Editor’s note: Wide Shot will be on hiatus next week as Hollywood Senior Editor Ryan Fonder is taking a vacation.
Last year, Hollywood braved a summer of strikes. This year, its brutal mirror image emerged: a brutal season of layoffs.
The entertainment industry is reeling from job cuts at Paramount Global, which last week launched a sweeping cost-cutting initiative that is expected to cut 2,000 jobs, or 15% of its workforce, by the end of the year ahead of a long-planned ownership change.
As part of that effort, the embattled media giant shut down Paramount Television Studios, the division that distributes shows like “Reacher” and “The Offer.” Up to 30 people employed at the unit, headed by Nicole Clemens, lost their jobs as the group’s programming moved under George Cheeks’ CBS Studios umbrella.
The job cuts are just one example of a sweeping restructuring facing the film and TV industry in the aftermath of the streaming wars. Debt-laden Warner Bros. Discovery recently targeted cutting about 1,000 jobs in its latest round of cuts. Walt Disney Co.’s television division cut 140 employees last month, the latest in a series of layoffs at the Burbank company.
After losing billions of dollars trying to catch up with Netflix, movie studios used writers’ and actors’ strikes as an excuse to cut spending, while the cable TV business continued to collapse like a slowly melting glacier suddenly giving way.
Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery’s decisions to write down the value of their cable networks were a seeming admission that the TV business had reached a point of no return, and that once-powerful brands such as TNT, HGTV, MTV and Comedy Central had become irrelevant.
Between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, $15 billion in value has disappeared in just a few days.In another big change, Warner Bros. Discovery announced Friday that it was transferring oversight of the network to TV studio head Channing Dungey.
When Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger commented in 2015 about the future challenges for cable networks like ESPN, sending stock prices for media companies, including Disney, plummeting, it all seemed like a logical outcome of what he had foreseen. More ominously, between his first and second terms as Disney CEO, he said that traditional TV was “clearly on the brink” and “going to be pushed aside.”
Those predictions are coming true in dramatic ways, especially for Mr. Iger’s rivals: David Ellison’s Skydance Media and his partners at RedBird Capital are poised to buy Paramount early next year, while speculation is rife about when activist investors will set their sights on Warner and its Chief Executive Officer, David Zaslav.
For now, there’s little relief for entertainment industry workers who have struggled to find work since the end of the “Summer of Labor” and fall. Only recently have there been glimmers of hope, but optimism is tempered by a sense that the industry is smaller than it was a few years ago, when companies simply couldn’t get enough content.
Studio green-lighting committees are starting to come out of hiding, but as my colleagues Wendy Li, Steven Battaglio and Thomas Sue Lauder wrote last week, examining data from London-based market research firm Ampere Analysis, the long-awaited recovery has been painfully slow.
Commissions from major entertainment companies for traditional broadcast, cable and streaming programming in the U.S. and Canada rose 39% to 1,013 shows in the first half of 2024 compared with the second half of 2023, according to a Times review of the numbers. The data factors in greenlights from Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Apple, Paramount and Comcast (but not including theatrical releases).
But greenlight activity is still down 9.9% when compared to the first half of 2023, according to Ampere’s data. Even more dire is the comparison with the first half of 2022, “peak TV,” when companies commissioned 1,515 shows in the U.S. and Canada. Taking a more global view, the data also shows that the majority of newly commissioned shows and streaming movies are being produced overseas, and at lower costs.
The reasons for the downturn are varied, with some observers resigned to the fact that the market correction is more or less permanent than it was during the boom years of a few years ago, while others say fears of strikes by the IATSE and Teamsters led movie studios to cut production or move production overseas earlier this year.
It remains to be seen when the US entertainment production economy will truly recover – the feared staff strikes did not occur, and they never did – and perhaps things will start to pick up again from now on.
There’s a reason “survive to 25” has become the watchword for contract workers, writers and actors hoping to stay in TV and movie production. It echoes the “we’ll win next year” refrain of fans of struggling sports teams and those hoping to pull off $11 billion in annual box office take.
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What we wrote
While work is slowly coming back to Hollywood, the glory days of television are still far from over. Some entertainment companies are commissioning shows again, but the recovery is still incredibly slow. When will relief come for Hollywood workers struggling to find work?
Disney cites arbitration clauses in Disney+ and park tickets to prevent man from filing wrongful death lawsuit The company said Disney+’s terms of service prevent a wrongful death lawsuit over restaurants at its theme parks from moving forward.
A judge has blocked sports streaming services from Disney, Warner Bros., Discovery and Fox over antitrust concerns. Digital distributor Fubo challenged the deal in court, arguing that the media companies’ partnership violates antitrust laws. The judge issued a preliminary injunction.
California’s controversial AI bill has been amended to calm fears in Silicon Valley. Here are the changes: Senate Bill 1047 would require AI companies to share their safety plans with the Attorney General upon request and face penalties in the event of a catastrophic event.
Vladimir Datiaz went from 40-year-old intern to a hit at CBS Mornings. With help from CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Datiaz left a high-paying job in finance to become a TV news fixture.
Los Angeles exhibit and memorial recreates terror attack at Israeli music festival. The exhibit recreates the scene where Hamas militants attacked the Nova music festival, leaving more than 400 people dead. The goal is to inspire visitors with a sense of common humanity.
In case you missed it:
‘Fortnite’ developer opens mobile store after years of legal battle
Longtime YouTube exec takes key tech role at Disney
WGA warns writers not to work with Randall Emmett’s associates
Warner Discovery brings TV network under Channing Dungey umbrella
This week’s number
Directed by Fede Alvarez, Alien: Romulus, the latest installment in the Walt Disney Co.-owned horror and sci-fi franchise, opened to positive reviews and a strong $41.5 million in the U.S. and Canada.
Yes, the Xenomorph is now a Disney character.
The $80 million film features a large special effects cast and a mostly newcomer cast, although the return of one key character as an AI-enhanced digital re-creation has generated much controversy. Including overseas box office receipts, the film grossed $108 million worldwide during its opening weekend.
In addition to the success of Pixar’s “Inside Out 2,” Disney has had strong recent success with Fox intellectual property, including “Romulus,” “Deadpool & Wolverine” and “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.”
Cinematography
Finally…
After nearly five decades together, legendary Los Angeles punk band X has returned with their final album, Smoke & Fiction.