Hollywood Actors to Start Voting This Week on a New Contract

For the past several months, production in Hollywood has been at a near standstill.

In May, thousands of movie and television writers went on strike, calling for better pay amid an explosion of streaming services that have upended the entertainment industry. In July, 160,000 actors joined the action — the first time that Hollywood writers and actors went on strike at the same time since 1960.

The Writers Guild of America, which represents 11,500 screenwriters, ended its 148-day strike in September after reaching an agreement with studios.

And last week, SAG-AFTRA, the union representing tens of thousands of actors, reached a tentative deal for a new contract with entertainment companies. That ends what was the longest movie and television strike in the union’s 90-year history and clears the way for the $134 billion U.S. movie and television business to swing back into business.

SAG-AFTRA said on Friday that its national board had voted to send a tentative contract with studios to members for ratification, a process that would start tomorrow and end the first week in December.

Fran Drescher, the union’s president, highlighted the “extraordinary scope” of the agreement, noting that it included protections around the use of artificial intelligence, higher minimum pay, better health care funding and more. The studio alliance called the deal historic, saying it reflected “the biggest contract-on-contract gains in the history of the union.”

You can read more about the deal here.

For the Golden State and beyond, the fallout from the dual strikes has been major.

California’s economy alone has lost more than $5 billion, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom. Experts put the nationwide losses at between $6 billion and $10 billion. (While the big studios are based in Los Angeles, they also use soundstage complexes in Georgia, New Jersey, New Mexico and New York.)

And though writers have been back at work for more than a month, and actors can return to work immediately, getting Hollywood up and running again won’t be easy with so many paused and delayed projects restarting at the same time, as my colleague Nicole Sperling reported.

“It’s a bit like all those ships that were stuck in the harbor during Covid because they couldn’t offload them fast enough,” the producer Todd Garner told Nicole. “They are just going to have to go through the canal one by one, and then it will catch up and resume again.”

And even then, many people in Hollywood remain worried about the long-term prospects for the industry.

Studios are expected to cut production in the coming years, as they grapple with higher labor expenses and the end of the era of Peak TV, my colleague Brooks Barnes reported.

TV networks and streaming platforms ordered 40 percent fewer adult scripted series in the second half of 2022 than in the same period in 2019, Brooks reported. That decrease means cuts for not just the people who work directly on the shows but also for the hundreds of people, including agents, managers, publicists and stylists, who in turn fuel the broader economy.

“With the strike over, we’re all staring down the barrel of a painful structural adjustment that predates the strike,” Zack Stentz, a screenwriter with credits like “X-Men: First Class” and “Thor,” wrote on social media. “A lot of careers and even entire companies are going to go away over the next year.”

Where we’re traveling

Today’s tip comes from Duncan Barr, who lives in San Francisco. Duncan recommends visiting Mount Shasta in Siskiyou County:

“Marvelous in all four seasons, but the fall is magical. On Highway 5 and four hours from San Francisco and never too crowded for skiing, biking, or swimming/boating in Lake Siskiyou. There are terrific hiking trails throughout the area and five golf courses within 10 miles of Mount Shasta city.”

Tell us about your favorite places to visit in California. Email your suggestions to [email protected]. We’ll be sharing more in upcoming editions of the newsletter.

Tell us

I’m thinking about how Californians celebrate Thanksgiving. By the beach? With sourdough stuffing?

Email your Golden State Thanksgiving traditions to [email protected]. Please include your full name and the city in which you live.

And before you go, some good news

A major solar energy project is planned for Six Flags Magic Mountain in Southern California.

The project, announced by the amusement park this month, is a 12.37-megawatt solar carport — essentially an open-sided canopy — to be constructed over the main parking lot used by the park’s guests and staff members.

The solar structure would both store and produce electric energy and help decrease pollution, KTLA 5 reports. It is expected to produce about as much electricity in a year as that consumed by 2,874 homes, the station said.

The project, said to be the largest commercial solar installation on a single site in the state, would be the third in the Six Flags chain, after those at the company’s parks in Vallejo and Jackson Township, N.J.