More than 11,000 Hollywood writers have been fired due to a longstanding dispute with studios and producers over their salaries. As a result, texts and scripts are no longer provided.
The Union refuses
Broadway theaters have asked the writers’ union, Writers Guild of America, to make an exception with their strike over the June 11 broadcast of the Tony Awards. The union does not seem to agree.
As a result, the awards ceremony doesn’t appear to be taking place this year. A blow to Broadway, because the broadcast and all the publicity it generates is one of Broadway’s biggest marketing moments of the year. Many theaters are still struggling with financial problems after the corona lockdowns and need the Tony awards to bring their performances to the attention of potential audiences.
Tony’s organization is holding emergency consultations on Monday about the situation that has arisen, reports the New York Times. One option would be to postpone the Tony ceremony while the strike lasts. But many new shows that are now struggling with empty theaters probably won’t survive such an extra period without the increased publicity surrounding the Tonys.
Billion dollar damage
It’s not the first time that screenwriters and copywriters have been fired in Hollywood. According to calculations by the Milken Institute and the California government, the state suffered $2.1 billion in damage to economic activity in 2007 and nearly 40,000 jobs were lost because filming was not done in studios and for the streets for three months. In 1988, when the industry was shut down for 22 weeks, the cost was half a billion.
There are fears that the ongoing strike will cause much more damage, if only because the number of productions is much higher. According to recent data, 599 productions were made in 2022, compared to 288 in 2012.