Avengers star Mark Ruffalo is tired of “fat cats” ruling Hollywood—and he has an idea on how striking actors and writers can trigger a reset in the film industry.
Ruffalo, who starred in the Oscar-winning movie Spotlight and played the Hulk in several Marvel movies, slammed the industry over the weekend for creating “an empire of billionaires” who believe actors and writers “are no longer of value.”
“While they hang out in the billionaire boy summer camps laughing like fat cats, we organize a new world for workers,” he said in a series of tweets.
U.S. actors’ union SAG-AFTRA, which has around 160,000 members, went on strike last week over pay, working conditions, and concerns relating to the use of A.I. in the film industry.
It joined the Writers Guild of America—a union representing thousands of Hollywood writers—which went on strike in early May, marking the industry’s biggest shutdown in more than six decades.
For the actors on strike, much of the breakdown in negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) has been related to residual payments, the amount actors are paid for reruns of a movie or show they appeared in, which have been squeezed with the rise of streaming platforms.
Last year, the global box office takings rose 28% to $25.7 billion. While dollar figures are still below pre-pandemic levels, blockbusters helped lift profits at major studios including Universal, Warner Bros., and Paramount, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Last month, an analysis by the Los Angeles Times revealed that average pay for Hollywood’s top executives surged by 53% between 2018 and 2021. The increase meant they were paid, on average, $28 million a year—around 108 times higher than the average writer’s income.
The top earners in Hollywood included the CEOs of Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix, and Disney, the research showed, all of whom raked in nine-figure sums over the past five years.
Pivot to independent productions
Ruffalo suggested on Saturday that creatives seeking a better alternative to the studio-dominant model should “all jump into indie [films] now.”
“Content creators create a film- and TV-making system alongside the studio and streaming networks so there is actual competition,” he said. “Then we just do what we always do—create great content—and they can buy it, or we take it out ourselves and WE share in those sales.”
Currently, Ruffalo said, major Hollywood studios have no competition, but organized action could change that.
“One sure way to strengthen our hand right now is to become very supportive and friendly to all independent projects immediately,” he said.
“Push every SAG-AFTRA member to join the ones that get SAG-AFTRA (WGA) WAIVERS immediately. Share profits. If the project does well, everyone does well. This will also help our fellow filmmakers ‘The Crew,’ who we love, to keep working.”
Hollywood studios “a very greedy entity”
In a speech announcing the strike last week, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher condemned the companies producing movies and TV series, echoing Ruffalo’s idea that those at the top are reaping too much of the financial reward for themselves.
“We are being victimized by a very greedy entity,” she said. “They plead poverty, that they’re losing money left and right, when giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs. It is disgusting. Shame on them. They stand on the wrong side of history at this very moment.”
Last week, Disney CEO Bob Iger argued striking writers and actors were not being “realistic” with their demands, labeling the walkout “very disturbing.” In 2019, Forbes estimated that Iger had a net worth of $690 million, and when he returned to the helm of Disney last year it was to an annual pay package of about $27 million.
Many working actors have been speaking from the picket lines about how they want streaming giants like Netflix, Amazon, and Disney to agree to a fairer division of their profits.
To fans of my character Bev on Reservation Dogs, here’s a peek behind the IHS counter at what part of my residuals looks like for acting on a show that I love. I pull in $.03 each quarter for UNLIMITED world wide streams on fx/hulu/DISNEY.
— jana (@janaunplgd) July 17, 2023
& Iger is yachting. #SAGAFTRAstrike pic.twitter.com/u6JjubmznZ
I haven’t acted much as an adult, but I WAS on a recurring character on one of the most critically acclaimed animated shows of all time, as well playing an actual Disney villain.
— Mara Wilson (@MaraWilson) July 13, 2023
But thanks to streaming, I have never once made enough to qualify for SAG-AFTRA healthcare.
#SAGAFTRA member Parvesh Cheena (#SometimesIThinkAboutDying) says he's picketing in front of Amazon Studios today because "I want my fair share of residuals. ...Not all of us are Tom Cruise."
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) July 14, 2023
🎥 @jenyamato
More on the #sagstrikehttps://t.co/X4oSRcHR4r pic.twitter.com/i3TRcq9CcV
Under the terms of the strike, SAG-AFTRA union members are not permitted to participate in any promotional activity, including movie premiers, which has already led to some unusual activity at high-profile events.
Saturday’s premiere of new Disney release The Haunted Mansion saw theme park characters walking the red carpet at the screening in Disneyland, as the movie’s striking stars were absent.
Meanwhile, the cast of the hotly anticipated blockbuster Oppenheimer ditched the film’s London premiere last week as the actors’ strike came into force.
In a statement on Monday, AMPTP said SAG-AFTRA had walked away from a deal worth more than $1 billion in pay rises, pension and health contributions, and residual increases.
“The AMPTP’s goal from day one has been to come to a mutually beneficial agreement with SAG-AFTRA,” a spokesperson said. “A strike is not the outcome we wanted. For SAG-AFTRA to assert that we have not been responsive to the needs of its membership is disingenuous at best.”
