The SAG-AFTRA Strike Will Continue As Talks With AMPTP Break Down

The SAG-AFTRA Strike Will Continue As Talks With AMPTP Break Down

We thought an end to the strikes were near, but SAG-AFTRA reveals that industry CEOs have walked away from the bargaining table after refusing to counter their latest offer...

By MarkCassidy - Oct 12, 2023 09:10 AM EST
Filed Under: Other

When the WGA strike was resolved, it was assumed that SAG-AFTRA would follow suit, and while negotiations did resume shortly after, it's now come to light that industry CEOs have walked away from the bargaining table after refusing to counter the actors union's latest offer.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the major studios in labor dealings, revealed that the talks had been called off because the sides remained too divided.

“After meaningful conversations, it is clear that the gap between the AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA is too great, and conversations are no longer moving us in a productive direction,” the studio alliance said in a statement.

The biggest sticking point for the AMPTP seems to be SAG-AFTRA asking for a 2% cut of streaming revenue, which company executives believe is simply not a realistic demand. The AMPTP claims that this would end up costing the companies more than $800 million per year and “create an untenable economic burden.”

Another bone of contention is the use of generative artificial intelligence, which actors say represents a threat to their livelihoods.

This is obviously a very disappointing development, and could very well lead to more delays. Both The Marvels and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom have stuck with their respective release dates, but if the SAG-AFTRA strike goes on much longer, the cast won't be able to do any promotion.

You can have a read through SAG-ATRA's statement in the thread below.

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HammerLegFoot
HammerLegFoot - 10/12/2023, 9:48 AM
ohh my heart.
xfactor
xfactor - 10/12/2023, 9:50 AM
Wtf?? Are these studio heads TRYING to sabotage their companies?? Goddamn it they need to get their shit together already
Usernametaken
Usernametaken - 10/12/2023, 9:59 AM
@xfactor - Hollywood is not run by producers anymore. It's run by finance people, they have a broker mentality, get rich quick by buying and selling fast.
They don't know how a movie is made, most of them have never been on a shoot except to shake hands with stars and show off.

They care more about IP, franchises, release dates than they care about quality. They milk dry everything they touch and then move to the next thing.
Superspecialawesomeguy
Superspecialawesomeguy - 10/12/2023, 10:09 AM
@Usernametaken -
mastakilla39
mastakilla39 - 10/12/2023, 10:09 AM
@xfactor - producers don't want to share residuals profits which is the #1 issue I think they are still fighting about. Both sides are not budging on residual talks so no deal. Writers gave up residual talks for a 3 month bonus to the lead cast/crews if the movie/tv show does well and that's how they were able to make an agreement.

Guess all movies this year and part of next year are going to flop. Not sure if Marvels/Aquaman 2 are going to do well if their leads aren't promoting it. I know the buzz/hype is low but every dollar counts in this current economy for businesses.
xfactor
xfactor - 10/12/2023, 11:01 AM
@mastakilla39 - thats seriously [frick]ed up. These studios are definitely taking advantage of the loopholes and its time they start paying the bill.
Scarilian
Scarilian - 10/12/2023, 3:32 PM
@xfactor -
If the writers were smart they would have kept striking, or at least pretending to strike while doing work on the side to support them, until the actors agreed to return.

The actors are a lot more stupid, easily led and unwilling to change so them striking will last quite a while and a majority of roles won't move forward until the actors stop.

With the actors still striking, there's no chance a majority of 2024/2025 films/shows will make the intended release.
MosquitoFarmer
MosquitoFarmer - 10/12/2023, 9:52 AM
Usernametaken
Usernametaken - 10/12/2023, 9:53 AM
The studios don't seem to understand that they're going to have to produce less and spend their money in a smarter way.

Hollywood just went through an over producing period where everybody was throwing shit at the wall and see what sticks. This is over, you take the lessons in, you keep the best creators and get rid of the hacks, you refocus on producing less but better.

