from producers and executives. Of course the independent stuff is more interesting! That's where writers actually get to tell good stories. Most producers won't allow for the risk of original stories. And, frustratingly enough, audiences are more likely to turn out for the thing they recognize than the original story that is actually good. Or at least, they have been in the past. This summer is definitely shaking up that truism.
@@lydia1634 there are plenty enough netflix, amazon, hbo, Apple “Originals”. They can mask the production any way they want, but story, character development, scripts are mostly bland. Not to mention adaptations that basically have 1:1 material yet still fail due to pretty much.. writing and lazy writing.
I'm perfectly fine with less writers and less actors and more AI. I don't want them jacking up the price of the streaming services that I subscribe to and they've already done that twice in the last two years.
