[FILM FEATURE] Phuket Cinemas Hit By Hollywood Strike

This week five films have been released into Phuket cinemas, only one is American and that is a re-release of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – a film that was released a decade ago. Yes, the strikes that have been crippling Hollywood’s film industry for the past few months have finally had an effect on cinemas here.

The strikes began back in May when the Writer’s Guild Of America (WGA) voted to go on strike over an on-going pay dispute with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television (AMPT). That dispute was largely over that fact that the WGA felt that its members weren’t receiving enough financial compensation for their work from the major streaming platforms.

The striking writers were then joined by the actors in July when the Screen Actor’s Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) who also felt that their members were not being paid enough for re-runs of streaming platforms. They also had an added gripe wanting protection for actor’s whose likeness might be created by an AI for film and television projects.

Hollywood and cinema chains around the world breathed a sigh of relief when WGA reached an agreement with AMPT that saw writers return to work, but SAG-AFTRA voted to stay on strike with their needs not being meet. In a worrying move the decision by SAG-AFTRA to remain on strike now has many leading film and TV journalists in the USA predicting that the strike may last well into 2024.

The strikes have already had a crippling affect on Hollywood. Blockbuster films including Strays (starring Will Ferrell and Jamie Foxx) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (starring Seth Rogen and Jackie Chan) took massive hits at the Box Office after the strike meant that the actors could not go out and promote the movies to the public.

Even the normally popular comic book movies took a hit with DC Comic’s Blue Beetle recording the studio’s worst ever first weekend return. That hast to have the bosses at Disney worried with Marvel’s The Marvels being released in cinemas in just a couple of week’s time.

The strike has also seen eagerly anticipated blockbusters such as Kraven The Hunter, Zendaya’s Challengers and Dune Part 2 have their release dates moved from this year to next. In a move that would back up the US media’s claim that the strike will go well into next year this week it was announced that Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 2 will now be released in May 2025 rather than June next year.

That Hollywood chaos has also seen promised television show cancelled and films such as Gladiator 2 and Deadpool 3 put in limbo as their productions had already started but now their studios lay dormant.

The flow on affect is now being felt in cinemas right around the world with American product beginning to slow up but AFCA-accredited film journalist Kyle McGrath says that is not something that should be considered all bad.

“I think in a way we have seen a positive as cinemas have been able to diversify their focus more due to the strikes,” explains McGrath. “Often Asian, local and other varieties of film would only receive screenings at certain niche cinemas which specialised in that. But now films which wouldn’t be getting much coverage are being exposed to a larger audience.”

“In turn this could help audience expand their horizons,” he goes on to say. “Also and perhaps this will open themselves up to types of movies they would normally turn their noses up at or just have no interest in.”

McGrath has also felt the affects of the strike though with both his popular radio show and Podcast, The Popcorn Conspiracy, that he is co-host of being affected by the fact that many actors can no longer appear on the shows to promote their current movies. Emails from publicists containing lines like “my client has sadly had to cancel his interview on your show in fears that it would be seen as a violation of the SAG-AFTRA strike” are now almost a daily occurrence. In the past week we have seen more talks between SAG-AFTRA and AMPT breakdown while the strike reached the White House with America’s First Lady Jill Biden endorsing the actor’s fight so it does seem that Phuket cinemas may only see one or two Hollywood releases a week for quite some time to come.