And yes you're going to pay more on residuals and staff, but so what? Stop producing like idiots, stop shooting with shoddy unfinished crappy scripts, stop giving 200 millions for useless "first look deals", stop throwing money on reshoots, CGI and "we'll fix it in post solutions".

Spend more time and money on pre-production, and you'll waste far less money on production.
xfactor
xfactor - 10/12/2023, 9:56 AM
@Usernametaken - as i read your post i couldnt help but think of the whopping 400 million blumhouse spent on the rights for the exorcist. I highly concur with your statement here.
Usernametaken
Usernametaken - 10/12/2023, 10:06 AM
@xfactor - They did? See that's the problem now, it's now a movie franchise, they're going to have to do sequels and spin off to try and get back their investment. Probably sells toys too and shit too...

But with 400 millions they could have produced probably 10 horrors movies with small to mid budgets movies. But it takes time and talent.

It's [frick]ing sad to hear that there is so few people out there who are trying to create new movies that will redefine the genre whether it is sci fi, horror, fantasy etc, and far more people working on milking past successes.
CAPTAINPINKEYE
CAPTAINPINKEYE - 10/12/2023, 9:56 AM
Hey wait a minute buster! Didn’t we get 78 articles last week that it was coming to an end?
eagc1995
eagc1995 - 10/12/2023, 4:12 PM
@CAPTAINPINKEYE - I mean given that the actors issues were the same as the writers and that was solved, everyone thought that the actors strike would be solved then.

Until the studios refused to give 2% of streaming revenue
Origame
Origame - 10/12/2023, 9:57 AM
When writers and actors walk away from the table: "good for you. Don't let those greedy execs walk all over you"

When execs walk away from the table: "you guys are completely unwilling to compromise".
Reginator
Reginator - 10/12/2023, 9:58 AM
NICE!
malschla
malschla - 10/12/2023, 10:00 AM
Serious question: weren’t the actors mostly striking “in solidarity” with the writers? Wasn’t that the original intent?
eagc1995
eagc1995 - 10/12/2023, 12:02 PM
@malschla - Does not appear that is the case. at least not with the majority as we haven't heard anything about the writers not writting and so on (Yet, that could change down the line)
Scarilian
Scarilian - 10/12/2023, 3:33 PM
@malschla -
The actors are a bunch of fame seeking idiots, they went on strike because the majority couldn't work anyway due to the writers striking and it allowed them to virtue signal, getting time in the spotlight.
Nightwing1015
Nightwing1015 - 10/12/2023, 8:52 PM
@Scarilian - if it was all just virtue signalling, why haven’t they called of the strike now with the writers ??
Scarilian
Scarilian - 10/13/2023, 9:30 AM
@Nightwing1015 -
Actors get more attention virtue signalling than they do from being in the roles. There's no point the strike ending for them, they can keep going for quite a long time. They also shamed each other into staying part of the strike, so they can't be seen to fold anytime soon. They are more arrogant so will want a better deal than the writers also.

It'll also take a while for the writers to get scripts sorted and for Hollywood to start getting back up and running. Filming of most projects won't take place during the winter months so there's no point for the actors strike to stop before around January/February. Studios have also quietly cancelled a lot of films and shows so a lot of actors don't really have a role lined up to return to, so why not just remain on strike.
Nightwing1015
Nightwing1015 - 10/13/2023, 10:57 AM
@Scarilian - bro most of the actors in the union don’t have the money to strike for virtue signalling reasons. U can’t eat with virtues. If they are still on strike it’s because they need to be or feel they can get a better deal
Scarilian
Scarilian - 10/13/2023, 7:05 PM
@Nightwing1015 -
Then those actors should not be striking in the first place, let alone be paying to be in a union that is actively going to bankrupt them from the strike action. It's a similar situation to the writers.

We are going to have a content drought in 2024 due to the writers and actors strikes, these actors/writers could have taken to Youtube, created independent films, worked for independent studios, used transferable skills for different roles, etc... and potentially had a market begging for new and creative content with minimal corporate studios distraction from it.

