In 2023, the box office had just about recovered from the massive downturn of the COVID-19 pandemic, which shut down theaters and film sets worldwide. Movies were back, baby! But then Hollywood’s studios, united under theĀ Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), attempted to weather not just one strike, but two strikes simultaneously. The writers strike had been expected, with studios scrambling to get scripts finished before the deadline to negotiate a new Writers Guild of America contract. But the impact of the writers strike, which shut down around 80% of productions thanks to dedicated picketing and solidarity from other unions, may have been underestimated.
Then, in July 2023, writers were joined by actors when the AMPTP failed to reach a deal with SAG-AFTRA. This led to a near-total shutdown and the longest actors strike in Hollywood history: almost four months on the picket lines. Studios stayed away from the negotiating table for as long as possible, putting on a confident face and claiming in earnings calls that the strikes were having a minimal impact. In fact, the strikes had even temporarily boosted cash flow and profits thanks to the money saved from not making any movies. But financially speaking, that’s sort of like a farmer boosting their short-term profits by not spending any money on planting crops.
The L.A. Times reported earlier this month that overall box office projections for 2024 are around $8 billion, down $1 billion (or 11%) from 2023. As an extra thorn in the shoe for studios, last year’s money-saving production shutdowns are now this year’s additional expenses. The cameras have started rolling again on pricey blockbusters like “Mission: Impossible 8” and the “Avatar” sequels just as box office revenue takes a sharp downward turn. Goodbye, f*** around era. Hello, find out era.