FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images
- Hollywood writers and actors have been on strike for over a week.
- Economists are warning that the shutdown could cost the US billions of dollars.
- The previous writers' strike in 2007 wiped $2 billion off Los Angeles' economy alone.
Hollywood's double strike has entered its second week – and forecasters are warning it could end up taking a significant toll on the US economy.
Los Angeles is likely to receive the largest hit from the shutdown, they say – with the entertainment capital losing $2 billion by itself the last time writers downed tools in 2007.
But there could also be a knock-on effect felt beyond just south California – because film and TV productions tend to create their own multiplier effect, boosting spending in other industries as well.
The 2007 writers' strike ended up "impacting all sorts of things in daily life," the Milken Institute's chief global strategist Kevin Klowden, who believes the current impasse will do $4 billion worth of economic damage, told Yahoo Finance on Monday.
"We looked at it and we talked to people – and it was affecting restaurants and catering companies, affecting trucking companies, it was affecting welders, it was affecting construction people, it was affecting dry cleaners, it was affecting all sorts of businesses."
It's also become much more common for studios to film outside LA over the past decade – and so the shutout could be felt "in New York, in Albuquerque, in Atlanta, in Pittsburgh," as well, Klowden added.
Major films alone contribute around $250,000 to the US economy each day of production, according to data from the Motion Picture Association.
The Writers Guild of America and the actors' union SAG-AFTRA have downed tools simultaneously for the first time since 1960 over the lack of income they're getting from streaming platforms and concerns about the impact AI could have on their profession.
"Ted Lasso" star Jason Sudeikis, Oscar winner Susan Sarandon, and "Don't Worry Darling" director Olivia Wilde were among those joining the picket line last week.
New seasons of "The Last of Us", "Euphoria", and "The White Lotus" have already been delayed as a result of the strikes.