Warner Bros. Says Strikes May Cost Company As Much As $500 Million

The twin Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild strikes have put nearly all of Hollywood on perpetual pause while the striking actors and writers ask movie studios for fair compensation for their work. Warner Bros. Discovery said that the ongoing strike could cost the studio somewhere in the ballpark of $300 to $500 million in a new SEC filing.

Warner Bros. Discovery expects its earnings for the year to be about $10 to $11 billion, and attributes the change to its finances primarily to the strike, stating in the filing that WBD "now assumes the financial impact to WBD of these trikes will persist through the end of 2023. The previous statement said that the company expected the strikes to end in early September. The purpose of this update is to allow investors and analysts, would otherwise be working off of the previous assumption when making financial forecasts and decisions. The company previously said that the strikes had saved it more than $100 million.

WBD arguably won the summer with Barbie, which is now the studio's biggest movie ever worldwide, with an estimated haul of $1.34 billion as the movie releases on digital platforms today. With an eye toward the strike, though, the company recently delayed Dune: Part Two, the highly anticipated sequel to 2021's Dune: Part One, from its November 3 release date to March 15, 2024.

"WBD continues to prioritize and work diligently with other industry leadership to resolve the current WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes in a manner that is fair and values the important work of, and partnership with, the writers and actors," the company said in its filing.