Instead they all did the dumbest thing possible and just decided to do nothing, losing themselves money, putting themselves out of work, losing themselves contracts and alienating themselves with people through their virtue signalling.

I think a majority of people remember the pandemic when these actors and writers were deemed essential and got to keep working, lecturing people, complaining about how hard it was that they got to stay in big mansions or simply the fact they got to keep working while governments forced peoples businesses to close and damaged economies. They were never going to get any sympathy doing this from the general population.
mountainman
mountainman - 10/12/2023, 10:02 AM
It’s always funny when internet business experts pretend that they know how to run a huge company better than the people that do.
Origame
Origame - 10/12/2023, 10:24 AM
@mountainman - yeah. Let's do basic math on this.

If it's 2% on a series like, say, loki. You'd have to give that 2% to for the actors playing loki, mobius, b15, sylvie, and renslayer for each episode. That's 10% of the profits when they already paid the actors as well mind you. Then remembering that's just a minimum. Owen Wilson as an example would probably put it in his contract for more residuals so that 10% could end up being more like 15% or 20%. Then you also have to remember that's just the main cast. Not even bringing up other actors being brought in for 1 or 2 episodes. And this is when streaming has been shown to have a terrible return of investment in general.
mountainman
mountainman - 10/12/2023, 10:40 AM
@Origame - I believe it was 2% total not 2% per actor.

But you do make a good point that streaming isn’t providing huge returns. The reason people get residuals on TV is because commercials still run on those reruns. All the streamers are going to be run commercials in the future because the model just doesn’t work.
Origame
Origame - 10/12/2023, 10:47 AM
@mountainman - idk. There's got to be more to it because that doesn't make any sense. So what, it's 2% in total regardless of the size of the cast?

And I think the problems with streaming goes beyond just commercials. Because when you have the premiere of a new series, with TV it's a time and place to go see it. Even on reruns. With streaming you can see it whenever you want. There's an element of fomo with scheduled programing that's missed from streaming, so viewership is lower overall.

Disney+ is operating at a massive loss because they expected the profits to be over that of cable and network equivalents but in actuality its much harder to get those kind of numbers.
mountainman
mountainman - 10/12/2023, 11:37 AM
@Origame - Either way, Hollywood in general is in trouble.

BO receipts are down.

Streaming is struggling.

Fewer people pay for TV.

Fewer people are buying and renting movies to watch at home.

Combine that with the writers and actors wanting a bigger slice of the pie.

I have no love for the people at the top, but the reality is that the people with the money keep the ship running. If they don’t see profits from the industry, they’ll move elsewhere.
Origame
Origame - 10/12/2023, 11:44 AM
@mountainman - exactly. I've been saying for so long that this was the worst time to strike. Quite frankly I wouldn't be surprised if this were the end of Hollywood. And I probably wouldn't miss it. Insomniac is making better spiderman movies than Sony or the mcu ever could.
mountainman
mountainman - 10/12/2023, 11:47 AM
@Origame - I’ve seen AI generated fan fiction on YouTube that’s far better than most of the Hollywood trash lately.
bobevanz
bobevanz - 10/12/2023, 12:54 PM
@mountainman @Origame - you two should marry each other, so much stupidity in common lol
mountainman
mountainman - 10/12/2023, 2:08 PM
@bobevanz - So strange that discussing how business works is offensive to you. Grow up.
Origame
Origame - 10/12/2023, 2:21 PM
@bobevanz - well care to explain how we're so wrong and stupid? Or just keep with the ad hominem.
soberchimera
soberchimera - 10/12/2023, 10:15 AM
Stephen Amell right now...
grif
grif - 10/12/2023, 10:41 AM
oh well





FusionWarrior
FusionWarrior - 10/12/2023, 10:50 AM
Well that sucks.
Spidey91
Spidey91 - 10/12/2023, 11:41 AM
But then the WB CEO will get a golden parachute when WB gets bought again, f*ck these guys. I mean, you can't share a measly 2%?
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