The media conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery cut its profit forecasts by between 300 and 500 million dollars for the whole year.
This crisis is due “mainly to the impact of the strikes” maintained by the actors’ and screenwriters’ unions in the U.S. against the big Hollywood companies.
The company expected an ebitda -financial indicator before taxes, interest, depreciation and amortization.
The figure was to range between $11 billion and $11.5 billion by 2023 but, according to new guidance communicated by Warner Bros. on Tuesday, it will be between $10.5 billion and $11 billion.
“While Warner Bros. Discovery is confident that these strikes will be resolved soon, it cannot predict when they will ultimately end,” the company said.
“With both unions still on strike today, the company now assumes that the financial impact will persist through the end of 2023,” the company explained in updating its expectations for this year.
“Barbie,” the Warner Bros. release of the year.
However, “Barbie,” the box-office phenomenon of the year with a turnover of $1.4 billion worldwide, and the reduction of investments in film and show production will allow increasing free cash flow to at least $5 billion, according to the Warnet Bros. Discovery report.
The company also stressed Tuesday that it will continue to work to resolve “in a fair manner” the strikes.
The lawsuits are with the Hollywood Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) and the Screenwriters Guild (WGA), and that they would modify their forecasts if the strikes were ended.
SAG-AFTRA joined the picket lines initiated by the WGA more than two months earlier against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers of America (AMPTP) on July 14.
This is a joint strike that is gridlocking the U.S. entertainment industry and, to date, has shown little sign of being resolved.
Strike layoffs
A context of uncertainty that joins the massive layoffs perpetrated by large entertainment companies such as Warner Bros. Discovery itself.
This company concluded a total cutback of 7,000 employees at the end of May, as a measure to recover its “financial equilibrium”.