The Writers Guild (GA) has more than 30,000 members, covering screenwriters of various types of entertainment programs such as movies, TV series, talk shows, etc., according to the statistics of the Producers Union, the average annual income of members of the Writers Guild is 200,000 US dollars, which is much higher than the average annual income of residents in the Los Angeles area and most of the United States, according to government data, the per capita annual income of Los Angeles County last year was 52,600 US dollars, while the average annual income of the entire population of the United States is about 25,000 US dollars.

However, this does not mean that professional screenwriters are "rich", in fact, there are still many screenwriters who only earn to make ends meet, such as Shaynda Leris, the creator of the popular TV series "Grey's Anatomy", who earns up to $10 million a year (he also serves as a producer of the show in addition to writing the screenplay), but there are also many novice screenwriters who can only earn less than $50,000 a year, and the Writers Guild says that 48% of its West Coast chapter members are often unemployed.

The Hollywood film and television industry has always implemented the "producer-centric system", and the directors' union, screenwriters' union, actors' union and other professional unions in the United States maintain their respective interests through contracts with the producers' unions.

According to the old contract signed in 2001 between the Writers Guild and the Producers Guild, the six major Hollywood studios (Warner, Disney, Paramount, Sony, Fox, Universal) paid a minimum of $106,000 for original film scripts, while major television networks offered about $21,000 per episode for prime-time comedies and $31,000 per episode for prime-time dramas. Movie scripts produced by major film companies cost at least $1 million, and film scripts by well-known screenwriters also received more than $4 million.

These figures seem unbelievably high on the surface, but in view of the fact that the production cost of Hollywood blockbusters now often exceeds 100 million US dollars, and the average production cost is also in the spectrum of 40 million US dollars, the screenwriting fee of US films actually accounts for only 3%~5% of its total investment.

As a result, screenwriters compared their earnings with those of actors, directors and directors of film and television companies, and found the need for a large salary increase, which, according to the Writers Guild, was less than half the rate of profit growth for the entertainment industry as a whole.

For any industry to function properly, both employers and employees must abide by the "rules of the game" of mutual recognition and fairness The old three-year contract signed between the Writers Guild and the Producers Guild expires on October 31 this year, and as early as July this year, the two parties have started negotiations on the renewal of the contract, and the main point of disagreement is that the producers demand to pay the balance after recovering the cost of movies and TV shows, while the screenwriters demand to improve the treatment of screenwriters of reality TV shows and other TV programs, and ask the producers to pay double the share of DVD sales to writers, from the current 0.3% This was increased to 0.6 per cent, and the revenue share from downloads on the Internet was changed from 0 per cent to 0.6 per cent. Unfortunately, negotiations between the two sides broke down, and the Screenwriters Guild officially declared a strike.

But the counterattack from the studios' unions and studios hit them to the core, bringing in hundreds of foreign screenwriters, making the already overcrowded situation even more dire and more unemployed.

Breach of contract lawsuits hit individuals precisely at the backbone of the union, and if these people go bankrupt, it will have a great impact on their morale, and the ban on giant companies means that they can't get good jobs, only big companies can afford to pay a lot of money to buy scripts, and these independent film companies are far lower than giant companies, which makes them never get ahead.

These people are in a hurry, find the chairman of the screenwriters' union, and let them be responsible for this, they don't want to strike, it is forced by the union, and the union must be responsible for this.

The union had no choice but to organize lawyers to deal with the lawsuit, which they believed was a legitimate right to defend their rights, and the company was retaliating and asked the court to invalidate the lawsuit.

On the other hand, larger demonstrations were organized to call on union members to boycott all awards during the awards season, including the film critics' awards and various union awards that are now being held.

This awards season is the peak sales season for film companies, and its ultimate goal is to make more money through more popularity and publicity, which is a grand event that benefits the whole industry, a large number of parties and events, which are indispensable for wine, food, flowers, venues, etc., which greatly stimulates consumption and benefits the service industry.

But now a lot of activity has decreased, in previous years it was the peak season for the sale of alcoholic beverages, but now business has been greatly reduced, and the business of various hotels has decreased by 50% in the same period, and now the strike is starting to show its power, and many people are beginning to complain, hoping that the strike will end sooner.

Film companies that don't have deep pockets can afford to lose this, they can't get off the stage, if employees are coerced to raise wages, it is both humiliating and money, no boss will agree, they don't cry when they don't see the coffin.

