First meeting of SAG-AFTRA and CEOs discussed renewal contracts; More are planned soon, even if the studio’s new proposal to eliminate revenue sharing “flopped” in the room.

EXCLUSIVE: The first day of the latest round of renewed talks between the studios and SAG-AFTRA has come to a close, with proposed plans for a directors’ meeting — possibly in the next day or so.

After the studios were declared “suspended” on October 11 over a union plan for additional payouts based on the success of a streaming show, the now-resumed consultations began today as the AMPTP put a number of new proposals on the table – but anything but outstanding answer to this 103^roughly Actors union strike day.

Described as “generous” by studio sources, the jewel in the AMPTP’s bargaining crown Tuesday was a new approach to what is called “performance-based pay.” To avoid the pitfalls that revenue sharing and a “subscriber fee,” as Netflix’s Ted Sarandos repeatedly disparagingly called it over the past two weeks, have introduced into discussions, the executives believe they have found a mechanism “to drive higher payouts gain.” “. to artists,” as one insider put it.

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

The response was pretty clear from the start. The proposal “failed,” a person involved in the deliberations told Deadline.

But while others also said the day was “not great” in some ways and there were strong feelings about the sudden halt to talks in the studios two weeks ago, overall both sides had an almost full day of deliberations – and it is certainly much better than no conversations at all.

As they entered the final days that sealed the WGA deal and the first failed round of renewed talks with SAG-AFTRA earlier this month, Disney’s Bob Iger, NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley, Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav and Sarandos all from Netflix seated at the table. with AMPTP President Carol Lombardini on Tuesday at the guild’s headquarters on Wilshire Blvd.

Like last time, the studio overlords met with SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher, chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, general contractor Ray Rodriguez and others. The presence of the CEO Gang of Four was hinted at in the joint statement of October 21, 100^e day of the SAG-AFTRA strike and today announced the resumption of talks.

Rumor has it that today’s meeting started a little later than expected this morning. The delay was not due to friction between the parties, but rather due to the synchronization of normally busy schedules.

Once things got going, studios’ resistance to SAG-AFTRA’s latest proposal was high on today’s agenda, as we know, reducing their previous revenue-sharing requests to a small percentage per subscription fee. The AMPTP has been described as “more generous on a remuneration basis”, the source said, saying it wants to “ensure that there are bigger payouts to performers”.

From the beginning of the negotiations between AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA this cycle, the sharing of studio revenues was on hold. The guild envisioned a system in which the cast of popular streaming shows would receive a share of the lucrative profits — an idea that would dwindle to about 2%, later 1%, of studio profits, and then to about 57 cent that would amount to each subscriber. to . per streaming service.

Even before the strike, revenue sharing stalled when the CEO Gang of Four and the Guild Buyers and Bargaining Committee officially met on October 2 for the first time in more than 80 days. The fact that everything exploded and the studios left the stage on October 11 should not have come as a huge surprise – such a move is a tried and tested AMPTP tactic.

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

Interestingly, on this important point both sides agree that the industry, especially as a business, has changed dramatically. On many issues, it is the long-tail money that has turned Tinseltown jobs into middle-class careers over the past few decades that divides the parties.

In a column published on Deadline about the 100th strike^e Drescher, head of SAG-AFTRA, wrote today: “The ten year grace period we gave the AMPTP companies to build their streaming platforms at the expense of fair compensation for my members has come to an abrupt halt.”

Drescher argued that streaming “killed syndication” and reduced the number of episodes and seasons available to working actors.

“It’s clearly not because of the old residual compensation structure for linear TV, nor because of the current residual compensation for streaming. It’s in the pockets of CEOs and on the balance sheets of companies,” she added. .

As the actors’ strike reached the 100-day milestone on Saturday, there was 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 others; Many have award-winning films coming out before the end of the year. While an offer led by Clooney included a commitment of $150 million over three years to lift the cap on union dues and bring more money into the guild’s coffers, SAG-AFTRA boss Drescher posted her gratitude on Instagram expressed, but said the gesture was legally incompatible. with the union’s contract with the studios and that this “although has no bearing on the contract we are talking about.”

Previously, on Oct. 19, Crabtree-Ireland described the offer and the idea that big stars would be last in line for remaining payouts (which are actually all done at the same time) as more of a “goodwill gesture.”

But while their proposals were pretty quickly dismissed, we understand that some of the same A-listers also spent time last week reaching out to studio executives and heads in hopes of bringing them back to the table. This ridicule and the backlash the CEOs received for abandoning the talks was part of what led to the joint decision to try again. A decision communicated to the guild in a phone call from Iger to Crabtree-Ireland early on October 21 – at least one offer from the other side that was answered “yes” almost immediately.

During last week’s break in negotiations, SAG-AFTRA also issued Halloween costume guidelines for members to avoid dressing up as characters from affected companies and projects, angering some.

Aside from this kind of distraction, the harsh reality for the city is that the strike continues every day and the production schedule for the new TV season as well as feature films is delayed.

Next year’s theater program is already being changed, which will cause a major financial shock for organizers struggling with the pandemic; and this time there will be no government bailout money for them. deadpool3, which is half-finished, will miss its release date of the first weekend of summer in May and Paramount’s Mission: Impossible 8 will air from late June 2024 through Memorial Day weekend 2025. The latter is well over the $5 billion the global box office won’t see next year.

As for the small screen, hopes that the writers would get back to work at the end of September and transfer the momentum of their hard-earned deal to the actors have been dashed for now. The desire to get new scripted shows on the air by the end of January to salvage at least the second half of the 2023-2024 TV season looks increasingly out of reach, especially if the guild and CEOs can’t act. an agreement to end the strike by Halloween.

Looking at the economic situation, AMPTP’s months-long battle with the Writers Guild and now SAG-AFTRA has contributed to a $6.5 billion loss to the California economy. With the WGA joining the picket lines from early May to late September and the actors’ union joining them in mid-July, this economic setback resulted in the loss of 45,000 jobs in the industry and a loss of more than $400 million for the fall. Office (for the post-Labor Day period through October 18, compared to 2019 pre-pandemic).

Without stars promoting big films like they did for the summer blockbuster Barbie And Oppenheimer (which brought in a total of $2.38 billion), several films’ returns were subdued in their openings after mid-July due to a lack of traditional draw at Comic-Cons and fall festivals. “If they don’t advertise, it hurts the box office and therefore their quota for the next big project,” a studio sales executive recently told us of the stars’ inability to do press work during the strike.

On the poster lines both coast and elsewhere, this 103rd^roughly On the day of the strike, members offered their strong support to the negotiating committee: