For subscribers

Writers on strike beware: Hollywood has changed forever

Blame Netflix if you like, but it is well placed to survive the work stoppage

Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox

The Writers Guild of America (WGA), which called the strike, traces its roots back to cinema’s early days.

Demonstrators outside Netflix's compound in Hollywood, California, on May 2, during a strike called by the Writers Guild of America.

PHOTO: AFP

The Economist

Follow topic:

You cannot 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 (WGA), 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.

See more on