You may have been noticing celebrity-strewn sidewalks recently where uniforms consisted of megaphones, black t-shirts, and sassy signs like “You came up with Quibi”, and “Without writers, Jenna Ortega will have nothing to punch up!” and “My neck, my back, we need a fair contract.” 

Actor/genius/legend Mandy Patinkin was spotted with a homemade poster reading: “YOU KILLED RESIDUALS. PREPARE TO PAY!” The implied notion is that the ‘YOU’s will be paying the price in the form of a lack of quality content to come, in addition to paying their workers a fairer share of the earnings if they want that quality content back. 

On the second of May, 11,500 writers went on strike when the AMPTP declined to meet the WGA’s new terms for contract. These terms included but are not limited to; a fairer cut of residuals with streaming, more pay for ‘mini room’ jobs, and of course, some concrete ideas of how to protect their occupation as artificial intelligence advances on the horizon. 

The 11.5k added approximately 160,000 to their forces when on July 14th, the actors union went on strike, making it the first time since 1960 that actors and writers have overlapped the picket lines. Many of their contract concerns overlap as well. SAG-AFTRA is also concerned about artificial intelligence, base pay in relation to inflation, and residuals. 

It’s not just the writers and actors who are limited on work options out of concern that it could potentially be associated with, though not directly in contract with, the AMPTP. Social media influencers are barred from promoting any AMPTP movies, past or present, or they will be barred from future admittance to the actors union. Podcasters, influencers in their own right, are in a similar position, unsure of whether their episodes that recap shows like The Office and One Tree Hill can air or need to be pushed back, as the Boneheads hosts decided to do. 

Without writers writing the projects and without actors acting in them or doing the heavy lifting of marketing with appearances on TV and live events the last three months have been quite disruptive for fans. Late-night shows are coming in really late – like, will-not-be-back-until-the-end-of-the-strike late. Comic-Con attendees, for which the opportunity to hear and meet the writers and actors is a huge draw, were left without such opportunities. Marvel, Netflix, Sony, HBO, Universal, and Disney (basically all the studios) pulled out once they wouldn’t be able to have their fanciest spokespersons on the panels.

Very quickly, it became more than just the writers and the actors who were out of work. It was an inevitable event that everyone knew to expect but was difficult to truly prepare for. It’s hard in the day-to-day to understand the vastness of the ripple effect caused by the tsunami of a strike. It’s sort of the tactic of the strike itself – ‘Enjoy your ChatGPT and see how well you get by without us.’ The point is, they can’t.

The success of the historic Barbenheimer weekend was only able to break the pandemic theater slump because of now-union-striking Ryan Gosling, Margot Robbie, and Christopher Nolan. AMPTP will not be able to get that treatment for any of their other movies waiting to release until they make some compromises, or (prepare to clutch your pearls) – sell a yacht or two. And while they are apparently waiting for union members to “start losing their apartments and losing their houses,” the entire industry and beyond is feeling the funnel of jobs closing up. Because the film industry employs thousands and nets in billions for the state of California, as Los Angeles Mayor Bass said, “This affects all of us and is essential to our overall economy,”

Actor Marc Ruffalo has offered his solution to the crisis: 

How about we all jump into indies now? Content creators create a film & TV-making system alongside the studio & streaming networks? So there is actual competition. Then we just do what we always do — create great content & they can buy it, or we take it out ourselves & WE share in those sales. They’ve created an empire of billionaires & believe that we are no longer of value. While they hang out in the billionaire boy summer camps laughing like fat cats, we organize a new world for workers.

Only a few days after the strike was announced the NY Times reported that there were 39 independent TV and film projects that were given a pass by SAG-AFTRA to continue shooting under the terms that they had no ties with the AMTPT and will at least temporarily agree to follow the terms of SAG-AFTRA’s latest contract. 

