Movie Studios to Attempt New Deal to End Writers' Strike at Latest Meeting

A new report suggests that Hollywood studios, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, are finally interested in a serious conversation with the Writers Guild of America, which has been on strike since its previous contract with the AMPTP lapsed in May. Over at What I'm Hearing, a Puck newsletter from Matthew Belloni, the reporter breaks down some of what he has been hearing, which is basically that studios are making a revised offer to the WGA, and that they're hoping no new demands come from the writers in the meantime.

The newsletter features complaints by the studio that the Writers Guild brought new demands about health insurance to the table last week. During that meeting, the WGA alleged that the studio had more or less just come back to the table with the same offers they had at the beginning of the strike, so it's entirely possible they felt like adding new terms to the conversation could get some meaningful talking done.

The hope on the part of the writers is that today's conversation will address mini-rooms, artificial intelligence, and establishing some kind of success-based metrics for streaming residuals.

Mini-rooms are a cost-cutting measure that puts more of the power and responsibility in the hands of showrunners, significantly cutting the amount of time and work available to writers. As WGA spokesperson Adam Conover explained in a recent interview, writers used to work for most of the year, doing occasional set visits to do rewrites during production, and would get money for re-runs aired on broadcast and cable. With mini-rooms, many writers fork for only a few weeks before the final scripts and set visit are handed over to the showrunner. Reruns are also significantly less common now that streamers demand exclusivity.

That exclusivity ties into the success-based metrics the WGA is asking for; at present, a lot of streaming deals don't provide direct residuals to talent at all. A license fee is paid to the studio, who then provides the creators with a one-time check, which tends to be much smaller than conventional residual numbers. The fact that some studios are also self-dealing by putting their shows on their own streamer (think Max or Disney+) further complicates this conversation.

In May, the SAG-AFTRA national board unanimously agreed to send an authorization vote to members with the recommendation that members vote to authorize a strike should one be necessary during the upcoming labor negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). Earlier this month, the members voted, with 97.91 percent of SAG-AFTRA members in favor of a strike authorization ahead of negotiations of the TV/theatrical contracts with nearly 65,000 members casting ballots for a voting percentage of 47.69 percent of eligible voters. The union represents roughly 160,000 people, including film and television actors, journalists, radio personalities, recording artists, singers, voice actors, internet influencers, and other media professionals.