OK, the Hollywood strike is over, now what?

The recent end of the Hollywood actors and writers strike has resulted, practically overnight, in the resumption of work for the entire film and television sector affiliated with major studios, with significant consequences. For about five months, it was impossible to shoot films and TV series, and the respective writing departments also came to a halt, along with promotional campaigns. Although the strikers were primarily writers and actors, the production blockage caused a ripple effect, affecting almost all professional categories associated with films and TV series. Even though these roles were not directly involved in union negotiations, their hiatus led to a halt in almost the entire Hollywood industry. The most direct and evident repercussion of this interruption is the postponement of several film releases, causing a chain reaction of delays. Productions, due to logistical reasons, cannot all return to the sets simultaneously, and films or series cannot be released all at once – which would be inconvenient for promotion.

Effects of the strike on films and TV series

Over the next year, films originally scheduled for release between July and November 2023 will arrive, but have been postponed to allow industry professionals to promote them. Now that the strikes have ended, the main commitments of well-known actors and actresses will focus on promoting their own films. Timothée Chalamet, for instance, recently opened Saturday Night Live with a monologue mocking the return of film promotion, mentioning the projects he will soon be touring, including Dune 2. The film was supposed to be released in the fall but has been pushed to March 2024. The same goes for Challengers, Luca Guadagnino's film with Zendaya, which was supposed to open the Venice Film Festival but was withdrawn at the last minute and rescheduled for April 26, 2024. Consequently, works originally set for release next spring will be extended, causing further delays, and so on. As for TV series, some of the most anticipated ones set to be delayed by at least a year include The Last of Us, The White Lotus, and House of the Dragon. The delay in the release of Stranger Things is also a problem in terms of the script: the age of the teenage protagonists will require the production to find narrative tricks to justify their growth within the storyline. In general, the repercussions of the strike are estimated to be felt for the next two years, not only in the United States. According to the Los Angeles Times, the strikes have cost more than six billion dollars in California alone, where Hollywood is based, while the economic impact on the rest of the United States, according to NPR, is nearly 160 billion.

How the film industry will react to this standstill

Not all productions, however, can resume immediately because there is not enough personnel, both in terms of crews and actors: it will be necessary to wait for individual professionals to free themselves from previously interrupted work. The same applies to spaces to shoot within studios: demands are high, and waiting times are increasingly long and subject to the available budget. Unlike the work suspension during the pandemic, this time there was no gradual return to sets but happened within a very short time, causing various inconveniences. Projects that can restart first are films and TV series whose shoots were interrupted with the start of the strike. The presence of films in theaters and TV series on television or streaming platforms, as expected, will be much lower than originally planned, forcing distribution professionals to compensate with alternative schedules – the success of Taylor Swift's concert film is a successful example of this strategy. The largest cinema chain in the United States, AMC Entertainment, has already recorded a 10% revenue decline due to the lack of flagship titles because of the strike: the same is expected to happen for at least the next two years, albeit in waves. Even Italian and European cinemas, as their programming is strongly influenced by film releases in the United States, will find themselves in the same situation.