Now that Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has managed to imitate the success of the original film and go down as one of the few sequels in cinema history to surpass the brilliance of its predecessor, people are bringing attention to the project’s modest budget, little knowing that it was bought by the blood, sweat, and tears of underpaid animators.
Across the Spider-Verse has opened the floodgates of Marvel discussion, or rather, the popular Marvel character mostly associated with being a friendly neighborhood vigilante. Whether it’s realizing that the entire premise of Spider-Man is built on a plot hole, or that Across the Spider-Verse is going to save Sony’s live-action universe after all, the cinema talk these days solely revolves around the animated sequel, and rightly so, given all the things it gets right when it comes to a superhero story.
But some people think that the commercial success of Across the Spider-Verse, coinciding with the ongoing writers’ strike, should be the wake-up call Hollywood needs to give its animators more fair compensation for their hard work. Indeed, as highlighted in this TikTok clip, we shouldn’t forget there’s a very good reason why Across the Spider-Verse cost so little to produce — at least compared to other superhero blockbusters.
If this movie is indeed going to change the industry due to its unmatched artistic value, then perhaps the artists who worked on it should also get their due.
The matter of underpaid concept artists and animators isn’t strictly a Hollywood problem. For years now, the anime industry in Japan has also contended with the same issue to an extreme degree, so if there’s to be any hope of changing that in the near future, we should talk about it more often.
Huge corporations will always continue to look out for their own interests, and try to get away with paying their workforce indecent wages if they can. That’s why, when all is said and done, it’s ultimately up to the artists themselves — and even the audience, to some degree — to stand up to this. In fact, that might be, in itself, a testament to the importance of the recent writers’ strike, though it may have impeded the production of countless movies and television shows.