As for the impact of the awards season, this is still more than two months before the Golden Globes and Oscars, maybe these people would have surrendered by then, and the series of awards in the pre-awards season are just the self-congratulation of various industries, and the unions squeeze out a piece of the pie, which has little stimulation for the movie box office, and the film company does not value it.

Various union awards were boycotted, making more people dissatisfied, and they poured their anger on the producers' union, hoping that they would reach an agreement, and there was not much more money anyway, wouldn't it be better for everyone to be in harmony?

We have the right to money, but this power and money belong to the boss of the film company, and if they abuse it, they are derelict in their duties, and they are no longer qualified to be the producers on behalf of the investors, and they have made certain concessions, but they have not made any concessions in the areas of unemployment insurance, medical insurance, pensions, and online on-demand sharing, which the screenwriters union is most concerned about.

Now the film company is also angry, as a content production company, every work is made by them at the expense of someone, there is a lot of money, the nascent Internet has a huge impact on the industry, there are many resources on the Internet, piracy is rampant, they use both soft and hard, and use all means to make the video site pay, and they haven't got much yet, someone has come to grab food, this is a money grab.

If you don't do this work, someone will naturally do it, and the capitalists' hatred of trade unions is innate, and it is the existence of trade unions that gives screenwriters the confidence to work against them, so they decided to start now and collect more people outside the union to ensure that their interests are maximized.

They control the country's major television networks, and if they want, the information about the writers' strike and the demonstrations in front of the studios has not been in the mainstream media, and if they did, it was only in the tabloids and on small television stations, and they had little influence at all.

As for the change in the attitude of the actors' union, it doesn't matter, the bosses of the major film companies came out, met with these superstars, and warned them that going against the film companies will not benefit at all, the salaries and benefits of the actors have risen so much, and you have to pull in the screenwriters, do you want to force the investors to death? Without the investment of the investors, everyone eats the northwest wind?

The last strike in 2001, supported by Tom Cruise, took to the streets in solidarity with the screenwriters, causing a huge repercussion and allowing the strike to quickly move towards victory, which made him have an excellent relationship with the Writers' Guild, and this time the Writers' Guild wanted Liangtang to stand up again and speak out for the toiling masses.

But this time Liang Tang declined, expressing support for the screenwriter's strike, but only mentally, and will not take to the streets for this, the current Liang Tang, and the old club Viacom are very stiff, the original version of him switched to MGM, it is considered to have found a place to stay, there is a tile to cover his head, but at this time, Liang Tang did not cooperate with giant companies, he can only pay for movies by himself, and the confidence is not very sufficient, these giant companies can strangle him at any time in the distribution and publicity link, this Liang Tang's joint art, the brand was also founded by Chaplin, and the distribution department has already canceled it, just an empty shell, a simple production company。

In Hollywood, there are many production companies, many superstars and celebrities have opened production companies to avoid taxes, and they participate in the filming of movies in the name of the company, which can reduce the payment of many taxes.

Anyone in Hollywood knows that anyone who participates in the filming and production of movies can make money, only nine out of ten people who invest in movies lose money, so many directors and superstars will never invest money in their own movies, because they know how pitty this industry is.

So now Liangtang is beautiful on the surface, working alone, being his own boss, in fact, he is a donkey dung egg, but his appearance is bright, but he is in a greater embarrassment, these giant companies want to rectify him, it's just a matter of one sentence.

Of course, the screenwriters' guild will not hang themselves from a tree, and some of the celebrities who are screenwriters are the kings of the world, James Cameron, Stallone, George Clooney, Affleck, Matt Damon, etc., and even Mark is this guy, but he forgets himself and refuses to stand up for his peers.

However, the attitude of these celebrities is the same, they are mentally supportive, and they are willing to take to the streets for this, shouting and cheering, but very few, they think that taking to the streets to parade is not a glorious thing, it will affect the image of the public and advertisers, of course, they are more afraid of angering these giant companies, if they attract unhappiness, they must suffer.

Like the more than 200 screenwriters who were sued by giant companies, why were so many famous and status people not prosecuted, but they were generally mediocre and sued, it must be because they were too active and attracted the unhappiness of the film company, so they were engaged, even if they did not compensate the film company for their losses, there would be no cooperation in the future, this line of competition is so fierce, and some are substitutes, and they are blacklisted, which means losing their jobs.