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Hollywood’s middle class bears brunt of slow recovery
from LA Times (test)
by Marketing
The entertainment industry job market has yet to pick back up after a series of successive blows. Some of the hardesthit belowtheline workers have been out of work for a year.
Ryan Faughnder Senior Editor
THIS YEAR HAS BEEN ROUGH FOR THE entertainment industry so far. Not just at the box office and on Wall Street but also for the writers and crew members who’ve been struggling mightily to get back to work.
A full year after Hollywood screenwriters kicked off six months of strikes that effectively shuttered the film and TV business in the U.S., the people who make Tinseltown function are still feeling restless as they await a recovery that seems to be brutally slow in coming to fruition.
My colleagues Christi Carras and Stacy Perman recently checked in with multiple writers of varying experience levels spanning film and TV, one year after Writers Guild of America members walked out in pursuit of higher wages, enhanced streaming residuals and limitations on the use of artificial intelligence.
All of those who spoke with The Times, many of whom didn’t want to jeopardize future employment by talking on the record, said that either they or people they know have struggled to find work for at least 12 months amid a contraction that has led to unstable production and employment levels across the sector.
“We’re not seeing this Vshaped recovery in writer employment,” Patrick Adler, principal at Westwood Economics and Planning Associates, told my colleagues.
Production data for Los Angeles and beyond paint an ugly picture.
Film, TV, commercial and other production activity in the first quarter of 2024 was 20.5% lower than the fiveyear average in the Greater Los Angeles area, according to the nonprofit FilmLA. Globally, film and TV production lagged by about 7% in the first quarter of 2024, compared to the same period in 2023, per tracking company ProdPro.
In film, production delays have contributed to a thin movie slate, with box office down significantly from last yearand representing an even steeper dropoff from before the COVID19 era.
The downturn started well before the writers as well as members of the Screen Actors GuildAmerican Federation of Television and Radio Artists went on strike. After years of overspending by entertainment giants hoping to catch up with Netflix in the streaming wars, the industry adopted new austerity measures, slowing down content spending and taking a more cautious approach to greenlighting new projects.
The socalled peak TV era that enabled 599 original scripted series to run in a single year is over, and the postbinge hangover is still being felt, including by people who have typically had major success.
Ted Sullivan, who’s earned credits on hit shows such as “Riverdale” and “Star Trek: Discovery,” told The Times that he hasn’t worked in a real writers’ room since the WGA strike began, marking a sharp departure from 14 years of consistent employment.
FILM, TV, COMMERCIAL AND OTHER PRODUCTION ACTIVITY IN THE FIRST QUARTER OF 2024 WAS 20.5% LOWER THAN THE FIVEYEAR AVERAGE.
“I feel like I’m in the worst ‘Twilight Zone’ ever,” Sullivan said, “where I wake up and I’m now 20 years old again writing spec scripts for free in my apartment.”
All this raises the question of whether the entertainment industry is simply feeling the pains of the transition to a new era or if it’s in a state of managed decline.
It’s notoriously difficult to break into the entertainment industry, and no one is owed a fulltime job writing scripts for television. People in this line of work are used to going for unpredictable spans of time without working and plan accordingly.
But for those with the talent, persistence and luck to make it, these unionprotected jobs have historically been a good way to make a living. Belowtheline jobs have long been seen as a path to a middleclass life, despite the long hours and grueling work. These are the people who are now getting squeezed.
The business appears to be moving into a period in which legacy media outlets live alongside the tech giants, including Netflix and Amazon. In some cases, the traditional studios will still compete with the streamers. In other cases, they’ll be suppliers, selling their movies and shows to Netflix and its ilk.
The heightened anxiety comes as the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, which represents film and TV crew members, continues its bargaining sessions with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The union’s negotiations for a new basic agreement with the studios wrapped up recently without a deal but are expected to reconvene.
The IATSE contract expires July 31, and talks have been generally described as productive, knock on wood. The union does not plan to extend the deadline. The union’s priorities in negotiations are addressing topics such as wages, pension and health benefits, worklife balance and job security, as well as streaming residuals and artificial intelligence, a potentially serious threat to employment.
Speaking anecdotally with sources, there have been signs of production and other parts of the industry starting to pick up. There’s hope that a more substantial recovery takes shape heading into next year.
But that’s a long time to wait without income, and it remains to be seen how close to normal things get. If it turns out that the industry ends up permanently smaller, more or less, that’ll make it hard for some people to stay in the game.
