LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Media magnate Barry Diller urged that Hollywood's highest-paid actors and executives take a 25 percent pay cut as he threatens a disastrous collapse for the industry if the SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America strikes are not resolved soon. The former CEO of Paramount and 20th Century Fox, who has become the head of the media giant IAC, commented on the problems he dubbed a "perfect storm" on CBS' Face the Nation on Sunday, July 16.
"Everybody's probably overpaid at the top end," Diller stated. "The one idea I had is to say, as a good faith measure, both the executives and the most-paid actors should take a 25 percent pay cut to try and narrow the difference between those who get highly paid and those that don't."
Who is the highest-paid actor in Hollywood?
Tom Cruise, one of the highest-paid professionals in the field, had his most recent Mission Impossible movie halted by the strike. According to Forbes, Cruise has lifetime earnings of over $1 billion and a projected net worth of $600 million as of 2023. However, it goes beyond the on-screen talent. Hollywood's top earners took home more than $1.4 billion in 2021, a startling 50% increase from 2018. Warner Bros Discovery chief David Zaslav tops that list with earnings of around $498 million between 2018 and 2022. The strike marks the first time since 1980 that performers for motion pictures and television have taken industrial action, as well as the first time since 1960 that two significant Hollywood unions have gone on strike simultaneously.
'There will be nothing to watch'
SAG-AFTRA members would be prohibited from filming movies or TV shows, participating in press conferences or film premieres, or promoting anything during this month's San Diego Comic-Con under the terms of a strike. If the strike is not resolved quickly, the entertainment sector faces an "absolute collapse," according to Diller, who also predicted that people will start canceling their subscriptions to streaming services because "there will be nothing to watch."
He added that there should be a settlement date of September 1 and said, "What will happen is, if in fact, it doesn't get settled until Christmas or so, then there's not going to be many programs for anybody to watch next year. So, you're gonna see subscriptions get pulled, which is going to reduce the revenue of all these movie companies, television companies, the result of which is that there will be no programs. And at just the time, strike is settled that you want to get back up, there won't be enough money," he continued.
'Perfect storm'
Diller referred to the current difficulties as a "perfect storm." "You had Covid, which sent people home to watch streaming television and killed theaters," Diller stated. "You've had the results of huge investments in streaming which have produced all these losses for all these companies that are now kind of retrenching. So at this moment, it's kind of a perfect storm."