Of the films still in production, two are star-led (Anne Hathaway, Jenna Ortega, Paul Rudd) A24 films. A24 (not a member of AMPTP) is the company that saw the multiverse shaking Everything Everywhere All at Once take the Academy Award throne. While the vast majority of the industry is in full support of A24, there are some sectors that don’t approve of them continuing production at this time. Sarah Silverman shared in a public video that she’s actually “really pissed” that union actors are signing up for indie projects during the strike.

Juliette Lewis wrote in response to Silverman’s distaste for these allowances that, “…my HOPE is that there is a big mid-range Indie movie Renaissance that goes into theatres that are NOT waiting to be ‘sold’ streamers and that this formula and model gets broken and interrupted and threatened.”

A24 has been a massive part of disrupting the typical movie theater scene since EEAAO. They’ve led the independent film conquering crusade with films like Past Lives, Problemista, Showing Up, You Hurt My Feelings, Talk to Me, and Beau is Afraid all hitting screens back to back in just the first part of 2023 alone. This is what Ruffalo is standing behind as the force that will save the industry from collapse. 

Push every SAG-AFTRA member to join the ones that get SAG-AFTRA (WGA) WAIVERS immediately. The studios have no competition — this will change that. Share profits. If the project does well, everyone does well. This will also help our fellow filmmakers ‘The Crew,’ who we love, to keep working. This is also part of #Solidarity. We have to take care of each other.

Echoing Ruffalo’s indie solution Susan Sarandon mentioned in a tweet that more performers and writers should put together what Matt Damon and Ben Affleck did with their newly minted (2022) Artists Equity. Once again, the two are at the forefront of a mold-breaking route for indie movie making, 25 years after their underdog origin story Good Will Hunting. The concept behind Artists Equity was formed by the desire to allow more creative freedom and financial equity for performers and crew and fulfill more independent opportunities. They saw that this type of standard was lacking in a studio system that was quick on the way to forming an oligopoly while withholding a fair cut for its workers. 

Back in the 1940s, the Paramount Decree was voted into effect by the Supreme Court, thereby ruling that Paramount and other major studios would no longer be allowed to wield the type of overlord power that they’d become accustomed to controlling their studios, workers, and theaters that the movies would be shown in. In 2019, however, the DOJ moved to terminate the decree, believing it to no longer be relevant. 

Alas, as Nerdist points out, in 2023 when production companies only show their films on streaming platforms with a major lack of transparency of viewership, wages, and earnings is the closest thing the industry has experienced to those pre-1940s studio days. Disney, Peacock, Netflix, Amazon, and many other AMPTP studios produce their own movies and then own their own theaters by way of their streaming platforms.  

To keep monopolistic tendencies at bay, the union’s best bet may very well be pouring all talent and effort into independent features at smaller studios. Yes, this may mean less initial budget. Yes, this may mean a smaller distribution net. But there are available workarounds and what looks like a considerable amount of time to work around in. 

Past strikes have lasted anywhere from three to six months. Rumors are all aflutter that the AMPTP believes writers will be broke enough by October that they’ll cave and sign the compromised contract. Fox is looking past October, ready to postpone the Emmy Awards until January. The SAG executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland has advised that we brace ourselves for contact debates continuing until February. 

Without knowing exactly how long the stalemate will draw out, it is currently an option for members of SAG-AFTRA to continue independent (film) thinking. For actors that enjoy the sound of an anti-large-studio rallying cry, this could be the golden opportunity to revolutionize the direction of the industry as a whole. At least while the large studios continue to stick in the mud, it might be the ticket to gaining enough sway over the market to invoke equitable change for the future. 

In the meantime, while we mull over revolutions, there are additional ways that you can support the arts. Sharing a bottle of rosé with ‘Bridget Jones’ writer Helen Fielding, having Kristin Chenoweth sing to you, and becoming the proud new owner of fictional energy vampire Colin Robinson’s diary are all viable options for do-gooding. And forget not: sassy sign-making in front of the glow of an independently produced movie does good as well.