Four CEOs will return to SAG-AFTRA headquarters Tuesday with a new offer that they hope will break the stalemate in the 102-day actors’ strike.
Among them will be Disney’s Bob Iger, who called SAG-AFTRA’s top negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland on Saturday to invite the actors back to the negotiating table.
The CEOs — which also include Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos and NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley — are eager to get a deal done as quickly as possible in hopes of boosting box office next summer and part of 2023 -Season to save. 24 TV season.
On Monday, Paramount announced that it is moving the next installment of “Mission: Impossible” from June 2024 to May 2025. Further delays could follow if the strike is not resolved soon.
Iger’s call lifted the spirits of SAG-AFTRA leadership, who saw it as confirmation that the union has the leverage it needs to win a transformative deal.
“We have the wind at our backs,” said one person on the union side.
In an interview, Crabtree-Ireland said he too was optimistic.
“There is no way to make progress without talking,” he said. “It’s important to have them in the room. If that is accompanied by a significant change in key points, that is even better.”
The union is calling for protection through artificial intelligence and an 11% increase in basic minimums. But the biggest obstacle remains SAG-AFTRA’s demand for a cut of streaming revenue.
Talks collapsed on October 11 after the union proposed a fee of 57 cents per subscriber across all streaming platforms, which would cost studios about $500 million a year. The Film and TV Producers Alliance said this would impose an “unsustainable economic burden”.
Fran Drescher, the president of SAG-AFTRA, has argued that the dramatic shift in the entertainment business model requires a significantly improved compensation structure.
Actors received $91.7 million in residual streaming revenue in 2019 – more than what came in from network reruns, but less than the amount coming in from basic cable channels or pay-TV networks like HBO and Showtime. According to the union, the union received a raise in 2020, and the total increased to around $126 million in 2022.
The CEOs have already agreed to increase that number again to accommodate foreign subscribers and have also offered a residual bonus based on viewership, modeled on the agreement with the Writers Guild of America.
The latter would pay about $20 million a year, SAG-AFTRA said. The union said that was far too low and that the deal negotiated by the WGA would not be enough for the players.
The CEOs are expected to unveil their new offer on Tuesday, which is believed to be a significant improvement over the earlier proposal.
Although talks have been suspended for almost two weeks, both sides are still working on parts of the deal. The AMPTP issued a response on AI last Thursday.
The union wants to set minimum conditions for the use of AI, including compensation and consent. The union also wants to limit AI training to the work of actors. The WGA also attempted to ban such training, but failed to obtain this provision.
On the studio side, there is hope, if not entirely optimism, that an agreement can be reached soon. The CEOs were frustrated with Drescher, who spoke in the hearing room about income disparities and her ambition to change the lives of actors.
“It seems to me they are more concerned about their own legacy than about ending the Hollywood disaster that is entirely within their control,” said Jeff Ruthizer, ABC’s longtime senior vice president of labor relations and author of a memoir titled “Labor Pains.” .” “They can’t figure out how to end it gracefully and proclaim the victory they’ve already won.”
The optimistic mood in the actors’ camp marked a change from last week, when the leadership came under pressure from George Clooney and other high-profile members to make a deal and faced backlash on social media over policies that curtailed the Halloween Restrict members’ costumes.
Even under the best of circumstances, no one expects an agreement to be reached on Tuesday. With dozens of unresolved issues, it may take days or even a week or longer to reach a comprehensive agreement.
The union is demanding an increase in caps on pension and health insurance contributions, a page limit on self-recorded auditions and many other items, including a cleaning stipend for background actors.