Strikes Saved Warner Bros. Discovery “More Than $100 Million,” Says CEO David Zaslav

The joint Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes have bred economic instability for several facets of the industry—from movie theaters bracing for an uncertain release schedule to creatives just trying to survive. But that financial strain doesn’t appear to be hitting the studios. Weeks after Netflix told investors that it had saved $1.5 billion this year by pausing productions, CEO David Zaslav has declared that Warner Bros. Discovery has savings in the “low $100 million range.”

That’s according to the company’s Q2 earnings call Thursday, where Warner Bros. Discovery leadership broke down the numbers for April 1–June 30, a period when only the writers were on strike. This figure comes just before WGA leadership returns to the negotiating table with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).

Although there is no such meeting in place between the studios and actors, WBD said it’s currently estimating “early September” as the end of striking. That’s far earlier than the six-month projection recently provided by SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher. 

“We’re in the business of storytelling. Our goal is to tell great stories, stories with the power to entertain and, when we’re at our best, inspire with stories that come to life on screens big and small,” Zaslav said on the call, as reported by Variety. “We cannot do any of that without the entirety of the creative community, the great creative community. Without the writers, directors, editors, producers, actors, the whole below-the-line crew. Our job is to enable and empower them to do their best work. We’re hopeful that all sides will get back to the negotiating room soon and that these strikes get resolved in a way that the writers and actors feel they are fairly compensated and their efforts and contributions are fully valued.”

During the call, Zaslav—who was booed and told to “pay your writers” while giving a commencement address at Boston University weeks into the writers strike—continued: “I think all of us in this business are very keen to figure out a solution as quickly as possible. We are in some uncharted waters, in terms of the world as it is today and measuring it all. And so I think, in good faith, we all got to fight to get this resolved. And it needs to be resolved in a way that the creative community feels fairly compensated and fully valued.”