Union & Studios 2nd Round Renewed Talks “Not Good” – Deadline

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Update, 7:44 PM: Talks between the studios and SAG-AFTRA did not go well today, we reported Tuyesday, but the guild has now confirmed that the two sides will return tomorrow for another attempt to end the 100-day strike.

“Today, the CEOs returned to the .table,” SAG-AFTRA said in an email to members tonight after negotiations concluded. “We are scheduled to resume negotiations with them tomorrow,” they continued, as Deadline reported earlier.

Perhaps that’s why Guild’s TV/Theatrical Negotiation Team added: “We will continue to provide updates with you. Remember – don’t believe anything you read in the press unless it comes directly from us. Continue to picket and make your voices heard across the country.

Earlier, 6:25 PM: Exclusive: The first day of the latest round of renewed talks between the studios and SAG-AFTRA ended with proposed plans for the principals to meet again — possibly in the next day or so.

Announced on Oct. 11 by the studios as “put on hold” over the union’s plan to make additional payments based on the success of the streaming show, the now-rekindled negotiations began today with AMPTP putting some new plans on the table — a less than stellar response. 103^rd Actors’ Union strike day.

Labeled “generous” by studio sources, the jewel in the crown of AMPTP’s negotiations on Tuesday was a new round of so-called “success-based compensation.” As Netflix’s Ted Sarandos has rejected repeatedly over the past two weeks, trying to avoid foothold traps like revenue sharing and “subscriber levies,” the talks have turned, saying, “CEOs believed they had found a mechanism to ensure there was more money for cast members,” an insider said. said the person.

“All these talks depend on how the guild reacts to this latest offer,” another industry source told Deadline today.

The reaction was pretty obvious right out of the gate. A person close to the discussion told Deadline that the proposal “failed.”

Still, others said the day proved “not great,” and that there was a lot of bitterness over the studios’ abrupt halt to talks two weeks ago, and both sides ended up with a full day of discussions overall– much better than no talks at all, of course.

Disney’s Bob Iger, NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley, Warner Bros Discovery’s David Zaslav and Netflix’s Sarandos were at the table with AMP in the final days of sealing the WGA deal and the failed first round of negotiations with SAG-AFTRA earlier this month. President Carol Lombardini Tuesday at the guild’s Wilshire Blvd headquarters.

Like last time, studio executives faced SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher, chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, chief contracting officer Ray Rodriguez and others. A joint statement issued on October 21, 100 marked the presence of a fourth CEO.^Th SAG-AFTRA announces the resumption of negotiations today, the day of the strike.

Today’s meeting started a little later than expected this morning. This delay was not caused by friction between the parties, but rather by synchronizing the usually crowded schedules.

As things kicked off, we understand that at the top of today’s agenda was the studios’ counter to SAG-AFTRA’s last proposal, which was to cut a small percentage of their previous revenue-sharing asking subscriber fee. Described as “very generous in terms of compensation” to a source, AMPTP said it wanted to “make sure actors get paid more”.

From the beginning of negotiations between AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA this cycle, revenue sharing for the studios was submerged. Guild envisioned a system where the cast of hit streaming shows would see some lucrative bottom line — which would be about 2%, then reduced to 1% of studio profits, then recalculated to roughly 57¢ per subscriber. to the streaming service.

Dead before the strike, more than 80 days later on October 2 when CEO Gang of Four and guild brass and the negotiating team officially sat down for the first time, revenue sharing was still stalled. It shouldn’t have been a huge surprise that the studios left – such a move is a tried-and-true AMPTP tactic.

Now, the challenge to the studios and guild over SAG-AFTRA’s latest proposal is as much theoretical as financial. Sarandos called the subscriber payment plan “a bridge too far”, while Crabtree-Ireland saw the offer as a sign that the guild was flexible and open to further negotiations.

Interestingly, near the make or break, the industry has changed dramatically, especially as a business both parties agree. Close on many topics, the parties are divided by the long vault of money that has transformed Tinseltown jobs into middle-class life.

In an article published in Strike 100 Deadline^Th Day, SAG-AFTRA President Tresher wrote, “The 10-year grace period we gave AMPTP companies to build their streaming platforms at the expense of my members’ fair compensation has been terminated.”

Tresher cited how streaming “cut off the wall of syndication” and reduced the number of episodes that working actors used to work.

“Clearly, this is not the case in the old residual payment system designed for linear TV and it is not in the current residual compensation for streaming. It is in the pockets of CEOs and on the balance sheets of companies,” he added.

As the actors’ strike hit the 100-day milestone on Saturday, several actions led to it, including a Zoom meeting on Oct. 17 with stars including George Clooney, Emma Stone, Tyler Perry, Bradley Cooper, and Ariana DeBose. Among others; Many of the films in contention for the award will release before the end of the year. An offer led by Clooney included a commitment to eliminate $150 million in union dues over three years and bring more money into guild coffers, with SAG-AFTRA President Tresher expressing his gratitude on Instagram but saying the gesture was not legally binding. union contract with the studios and that “doesn’t affect our strike contract.”

Earlier on October 19, Crabtree-Ireland said the offer and the idea that the big stars would be the last to make the remaining payments (in fact all at once) was a “gesture of goodwill”.

However, we understand that many of these same A-listers last week spent time reaching out to studio executives and bosses, hoping they would come back to the table, even though their proposals were quickly kicked to the curb. That cajoling and backlash that led to CEOs walking away from the talks led to a collective decision to try one more time. At least one offer from the other side was immediately met with a yes – a decision communicated to the guild by a call from Iger to Crabtree-Ireland on 21 October.

Also, as negotiations stalled last week, SAG-AFTRA released Halloween costume guidelines that irked some to avoid dressing up as characters from affected companies and projects.

Beyond that kind of distraction, the harsh reality of the city is that every day there is a strike, the production schedule for the new TV season is delayed, and so are the movies.

Already, next year’s theater schedule is being shaken up, bringing more financial shock to exhibitors who have struggled through the pandemic; And this time they will have no government bailout money. deadpool 3, Even if it’s halfway done, Paramount won’t be able to meet the summer release date of the first weekend of May. Mission: Impossible 8 Moved from late June 2024 to Memorial Day weekend 2025. On a later note, it’s more than $5 billion, something the global box office won’t see next year.

As for the small screen, hopes that writers will return to work in late September and that the momentum of their tough contract will carry over to actors are dashed for now. The desire to get new scripted shows on air by the end of January to at least salvage the back half of the 2023/2024 TV season is looking increasingly out of reach, especially if Guild and CEOs can’t strike. Agreement to end strike on Halloween.

Looking at the economic big picture, AMPTP’s months-long battle with the Writers Guild and now SAG-AFTRA has cost California’s economy $6.5 billion. As the WGA went on strike from early May to late September and was joined by the Actors Guild in mid-July, that economic hit led to the loss of 45,000 industry jobs and a $400-million drop in coffers. office (for the post-Labor Day period through Oct. 18, compared to pre-pandemic 2019).

Like they did for the summer juggernaut, without the stars to promote the big films Barbie And Oppenheimer ($2.38 billion WW grossed together), many movies have been frozen in their opening after mid-July, unable to explode in traditional ways at Comic-Cons and fall festivals. “If they don’t advertise, it affects the box office and therefore their allocation for the next big project,” a studio distribution executive told us recently, about the stars’ inability to do press during the strike.

On picket lines on both coasts and elsewhere, this 103^rd On the day of the strike, members gave strong support to the negotiating team: