Hollywood Is Running Out of Time to Fix a Broken Business Model

The strikes that shut down Hollywood studios for most of last year didn’t recalibrate the entertainment industry. They exposed its biggest vulnerability: The business is broken.

Cable TV is shedding viewers by the millions and advertising sales by the billions. The movie business still hasn’t recovered from the pandemic. And streaming, supposedly the answer to all of it, is still losing gobs of money. Even though unions secured huge victories, writers and actors have returned to an industry that should have far fewer jobs.

Nary a soul—not even Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger—has divined a strategy ...