I wonder how much of the “unreasonable demands” are really unreasonable, and how much of that is spin by the AMPTP. We’ve already seen how willing they are to publish lies and misinformation during negotiations with the writers–and the SAG won’t have the membership that can push back quite as readily as the writers guilds did.

As a general rule, I tend to err on the side of guilds and unions when things come to a strike. By and large, the guilds are not making unreasonable demands, it is merely that the big companies that employ them are after a bigger piece of the pie. That isn’t always true, but it is far more often than it is not. Unions are usually pretty good about understanding what sorts of demands are genuinely unreasonable, because if they got them, they can see how they would make the business unsustainable–and that’s not good for them, either, since they then lose their jobs. Unions have a vested interest in remaining reasonable, while the companies they negotiate with see far less cause for a similar level of rationality–if they are unreasonable, and win, they get more money and power, after all.

Personally, I see movies so rarely in the theater that this is unlikely to directly affect me. There are several movies coming out this summer I actually care about, but none of them will be affected by this, regardless–filming in all cases is done. And I know of nothing on the horizon that I will be heartbroken if it gets delayed. And since TV actors appear to have an entirely separate union anyway, small screen entertainment should be unaffected (not that I care much there either–I watch TV only on DVD, anyhow).

Not to mention, theater tickets are only going up.