Throughout its history, Hollywood has faced numerous strikes that dealt with factors involving inequality, lack of payment royalties, and creative differences. Despite these occurrences, Hollywood still stands today, though its golden age has passed. Today, Hollywood has become a mere shell of the booming enterprise it once was. As more of their products are being distributed worldwide, people have begun to notice the quality of those products has reduced significantly, despite the technological advances the past two decades. Perhaps the last straw dawned on the most recent event: the WGA (Writers Guild of America) Strike of 2023.

The main purpose of this particular strike was for the writers in Hollywood’s ranks to receive their dues for the hard work they produced for their respective studios. WGA was negotiating with AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers), representing large studios such as Amazon Studios, Lionsgate, Apple, etc. As Negotiations were underway, ninety-eight percent of Writers Guild members voted to go on strike if negotiations hadn’t reached a satisfactory conclusion. After failing to reach an agreement before the appointed deadline, the leaderships of WGAW (Writers Guild of America West) and WGAE (Writers Guild of America East) approved the strike on the 2nd of May, 2023. During the strike, WGA had decreed that no writers were to write, revise pitch, or discuss future projects with studios associated with AMPTP.

Even fictional podcasts associated with those companies were halted due to the strike. Picketing officially began on the 2nd of May, 2023, at numerous major studios (AMC Networks, MGM, Disney, 20th Century, etc.). At this time, WGA advised writers facing financial hardships to apply for the Entertainment Community Fund to keep them afloat. On the 9th of June, Lionsgate suspended BMF line producer Ian Woolf following an altercation with attacking writers, the latter of which were picketing outside of their production HQ. Many factors transpired during this strike, the details that will be highlighted in a subsequent post.