I was curious if striking actors/writers are allowed to attend conventions. It turns out that they can with certain restrictions: they can answer general questions, but not about specific movie projects, for example.
Oh no! the world is now deprived of actors being interviewed on their upcoming projects. The horror!
That’s defintely an upside to the strike, one thing thankfully missing from news broadcasts at the moment are the endless promotional puff-pieces with actors being asked the same mindless questions and giving the same inane answers.
Just as an aside to this topic, I was watching the local morning news just now, and they had a story on the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike. They showed a graphic presentation of a pic of strikers with bullet points on the left, the very first bullet point being:
- Negations continue
A whopper of a typo, or an accurate summary? 
A “Freudian Slip”. LOL
Will our streaming prices double to cover the new contract when it comes? I imagine that if residuals have to be paid out heavily, which has to be at least part of the solution, our rates will go up tremendously.
Even if the actors (and writers) get a whole lot more, I very much doubt it will require doubling of streaming prices to pay for it.
You didn’t answer the question. It may not require it but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
Sure. The companies might double the streaming costs using the strike as an excuse. But that would lose them lots of customers.
Enough to offset the difference? I bet the revenue still goes up
Googling, the standard Netflix plan costs $15.49 (and others are in the same range). Would people want to pay $31 every month for it? I really doubt it.
A business that needs to pay its workers substandard wages to be viable doesn’t deserve to stay in business. They will figure it out or die.
For just a dollar a day your generous donation can prevent a Hollywood executive from missing out on that third yacht!
I’m going to cancel Netflix and Disney+ after next month simply due to the increase in prices. They’ve reached a tipping point for me and I suspect any further increases imposed by a strike settlement will prompt others to do the same.
I’ll still have the accounts there, every now and again I can pay for a month and binge anything of interest but the regular subscription just isn’t worth it and I know I’m far from alone in that thinking.
Password-sharing, cost increases generally and very variable quality means things are going to be tough for the streamers and I doubt they are in a period of sustained customer growth.
One interesting point will be if the actors get their way on streaming payments. For that to happen the streamers will have to be transparent on how many people actually watch some of their “top” shows. At the moment this is closely guarded.
I look forward to the amended demands of the actors that propose a nominal per diem fee for the initial work and subsequent fair distribution of the profits being made at the box office and a streaming services payment made on the basis of how many full views their work gets.
Yes, the international studios can make up for some of what the strikes are preventing. But there are still a lot of people who are looking forward to the fall season of NCIS, and they aren’t going to be excited about a subtitled South Korean historical drama as an alternative.
I sympathize with all of those “smaller” actors who can’t afford to lose parts and paychecks. Has to be rough.
Is Sally Struthers still available?
Sure, but striking is always a choice (as is joining a union) and ultimately they are striking in an industry that is completely discretionary. The world will continue anyway without the Hollywood actors and writers working (and indeed it has).
If the big studios collapse as a result of this then no big deal as far as I’m concerned. If the world wants film and TV something will rise in its place with a completely fresh deal to be struck with actors and writers, something that they might actually welcome.
Cameo, the site where you can hire someone famous or “famous” to deliver a little message, has seen more than more than 2,400 performers join or reactivate their Cameo accounts. SAG and the studios reached an agreement that this would count towards pension & health benefits. So at least there’s a little money coming in for people.
Story here: https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/27/business/cameo-actors-strike/index.html
But often the “choice” is “you join this union and do what the union tells you to do or you will never work in this industry”.
98% of SAG members voted for the strike.