“The company now expects to exceed $1.7 billion in free cash flow for the third quarter of 2023, in part due to the strong performance of ‘Barbie’ as well as incremental impact from strike-related factors,” the entertainment giant says in a regulatory filing.
I bet doubling the pay for everyone striking would cost a lot less than 300-500M a year.
It would. But that would set the precedent that unions have any power and studios didn’t have all of the power. Studios aren’t willing to cave because they’re afraid they can’t completely control their workers and siphon as many profits as possible.
So the owners would rather take a 500m loss than settle. Fuck them.
Daddy does not negotiate with slaves!
Good. That’s the point, ya greedy shitheads.
Seriously, all the actors, writers, fx guys, directors, and so on should just form an employee owned studio at this point. Out of spite, if nothing else.
Why is the world topsy turvy? And why do we allow it?
Humans are good at compartmentalizing. The same father that shouts at a ref over a bad call in a tee ball game will happily support industries that will give his child cancer as long as he doesn’t have to think too hard about it.
Profit is amoral. If we want a fair and just society, we must ignore profit motives and accept the cost of being civilized. The capitalist will demonize unions and taxes and regulation, because those things cost the capitalist profit. And the capitalist is right, those things are the enemy.
Unfortunately, the capitalist has also convinced everyone else that we’re supposed to be on his side. The capitalist is not on our side.
Listen to meatbridge friends. Don’t turn away from the truth.
there’s an old saying : “buy real estate when there’s blood on the street”. consider this for a while.
But what happens when banks won’t underwrite property insurance because of climate disasters?
Complaining about nothing. Amazing.
Really updating us on progress report!
More work to be done here tho
A lot of people worked very hard on the movie to make it happen, and it did well because it’s a good movie made by good people, and it’s wrong for WB to take the full credit for that. So, give the people what they deserve for their hard work, and the strike ends. Simple as that.
But, I’m realistic, and at this point it’s clear that WB doesn’t feel pressured enough to listen to reason yet. So, help us make them listen to reason, and keep supporting the strike in any way you can.
Good. If an industry won’t compensate its workers properly, it should be burned to the ground, literally and metaphorically.
Especially when it’s as easily replaceable as a movie publisher. It’s not as if WBD going under would result in 25% less TV/movies, and 25% less employment!
If I were the strikers, I’d be seeing the bankruptcy of one or more large studios as a goal unto itself right now.
Dream outcome: studios go bankrupt and then the strikers pool resources to buy assets and start their own worker-owned film studios
It’s not as cool as you think. Activision and EA both started essentially that way for games, but became what they are now as soon as the founders started leaving. It works great for a while, then they just become what they opposed.
ohh no! not enough!
With new covid coming, this couldn’t have happened at a better time. These fucks would never try home streaming again for their movies.
Maybe y’all (Warner Bros) should do something about it.
Are there any non-union production studios/companies out there? You’d think a strike like this would be a massive opportunity for studios and talent that otherwise wouldn’t have access to theaters or be drowned out with all the other new releases.
No but plenty of independent studios have already agreed to the terms the strike is ongoing over, and are able to continue production.
Really? I thought Zaslav was all about getting rid of scripted programming to save money. I would think this would be his dream come true.
