The Hollywood industry is in crisis after strikes, casting wars

Michael Fortin was at the heart of Hollywood’s broadcast era.

The actor and aerial cinematographer turned his hobby of flying drones into a profitable business in 2012 just as the broadcast wars were beginning. For ten years, he has been flying high above film sets, creating beautiful aerial shots for movies and TV shows on Netflix, Amazon and Disney.

Now you’re at risk of homelessness – again. He was evicted from the Huntington Beach home where he lives with his wife and two young children and has now been evicted from the Las Vegas apartment they moved into because they could no longer live in Southern California.

“We were planning to buy a house, we have money, we did things the right way,” he said. “Two years ago, I didn’t mind going out to dinner with my wife and kids and spending 200 bucks.”

“Now I worry about going out and spending $5 on an overpriced meal at McDonald’s.”

For more than a decade, business has been booming in Hollywood, with studios scrambling to acquire new companies like Netflix and Hulu. But good times came in May 2023, when Hollywood writers went on strike.

The strikes lasted for months and marked the first time since the 1960s that writers and actors came together – effectively shutting down Hollywood production. But instead of roaring back, in the one year since the strikes ended, production has stagnated.

Projects were canceled and production was cut across the city as jobs dried up, with layoffs at multiple studios – most recently at Paramount. There has been a second round of layoffs this week, as the blockbuster film company looks to cut 15% of its workforce ahead of a merger with production company Skydance.

Unemployment in film and television in the United States was 12.5% ​​in August, but many think those numbers are actually much higher, because many film workers do not apply for unemployment benefits because they are ineligible or have run out of those benefits. after months of not working.

Overall, the number of US products in the second quarter of 2024 decreased by almost 40% compared to the same period in 2022. Globally, there was a 20% decline during that period, according to the report. ProdProwhich tracks TV and film productions.

That means newer and newer movies are more suitable for us.

But experts say the streaming boom was unsustainable. And studios are trying to find a way to make a profit in a new world where people don’t pay for ad-supported cable TV.

“The air has come out of the content bubble,” said Matthew Belloni, founder of Puck News, which covers the entertainment industry. “Disasters is a good word. I try not to panic, but the problem is what people feel.”

Part of the boom was fueled by Wall Street, where tech giants like Netflix saw record growth and studios, like Paramount, saw their share prices rise by adding their streaming service offerings.

“It caused the content market to overheat. There were 600 live action series broadcast a few years ago and then the stock market stopped rewarding that,” Mr Belloni said. “Netflix crashed – every other company crashed. Netflix has recovered – but others are struggling to make a profit.”

Along with the bursting of the broadcasting bubble, some brands are also being lured away from California by attractive tax incentives in other states and countries. Los Angeles leaders are so concerned about the setback that Mayor Karen Bass created a task force last month to consider new incentives for Hollywood film production.

“The entertainment industry is critical to the economic growth of Los Angeles County,” Bass said in announcing the program, describing it as a “cornerstone” of the city’s economy and providing thousands of jobs.

The latest figures show the entertainment industry contributes more than $115bn (£86bn) a year to the regional economy, on the basis of employing more than 681,000 people, the mayor said.

Writers’ and actors’ strikes lasted months and led to union contracts offering more money and protections against artificial intelligence.

Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, chief negotiator for the Screen Actors Guild union, told the BBC that some consolidation in Hollywood was inevitable. He says he hopes production will increase soon.

“What makes these companies special, what gives them a unique ability to create value is their relationships with creative talent,” he said during a tour of the filming line outside Disney’s office in September, where video game voice actors went on strike for the same. defenses.

Hollywood “always thinks it’s in trouble,” he said. “It’s a city that’s constantly experiencing technological innovation – all kinds of change – which is part of the magic. The last part of the new content is that everyone has the idea that things don’t always have to be the way they were.”

Mr Fortin’s company was operating almost every day before the strikes. He has now moved drones 22 days in the year since the strikes ended. And as an actor – he usually plays tough guys – he worked for just 10 days. He worked as a background artist to keep up, but the pay didn’t include gas money to get to Los Angeles from Las Vegas.

“It was a big wave, and it crashed,” Mr Fortin said after a day of flying his drones on the AppleTV+ show Platonic – his first gig with drones since April.

“Things are coming along,” he said in the van before returning to Las Vegas for a court hearing to fight his deportation order.

“Hollywood has given me everything,” he says. “But it feels like the industry has turned its back on a lot of people, not just me.”