Credit: Disney It’s been a momentous year for Hollywood, although not in a good way.
As the industry finally seemed to be recovering from the 2020 pandemic, 2023 was the year of union negotiations and strikes that upended the entire film industry as we know it. Back in May, the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) went on strike as they failed to come to an agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) union followed suit with a strike of their own in July, and the two unions have been on strike since.
Earlier this week, the WGA finally came to an agreement with the AMPTP, which has allowed writers to start working again. As of yet, SAG and the AMPTP still have no meeting scheduled. What this means is that while writers can get back to working on scripts that were either in production or pre-production when the strikes started, actors are still on strike, and film productions are still unable to resume.
With the strike lasting as long as it has and actors unable to go back to work, the fall and winter 2023-2024 production schedule has been indefinitely delayed. Many broadcast cable networks turned to reruns or unscripted series to fill the lacking lineup and Disney+ announced they would be airing Ms. Marvel on broadcast television, releasing the previously streaming-only series to a wider audience.
Another studio has made a similar decision, with Paramount+ deciding to take its Mean Girls reboot from a streaming release to a theatrical release. The film is a remake of the 2004 pop culture phenomenon that starred Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Tina Fey, Lacey Chabert, and Amanda Seyfried. The remake now features Angourie Rice (from Marvel’s Spider-Man franchise), Auliʻi Cravalho (Moana), Reneé Rapp, Bebe Wood, and Avantika Vandanapu among others.
Moving from its Paramount+ release, Mean Girls will be given a January 2024 theatrical run. With both Paramount+ and Disney+ shifting streaming content to a broader audience, it’s possible that other streaming platforms will follow suit to help bolster the upcoming season. Although there are still several films being released over the next few months, it’s clearly not nearly as full of releases as it typically is.
The Marvels, starring Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, will be released in November, with fans on the fence about the film’s chance at success. Disney also has a major release in November, with Wish serving as the studio’s triumphant celebration as the Walt Disney Company winds down their Disney100 Anniversary.
It’s unclear how much longer SAG will remain on strike with the WGA finally at an end. As such, other highly anticipated films like Deadpool 3 likely won’t see their original release dates in the first half of 2024. This means that anything that the next several months are going to be much emptier than usual in terms of release dates and announcements unless studios shift their planned streaming releases to theatrical runs and broadcast releases. As studios face a potential shift back to theaters, it could cause another major industry shift away from streaming.
Do you think more studios are going to release streaming content? Let us know in the comments below!