Industry News: Movies, Television, & Publishing
Hollywood News:
60 Year Historic Hollywood Strike Ends!
It’s over!
On Wednesday, SAG-AFTRA and the studios finally achieved a tentative deal after 118 days of the actors' guild being on strike. At 12:01am PT Thursday morning, November 9th, the strike will be officially over, finally putting an end to this historic strife after a grueling seven months of labor unrest in Hollywood - the first joint strike between the Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA in 60 years.
The AMPTP's offer included big gains in wages, bonuses, and AI protections, with studio execs joining the Gang of Four to brief the guild. Talks continued as SAG-AFTRA pored over the fine print
The high stakes of the negotiations were apparent, with Netflix's Ted Sarandos, Disney's Bob Iger, NBCUniversal's Donna Langley and Warner Bros Discovery's David Zaslav directly participating in the talks. “We came all the way to you”, Sarandos told guild leaders.
The terms of the deal will not be known until Friday when the guilds present the contract to their membership to be ratified.
Now everyone get back to work.
A Race To Finish
Due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, no high-profile products were released this year. The domestic box office revenue was approximately $65 million for the weekend, one of the smallest showings this year.
More box office unrest is expected to follow in the first quarter 2024 because of the content slowdown, but now that the actors’ strike is over, studios will race to finish their 2024 summer tentpoles, and event pics slated for the back half of 2024 or beyond in 2025.
Hollywood screens the October 7th Massacres
It was Wednesday night, and the end of the actors' strike had Hollywood buzzing with relief and celebration. But not far from the limelight, tucked away at the Museum of Tolerance in West L.A., a select group of 200—many firm supporters of Israel—gathered for something solemn. They were there to witness "Bearing Witness"—a stark, 43-minute glimpse into the horror faced by Israeli citizens on Oct. 7, captured on film. The footage, stark and unflinching, documented the brutal acts attributed to Hamas against Israeli citizens.
The gathering was held under tight security due to a media leak of its location, prompting an FBI investigation and a noticeable LAPD presence. On the day, only a small group of protesters—both pro- and anti-Israel—dared to assemble on either side of Pico Boulevard, voicing their opinions and occasionally being egged on by passing vehicles. While the majority left after the event had finished, reports suggest that some violent outbursts occurred later on.
The private gathering commenced with Marvin Hier, Rabbi and outgoing principal of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Museum of Tolerance, who reminded those in attendance that it was the eve of Kristallnacht. He then pointed out that if history hadn't been so cruel to the Jews, there would be 200 million of them alive today instead of just 14 million. He referred to Hamas as "the Nazis of our time."
Following the screening, multiple fights broke out. Mayor Karen Bass called the violence "unacceptable.
Publishing News:
Amazon Tests Virtual Audio Book Narration
In an announcement today on the Kindle Direct Publishing community forum, Amazon has declared that it is conducting a trial of technology which would enable KDP authors to generate audio versions of e-books with virtual voice narration. This could potentially lead to a big rise in the amount of audiobooks produced by KDP authors, since at present only 4% of titles self-published through KDP have associated audios. Confirming this, Amazon spokesperson Lindsay Hamilton stated that, “We are excited to introduce a new option for customers and authors. Virtual voice gives authors more choices to create audiobooks and will deliver greater selection to customers.”
Sales of print books declined by 8%
After a spike in printed book sales due to the promotion of Britney Spears, unit sales of print books declined by 8% for the week ending November 5, 2022. All categories saw a drop in sales except young adult fiction.