WGA Says “Writers Have Fallen Behind” As Film & TV Industry “Remains Highly Profitable”

deadline.com:

Claiming that “the entertainment industry remains highly profitable” while “writers have fallen behind,” the WGA made its case today for a fair contract ahead of the March 20 start of negotiations for a new film and TV contract. “Given the tenor of recent press coverage of the industry, this may seem hard to believe,” the WGA Negotiations Committee said in a message to guild members. “Stories about business model uncertainty, company layoffs and the industry’s impending downturn are both standard refrains during union contract negotiation cycles and the predictable result of Wall Street’s narrow focus on stock price and short-term profits. “In reality, the content writers and other talent create for this industry has tremendous value, and the companies have demonstrated time and time again that they can and will capture that value.”Released today, the WGA’s State of the Industry report examines “the entertainment industry’s profitable past, present, and future, where writers’ content will continue to generate billions of dollars.” See the full report here. “Over the decades, entertainment has been a highly profitable business, weathering periodic downturns but consistently rebounding,” the report says. “In 2000, the combined entertainment operating profits of Disney, Fox, Paramount, NBC, Universal, and Time Warner were approximately $5 billion.

By 2019, adding in Netflix, they were $30 billion out of more than $50 billion in total company profits and remained almost as high through the pandemic.

Even excluding news and sports networks, entertainment profits were estimated to be more than $20 billion in 2021.” The report acknowledges that the companies’ profits in 2022 were lower “as they occasionally are when you look