Union & Studios’ second round of renewed talks ‘not great’ – Deadline

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Update, 7:44 p.m.: Talks between the studios and SAG-AFTRA did not go well today, we reported on Tuesday, but the union has now confirmed that both sides will be back at it tomorrow in another attempt to end the strike that has lasted more than 100 days.

“Today, the CEOs are back at the negotiating table,” SAG-AFTRA told members in an email tonight after negotiations ended for the day. “We are scheduled to continue talks with them tomorrow,” they continued, as Deadline previously reported.

Perhaps that’s why the union’s TV/Theatrical Negotiating Committee added: “We will continue to provide updates directly with you. Remember – don’t believe anything you read in the press unless it comes directly from us. Keep showing up on the picket lines and making your voices heard across the country.”

Previously, at 6:25 p.m.: Exclusive: The first day of the latest round of renewed talks between the studios and SAG-AFTRA has concluded, with plans proposed for the directors to meet again — perhaps in the next day or so.

Announced on October 11th by studios over a union plan to seek additional payouts based on the success of the streaming show, the now-revived deliberations began today with AMPTP putting some new proposals on the table – to a less-than-stellar response to this 103^{Research and development} Actors Union strike day.

The crown jewel of AMPTP’s negotiations that studio sources described as “generous” on Tuesday was a new look at so-called “success-based compensation.” In an effort to avoid the leg-holding trap of revenue sharing and a “subscriber tax,” as Netflix’s Ted Sarandos has described it repeatedly over the past two weeks, talks are underway, and CEOs believe they have found a mechanism “to ensure there are larger payments to cast members,” he said. An insider.

“It all depends, these talks depend on how the union reacts to this latest offer,” another industry source told Deadline earlier today.

The reaction was pretty clear out of the gate. One person close to the deliberations told Deadline that the proposal “failed.”

However, while others also said the day wasn’t “great” at times, and there were a lot of raw emotions over the sudden shutdown of talks at the studios two weeks ago, cumulatively the two sides completed almost a full day of deliberations – which is much better than… No conversations at all, for sure.

As they were in the final days of the WGA deal and the unsuccessful first round of renewed talks with SAG-AFTRA earlier this month, Disney’s Bob Iger, NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley of Warner Bros Discovery, David Zaslav, and Netflix’s Sarandos were all At the table with AMPTP President Carole Lombardini at the Guild’s Wilshire Blvd headquarters on Tuesday.

Like last time, the studio overlords faced off against SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher, chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, chief contracts officer Ray Rodriguez and others. The presence of the Gang of Four CEO was implied in the joint statement issued on October 21, 100^y SAG-AFTRA strike day, announcing resumption of talks today.

Today’s meeting was said to have started a little later than expected this morning. The delay was not due to any friction between the parties, but simply a synchronization of the usually busy schedules.

Once things got going, high on today’s agenda, as we understand it, was the studios’ response to SAG-AFTRA’s recent proposal, which stripped previous revenue-sharing requests down to a small percentage per subscriber fee. AMPTP was described as “more generous on a compensation basis” per source, and said it wanted to “make sure there are larger payouts for cast members.”

Since the beginning of bargaining between AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA this cycle, revenue sharing has been dead-on for the studios. The guild envisioned a system where the crew of streaming shows would see some of the lucrative bottom line — an idea that would be about 2%, later reduced to 1%, of studio profits and then recounted as about 57 cents per subscriber per streaming service.

Revenue sharing was dead before the strike, and it was still dead when the Gang of Four’s CEO, union brass and bargaining committee formally sat down for the first time in more than 80 days on October 2. The fact that everything blew up on October 11 and studios pulled out shouldn’t come as a huge surprise — such a move is a tried-and-true AMPTP tactic.

Now, the challenge facing the studios and the guild regarding SAG-AFTRA’s latest proposal is as much philosophical as it is financial. Sarandos called the subscriber payout proposal “a bridge too far,” while Crabtree-Ireland viewed the offer as a sign that the union was flexible and open to further negotiations.

