Writers on strike beware: Hollywood has changed for ever

You cannotWGA see the Hollywood sign from the picket line outside Netflix’s compound on Sunset Boulevard. It is obscured by an office tower with a busty advertisement for a “Bridgerton” spin-off splashed on the wall. Yet Hollywood, with its arcane paraphernalia, is all around you. The Writers Guild of America (), which called the strike, traces its roots back to cinema’s early days. The language that the strikers use is steeped in history. They talk of “rooms” where writers gather to work on a script and of “notes”, the often brutal feedback they receive from studio executives. In Los Angeles, Hollywood still confers cachet. You can tell from the horns blasting out in support of the strikers from passing cars.It is a town, and an industry, in upheaval, though. The strike, the first in 15 years, is the latest manifestation of that. Cinemas are still struggling to lure audiences back after the pandemic. Media companies are drowning in debt. Amid a surfeit of TikTok celebrities and minor Hollywood glitterati, only a few old warhorses like Tom Cruise are guaranteed to bring out the crowds. The main cause of the turmoil is streaming. Its firehose of content keeps people at home, rather than going to the multiplex. Its shows cost the film industry a fortune to make. And they are served up with such blink-and-you-miss-them rapidity that it is harder than ever to create universal cultural icons. Yet as leisure activities go, there are few better ways to get a bang for 15 bucks or less.