The studios thought they could handle a strike…

They might end up sparking a revolution.

Via the Los Angeles Times:

If you want to start a revolution, tell your workers you’d rather see them lose their homes than offer them fair wages. Then lecture them about how their “unrealistic” demands are “disruptive” to the industry, not to mention disturbing your revels at Versailles, er, Sun Valley.

Honestly, watching the studios turn one strike into two makes you wonder whether any of their executives have ever seen a movie or watched a television show. Scenes of rich overlords sipping Champagne and acting irritated while the crowd howls for bread rarely end well for the Champagne sippers.

This spring, it sometimes seemed like the Hollywood studios represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers were actively itching for a writers’ strike. Speculations about why, exactly, ran the gamut: Perhaps it would save a little money in the short run and show the Writers Guild of America (perceived as cocky after its recent ability to force agents out of the packaging business) who’s boss.

More obviously, it might secure the least costly compromise on issues like residuals payments and transparency about viewership.

But the 20,000 members of the WGA are not the only people who, having had their lives and livelihoods upended by the streaming model, want fair pay and assurances about the use of artificial intelligence, among other sticking points. The 160,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists share many of the writers’ concerns. And recent unforced errors by studio executives, named and anonymous, have suddenly transformed a fight the studios were spoiling for into a public relations war they cannot win.

God knows what the prevailing “wisdom” has been roiling around in the AMPTP member company C-suites. All I can figure is whatever end points they’ve been envisioning, they’re looking at through greed-colored lenses.

For decades, the contracts between writers and actors enabled the suits to make shit tons of money.

Evidently, that was not enough and they wanted more shit. The allure of streaming services and a business model based on growth, not profits meant the companies could make up whatever numbers they wanted while recasting existing contracts in such a way to slash residual payments and other earned forms of writer and acting income …

And yet, even those uber-profits aren’t enough. No, they need to “bleed out” until “union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses,” leaving writers and actors with scraps.

Whatever their so-called “strategy” is, it’s resulted in tens of thousands of union members pissed off and in for the long haul.

As Mary McNamara, the author of the L.A. Times opinion piece concludes her essay:

At a time when the entertainment industry is going through so much disruption, two strikes is the last thing anyone needs, especially when the solution is so simple. If the studios don’t want a full-blown revolution on their hands, they’d be smart to give members of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA contracts they can live with.

Amen.

For the rest of the L.A. Times article, go here.

For the latest updates on the strike and news resources, go here.

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