ICYMI: Even Wall St. Isn't Feeling It
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Barbenheimer might have given the town a badly-needed boost, but as the high fades, it’s back to the reality of an industry shut down.
And people are asking, is the plan here really to just wait it out until everyone is exhausted and broke?
You know things are truly upside-down when Wall Street analysts are sounding… pro union! From contributing editor Claire Atkinson’s big news-making piece this week:
Despite criticisms from Hollywood leaders about poor timing of the strikes, some Wall Street analysts see the wisdom of a fast settlement.
Michael Pachter, research analyst at Wedbush Securities, is more pointed: “The market thinks all of the corporate bosses are idiots, and generally sides with the unions.”
He adds: “Higher pay might be difficult to endorse, but protections for residual uses of content and against AI make perfect sense to most people, and the media companies are intransigent and unapologetic.”
Read her interviews with more analysts here:
In further sign that the writers strike seems nowhere near resolution, Elaine Low broke news this week of an extraordinary measure: One Day at a Time co-showrunner Mike Royce and Handmaid’s Tale co-showrunner Yahlin Chang delivered an in-person warning about entertainment stocks to CalSTRS, which, with $315.6 billion under management, calls itself the “largest teachers’ retirement system and second largest public pension fund in the nation.”
Mike Royce and WGA negotiating committee member Yahlin Chang spoke to the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) today to tell its board that “the strike exposes your investments to financial risk” and that the AMPTP has been absent from the negotiating table because it wants “to keep their labor costs at rock bottom, while their CEOs hold a race to see who can build the biggest yacht.”
Video of their testimony and the story can be found exclusively at Strikegeist.
Our anonymous Business Affairs Exec made waves when he shared his inside confessions a few weeks back. This week, he returned to offer thoughts on writers’ rooms and mini-rooms, miscalculations along the way, and suggestions of how to break the impasse:
Business Affairs Exec: How to Truly ‘Preserve the Writers' Room’
The problem with building your argument around saving the writers’ room is that nobody but writers really cares about writers’ rooms… And the AMPTP, which has refused to bargain on the issue… to look past the form of the writers’ proposal and engage with its underlying substance...
Meanwhile, streaming got us into this mess, and Barbenheimer is a reminder of how to get out of it. In his latest, Richard called on an industry to smash the firehose and remember what show people can achieve!
Rushfield: Flukes in the Ointment
In the midst of the darkest of times for showbiz, we get a little ray of hope. The strikes go on, but for a couple of days at least, it feels a lot different seeing writers and actors striking in front of studios that still have a little life in them having shown that they still have the capacity...
🪧 Strikegeist
This week, Elaine hit the circuit, joining CNBC to talk about the effect of price increases on the Streaming Wars, and KTLA to talk strike.
And find Elaine out on the pickets as she writes her daily coverage, or drop her a line at Elaine@theankler.com.
Exclusive: WGA Warns Calif. Teacher Pension Fund on 'Risk' of Studio Stocks
'We’ve got a message for Mr. Iger': New York Mega-Rally Burns Bright
☀️ 5 Days of The Wakeup
Sean McNulty told the continuing story of the business through earnings calls this week: Peacock continued its staggering losses (but is yet a speck in the Comcast universe); and even Spotify can’t find a way to make money. This week, more biggies are up… Warner Bros. Discovery, Amazon, Apple, AMC Networks and Cinemark. Check in with Sean for the best breakdowns in the business (btw, you can read the Comcast newsletter below for FREE).
🎧 This Week in Podcasts
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Studios, Strikers and a Tense Game of Chicken
Listen now (46 min) | As the strikes roll on, the ante was upped this week as WGA chief negotiator, Chris Keyser, accused the studios of being in a ‘mutual suicide pact’, and one Wall Street analyst called the CEOs “idiots” for not settling with the unions. Even with the work stoppage allowing studios to clean up their balance sheets, the exis…
Transcript here
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A Piece of the Action
Listen now (12 min) | This week, Rob likens negotiations in the dual strike to post-production on a TV series, i.e., incremental movements of bits and pieces in the quest for perfection, even when, as in this case, the story stopped making sense a long time ago. Somehow, this leads to a chat about “breakage” — the deal term for when opposing parties, say a network and studio…
Transcript here
Listen here: Apple | Spotify | Google Podcasts
Hollywood's Hopes in China Are Fading
Listen now (38 min) | Erich Schwartzel of the WSJ joins Sonny Bunch to discuss the disastrous summer for blockbusters and why...
Listen here: Apple | Spotify | Google Podcasts
🔎 The Optionist
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