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EXCLUSIVE: The first day of the latest round of renewed talks between the studios and SAG-AFTRA has ended, with proposed plans for the directors to meet again – possibly the next day or so.
After the studios were declared “suspended” on October 11 over a union plan for additional payouts based on the success of a streaming show, the now-resumed deliberations began today with the AMPTP putting some new proposals on the table – what The 103rd day of the actors’ union strike met with little positive response.
Described as “generous” by studio sources, the jewel in the AMPTP’s bargaining crown on Tuesday was a new take on what was dubbed “performance-based compensation.” In an effort to avoid the leg-hold trap that has brought up discussions about revenue sharing and a “subscriber levy,” as Netflix’s Ted Sarandos repeatedly disparagingly called it over the last two weeks, CEOs thought they had found a mechanism “To make sure there are higher payouts to the cast,” as one insider put it.
“It all depends, these discussions depend on how the guild responds to this latest offer,” another industry source told Deadline today.
The reaction was pretty clear from the start. The proposal “failed,” a person involved in the deliberations told Deadline.
But while others also said the day turned out to be “not great” in places, and there was a lot of raw emotion over the studios’ sudden halt to talks two weeks ago, overall both sides had an almost full day of deliberations – and That’s definitely much better than no conversations at all
In the final days that sealed the WGA deal and the first unsuccessful round of renewed talks with SAG-AFTRA earlier this month, Disney’s Bob Iger, NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley, Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav and Netflix’s Sarandos all sat in AMPTP at the table President Carol Lombardini on Tuesday at the guild’s headquarters on Wilshire Blvd.
Like last time, the studio overlords met SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher, chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, chief contracts officer Ray Rodriguez and others. The presence of the CEO Gang of Four was hinted at in the joint statement dated October 21, the 100th day of the SAG-AFTRA strike, which announced the resumption of talks today.
.It was said that today’s meeting started a little later than expected this morning. The delay was not due to friction between the parties, but simply to synchronize their normally busy schedules.
Once things got going, high on today’s agenda, we learned, was studios’ opposition to SAG-AFTRA’s latest proposal, which reduced their previous revenue-sharing requirements to a small percentage per subscriber fee. The AMPTP has been described as “more generous on a remuneration basis”, according to a source, and said it wants to “ensure that performers are given higher payouts”.
From the beginning of negotiations between AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA this cycle, revenue sharing for the studios had fizzled out. The guild envisioned a system in which the cast of hit streaming shows would receive a share of the lucrative bottom line — an idea that would be about 2%, later reduced to 1%, of studio profits and then converted to about 57 cents per subscriber per streaming service.
Dead before the strike, revenue sharing was silent as the CEO Gang of Four and the guild’s leadership and bargaining committee formally met on Oct. 2 for the first time in more than 80 days. The fact that everything blew up on October 11th The closure of the studios shouldn’t have been a big surprise – 1. Such a move is a tried and tested AMPTP tactic. 2.
Now the challenge for studios and the guild regarding SAG-AFTRA’s latest proposal is both philosophical and financial. Sarandos described the subscriber payout proposal as “too big of a bridge”, while Crabtree-Ireland saw the offer as a sign that the guild was flexible and open to further negotiations.
Interestingly, at this crucial point, both sides agree that the industry has changed dramatically, particularly as a business. On many issues, what divides the parties is the long money that has transformed Tinseltown jobs into middle-class careers over the past few decades.
In a column published on Deadline on the 100th day of the strike, SAG-AFTRA boss Dresher wrote: “The ten-year grace period we gave the AMPTP companies to use their streaming platforms at the expense of fairly compensating my members building is over.” screeching stop.”
Drescher cited how streaming has “cut off the syndication tail,” reducing the number of episodes and seasons from what working actors use for work.
“It is clearly not due to the old residual compensation structure for linear television or the current residual compensation for streaming. It’s in the pockets of CEOs and on the balance sheets of companies,” she added.
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As the actors’ strike reached the 100-day milestone on Saturday, there was a lot of activity leading up to it, including a Zoom meeting on October 17 with several stars, including George Clooney, Emma Stone, Tyler Perry, Bradley Cooper and Arian DeBose, among others; Many have released award-winning films in cinemas before the end of the year. While an offer led by Clooney included a $150 million pledge over three years to lift a cap on union dues and bring more money into the guild’s coffers, SAG-AFTRA boss Drescher expressed her gratitude on Instagram, But said the gesture was legally inconsistent with the union’s contract with the studios and that it “has no bearing on the contract we negotiate.”
Previously, on October 19, Crabtree-Ireland described the offer and the idea of big stars moving last in the remaining payouts (which actually happen all at the same time) as more of a “gesture of goodwill.”
While their proposals were shelved fairly quickly, we understand that some of the same A-listers spent time last week reaching out to studio heads and bosses as well in the hope that they would return to the negotiating table . This persuasion and the backlash the CEOs received for breaking off the talks were part of what led to the collective decision to try again. A decision communicated to the guild in a call from Iger to Crabtree-Ireland early on October 21 – at least one offer from the other side that was met with an almost immediate “yes”.
During last week’s pause in negotiations, SAG-AFTRA also issued Halloween costume guidelines for members to avoid dressing up as characters from affected companies and projects, angering some.
Aside from this kind of distraction, the harsh reality for the city is that every day the strike continues, the production schedule for the new television season, as well as feature films, is delayed.
Already next year’s cinema schedule is being thrown into disarray, which will deliver even greater financial shocks to exhibitors struggling with the pandemic; and this time there will be no government bailout money for them. Deadpool 3, which is half-finished, will miss its early-summer release date of the first weekend in May, and Paramount’s Mission: Impossible 8 will be pushed back from late June 2024 to Memorial Day weekend 2025. The latter means it’s well over five billion dollars that the global box office won’t see next year.
As for the small screen, hopes that the writers would get back to work in late September and transfer the momentum of their hard-won deal to the actors have been dashed for now. The desire to get new scripted shows on the air by the end of January to salvage at least the second half of the 2023/2024 TV season appears to be getting further and further out of reach, especially if the Guild and CEOs can’t strike a deal to do so to end the strike by Halloween
Looking at the bigger economic picture, AMPTP’s months-long battle with the Writers Guild and now SAG-AFTRA has contributed to a $6.5 billion loss to the California economy. With the WGA on the picket lines from early May to late September and the actors’ union joining them in mid-July, this economic setback has resulted in the loss of 45,000 jobs in the industry and a loss of over $400 million to the Fall Fund Office ( for the post-Labor Day period through October 18, compared to pre-pandemic 2019).
With no stars promoting major films, as was the case with the summer juggernaut Barbie and Oppenheimer (which grossed a combined $2.38 billion), several films’ earnings were muted in their openings after mid-July , since they couldn’t take off in the traditional way at Comic-Cons and fall festivals. “If they don’t advertise, it hurts the box office and therefore their bid for the next big project,” a studio sales manager recently told us about the stars’ inability to do press work during the strike.
On this 103rd day of strikes on picket lines on both coasts and elsewhere, members offered strong support to the Negotiating Committee:
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WHY WE’RE PAINTING: “We feel strong… united… we’re so excited about our negotiating team… If you want fairness, you can stand boldly… We’re here until it’s done…” – Alimi Ballard and Dahn Ballard tell Deadline at Warner Bros. today pic.twitter.com/NsNPYjIq4N
– Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) October 24, 2023