[image transcript: a thread from twitter user David Slack @slack2thefuture, quote-retweeting a Deadline article titled "Hollywood Studios' WGA Strike Endgame is to Let Writers Go Broke":]
"And right on cue, here's the inevitable Deadline article claiming that the AMPTP and their CEO bosses are readyto wait us out and let us "go broke."
They're not. They can't. This is studio propaganda, and here's why. 🧵
In the increasingly mega-merged and hedgefundified Hollywood, these companies live or die on their quarterly earnings reports. It only takes one bad quarter for their stock price to plunge, putting the company and the CEO's job in jeopardy.
But their stock prices are holding steady, right? Right. For now. Because our industry is a pipeline that starts with writers. The shows and movies they're releasing now are shows we started making for them 4-12 quarters ago. But what happens when that pipeline runs dry?
What happens is they run out of product. No new shows in streaming to drive and sustain subscribers. No new shows in broadcast and ad-supported to bring in ad revenue.
No money, bad earnings report.
Bad earnings report, bye-bye stock price.
After 70+ days with no writers to create their product for them, the pipeline is running dry.
Their stock price isn't tanking yet. But if they don't make a deal with us, it will.
If they make a deal soon, they might be able to weather it. Stretch out releases. Rush some new stuff through.
But the longer they keep us out, the longer that pipeline runs dry, the more unavoidable a catastrophic dip in high-quality shows becomes.
So yeah, the studios are planting articles in the trades that make it sound like they're so determined not to pay us the 0.02% of company revenue we're asking for that they're willing to hold out forever.
I'm sure the AMPTP bosses would love to break our union. But they love their jobs more. They love money more. The can't make that money without us.
Ignore the trades, walk the line, stand together, and win. #WGAStrong