Hollywood Writers' Strike

Los Angeles, Burbank, Victory Boulevard. A group of people carrying signs and megaphones headed toward studios such as Disney–ABC Television, Dawn CBS Television, and Warner Bros. Television.

Members of the Hollywood Writers Guild were once again marching on strike. Since May, the WGA and AMPTP had been negotiating a new contract.

The Writers Guild had put forward a series of demands, mainly including a higher share of copyright revenue for writers in new media fields such as internet streaming and digital distribution, as well as greater say for writers during the creative process.

However, the producers' alliance had failed to meet those demands. The two sides could not reach an agreement, and the new contract negotiations had reached a deadlock. The two major Writers Guilds on the East and West Coasts held strikes in New York and Los Angeles respectively.

It was 9:00 a.m. in New York, while it was exactly 11:00 a.m. in Los Angeles!

At Dawn Pictures Headquarters, in Universal's offices, screenwriter Jonathan Hals handed producer Stephen Sommers the rushed final draft of The Mummy Returns: The Scorpion King, then said, "All right, I'm going to join the strike march too."

With that, under Stephen Sommers's astonished gaze, he picked up a protest sign beside him, left the office, and joined the crowd in the square outside the Dawn CBS Television studio.

Hollywood writers' strikes had begun in the early 1960s, when writers fought for a share of television broadcast revenue.

There had been three strikes throughout the 1980s alone. The most recent one, in 1988, had lasted a full 153 days—the longest strike ever—and caused Hollywood losses exceeding 500 million US dollars, all in an effort to secure writers a share of home video sales.

This was now Hollywood writers' fifth strike march!

Hollywood's major unions—the DGA,