Negotiations are taking place again in Hollywood: cracks are appearing in the camp of the studios

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Cracks in the front

But there are also cracks in the united front among employers; AMPTP struggles with its mutual competitive position. The alliance includes the so-called ‘legacy’ studios – Paramount, Universal, Walt Disney, Warner Bros. and Sony and their TV channels ABC, CBS and NBC – versus the new streamers and tech companies: Netflix, Apple TV+ and Amazon.

Sharing viewer data is also the stumbling block among each other. This is a requirement for the unions to reach new agreements on ‘residuals‘, the profit sharing with writers and actors that has been common in Hollywood since the 1960s. This is based on viewing figures, which the ‘old’ studios and TV channels traditionally make public, also with a view to advertising rates. Netflix broke with that tradition: it does not provide information about the popularity of specific titles, unless that is convenient. For Netflix, data about target groups and viewing habits are a gold mine that you cannot simply share with the competition. A nice side effect is that there is no basis for ‘residuals’. And that makes streaming a lot cheaper than film or television on that point.

Besides Netflix, two tech giants with streamers – Apple and Amazon – could hold things up for a long time. For them, Hollywood is often just a sideshow. If this new round of negotiations stalls, the writers’ union would like to have separate discussions with studios. Individual studio heads would also be sympathetic to this, according to a WGA statement. “Also on points that the AMPTP has publicly said are deal breakers,” the negotiating committee recently wrote, which is also fighting with an anonymous studio head who would like to meet all their demands. Naturally, the unions would like to see discord in the enemy’s camp. Separate deals then serve as leverage towards the streamers.

Actors in the wings

Meanwhile, the actors of SAG-AFTRA are waiting in the wings. Their 160,000 members voted by almost 98 percent in favor of a strike this summer, which started on July 14. There has been no contact with the studios since then, said actress Natalia Castellanos, a member of SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee. Castellanos took part in previous discussions about the new contract with AMPTP.

She suspects that the studios are strategically keeping the actors away from the negotiating table, she says in Studio City, fifteen minutes from the strike post at Warner Bros. “That is a tactic from the old Hollywood playbook: first make an appointment with one person in order to get the other one in line.”

She thinks that the willingness to strike remains high: “Our members know that we are not striking because we want to make things difficult, but because we are fighting for our future.” The solidarity of George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep, who contributed $15 million to the strike fund in August, or of film stars who organize playful collections are a blessing, but also a curse, according to Catellanos. They generate attention and confusion. “We do not do this for the rich 8 percent, but for the 86 percent of our members who do not have health insurance because they do not earn enough.”

The spirit on the streets has apparently not yet worn off: five and two months later, respectively, thousands of WGA and SAG-AFTRA members are still demonstrating every day at eight locations in Los Angeles and four in New York. “I understand that they hate it inside,” says showrunner Peter while the demonstrators loudly sing along to Beyoncé’s ‘Love On Top’. “And the fact that we’re having a party, especially.”

It may be over quickly or the energy may be spent for months on exhausting and fueling the enemy’s camp. SAG-AFTRA negotiator Castellanos. “If we cannot reach an agreement quickly, official mediators may have to be involved. Let’s hope that isn’t necessary.”