Writers strike: Studios want writers to trust them on streaming. Here’s why they don’t

When Indiana Jones tells Marion Ravenwood “Trust me” in “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” she tries to punch him in the face (again).

Writers striking against the major studios have a pretty good idea of how she felt. Because when studios say, “Trust us,” Hollywood’s talent has a long history that explains why they don’t.

Among sticking points in the negotiations between the Writers Guild of America and the association representing studios (otherwise known as the AMPTP) is the question of residual payments, and what writers receive for work playing streaming services. The guild has asked for more transparency about streaming data, and to share in success from popular shows, as they have when a TV show ran long enough to sell its reruns into syndication.

More than a week into its first strike in 15 years, the guild representing writers is again worried studios aren’t being forthcoming about their profits, a source of acrimony that prompted plenty of lawsuits in the past. And if studios were stingy about dispensing such information before, when there were regular Nielsen ratings to analyze, they’ve become even more opaque in the age of streaming, seldom providing hard data regarding how many people are watching TV shows and movies.

Journalists, notably, have also been frustrated by the dearth of such information. While Netflix finally began making available guidance on its most popular shows in 2021, streaming services have generally remained reluctant to quantify their performance.

In that respect streaming has merely added new wrinkles to an old problem – namely, the lack of trust in the talent-studio relationship. That dynamic is summed up by an old joke generally attributed to Mel Brooks, noting that studios have carved the words “The money is here. We dare you to find it” at the entrances to their lots. (CNN parent Warner Bros. Discovery is an AMPTP member.)

In the 1990s, a change in federal regulations cleared the way for studios to own major TV networks (and vice versa), triggering a series of lawsuits over programs like “Home Improvement” and “The X-Files.” Those shows were produced by the same company that broadcast them, prompting their creators to fret about sweetheart deals that failed to deliver fair-market value.