Interestingly, at this point close to make or break, both sides agree that the industry has changed dramatically, especially as a business. Nearby on many topics, it’s the long tail of money, which has turned Tinseltown jobs into middle-class jobs over the previous decades, that separates the two extremes.

In a column published at Deadline Strike 100^y The next day, SAG-AFTRA leader Drescher wrote, “The 10-year grace period we gave AMPTP companies to build their own streaming platforms at the expense of fair compensation to my members has come to a screeching halt.”

Drescher cited how streaming has “cut off the tail end of syndication” and reduced the number of episodes and seasons from what working actors use to work.

“This is clearly not in the old residual pay structure designed for linear TV and it’s not in the current residual compensation for broadcasting. It’s in the pockets of CEOs and in corporate budgets,” she added.

As the actors’ strike reached the 100-day mark on Saturday, there has been plenty 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 Ariana DeBose. . Among other things; Many of the films competing for awards will be released before the end of the year. While the Clooney-led bid entails a commitment of $150 million over three years to remove the union’s dues cap and bring more money into the union’s coffers, SAG-AFTRA leader Drescher expressed on Instagram her gratitude but said the gesture was not compatible. Legally. with the union’s contract with the studios and that it “doesn’t affect the contract we have for it at all.”

Earlier on October 19, Crabtree-Ireland described the show and the idea of ​​major stars moving on to be the last in the remaining installments (which are all actually happening at the same time) as a “goodwill gesture.”

However, while their proposals to rein in the action were floated very quickly, we understand that a number of the same listeners spent time last week reaching out to studio executives and their bosses as well, in hopes of getting them back to the table. This adulation and the backlash CEOs received for leaving the talks was part of what led to a collective decision to try again. The decision was conveyed to the union in a phone call from Iger early on October 21 to Crabtree-Ireland – an offer at least one from the other side was met with almost immediate yes.

Also, during a negotiation hiatus last week, SAG-AFTRA issued Halloween costume guidelines for members to avoid dressing up as characters from bankrupt companies and projects, which drew the ire of some.

Beyond that kind of distraction, the hard reality for the city is that every day the strike continues, the production schedule for the new TV season, as well as feature films, gets pushed back.

Next year’s theatrical schedule has already been changed, which will cause an even greater financial shock to exhibitors who have struggled during the pandemic; This time there will be no government bailout money for them. deadpool 3, Which is only half completed, it won’t meet the start of the first weekend of summer and Paramount’s May release date Mission Impossible 8 It was moved from the end of June 2024 to Memorial Day weekend 2025. On a final note, that’s a lot more than the $5 billion the global box office will see next year.

As for the small screen, hopes that the writers will return to work in late September and that the momentum of their hard-won deal will transfer to the actors are now dashed. The desire to have new scripted shows on the air by the end of January to salvage at least the back half of the 2023/2024 TV season appears to be slipping lower and lower, especially if the union and strike executives cannot strike a deal to end the strike by Halloween.

Looking at the big economic picture, AMPTP’s months-long battle with the Writers Guild and now SAG-AFTRA contributed to a $6.5 billion loss to California’s economy. With the WGA out on the picket lines from early May to late September, and the Actors Union joining them in mid-July, that economic blow resulted in the loss of 45,000 jobs in the industry, and the loss of over $400 million in the fall fund. (Post-Labor Day through October 18, compared to pre-pandemic 2019).

Without stars to promote big movies, as they did with the summer juggernaut Barbie And Oppenheimer (which combined to gross $2.38 billion), many films had their grosses muted after their mid-July openings since they were unable to launch in traditional ways at Comic-Cons and fall festivals. “If they don’t promote, it hurts the box office, and therefore hurts their stake in the next big project,” one studio distribution executive recently told us about the stars’ inability to do press during the strike.

On picket lines on both coasts and elsewhere, that’s 103^{Research and development} On the day of the strike, members were giving strong support to the negotiating committee: