Do You Smell a SAG Strike Coming?
We sort of have a strike already, but will it be made official soon?
As of right now Hollywood is experiencing what they are referring to a “de facto strike” by actors as studios have slowed down production on movies in particular to a near halt as negotiations between the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) are not exactly going too well.
Late Thursday, SAG declined what was deemed a final offer from the AMPTP, an offer the producers deemed not open to negotiation. While some issues such as health and pension contributions were resolved it appears, just as it was with the Writers Guild, that DVD sales are going to be the sticking point. This, of course, is not shocking when you consider
Take for example last year’s top grossing film Spider-Man 3. Domestically alone that film brought in $336,530,303. Looking at all of this on a very rough level to consider that is only 40% of what the film earned is a staggering thought. That means Spider-Man 3 earned something like $504,795,454.50 on DVD and Blu-ray. I don’t know about you, but if I was an actor I would want a cut of that considering how much it must cost to actually make these DVDs. I read that “a ballpark cost for producing a Hollywood-quality two-hour DVD movie with motion menus, multiple audio tracks, subtitles, trailers, and a few info screens is about $20,000.” Of course that is just the cost to make it, to market it I have no idea, but if we are talking about a $500 million profit on Spider-Man 3 I am sure the marketing would be large, but it wouldn’t even look like a dent in that number.
So where does all of this leave SAG and the AMPTP?
According to the New York Times, no new talks are scheduled. The session ended with SAG saying it would hold internal meetings on Friday and contact producers with hopes of keeping talks alive. The producers were hoping SAG would take the rejected offer to their members for a vote, an idea Alan Rosenberg, the guildis president, rejected.
The new offer put on the table by the producers included nothing in terms of increased residuals from DVD, something SAG seems determined to receive although they are not pushing for actors’ consent over the use of video clips of their work online, which played a part in the WGA negotiations earlier.
Another little issue in negotiations moving much further along in the year are September’s Emmy Awards, a ceremony the producers don’t want to see on the horizon without a SAG contract in place. I think we all remember the 2008 Golden Globes.
Rival actors’ union the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists approved a new contract on Tuesday with 62.4 percent of the membership in favor of the new terms. This had no effect on SAG and doesn’t look like it ever will.
Stay tuned as it seems like things could get interesting very quick.
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