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The 16 pages of contract language surrounding A.I. are by far the most intricate provisions in the new agreement.

Jonathan Handel • November 13, 2023

What the Actors Really Won on A.I.

A detailed look at the tentative SAG-AFTRA deal, from streaming residuals to health benefits to the extraordinary restrictions on the use of A.I.

Matthew Belloni & Jonathan Handel • November 10, 2023

Are There Still More Strikes Ahead?

SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland (C) raises his fist while speaking at the conclusion of picketing outside Paramount Studios on day 113 of their strike against the Hollywood studios on November 3, 2023, in Los Angeles, California.

Hollywood is rejoicing after an awful six months, but as 2024 negotiations loom, will C.E.O.s take the high road?

Jonathan Handel • November 6, 2023

What’s Holding Up an Actors’ Strike Deal

SAG-AFTRA is expected to respond or counter the offer as early as Monday.

An inside look at the negotiations surrounding the A.I. issue and others that are preventing the SAG-AFTRA strike from (finally) coming to an end.

Matthew Belloni • November 3, 2023

Hollywood’s Post-Strike Hellscape

What should be a time of relief and celebration as the SAG-AFTRA negotiations near their end is more akin to what soldiers experience in countless war movies—the horrors of battle are giving way to the equally grim reality of the new world for which they fought.

The SAG-AFTRA proposal that president Fran Drescher says she won’t back down from is also flawed.

Jonathan Handel • October 23, 2023

A 10-Point Plan to Finally Resolve the Actors Strike

With SAG-AFTRA and studios set to restart negotiations, it's time to get real: the union should drop its insistence on a per-subscriber payment and instead propose a supercharged version of the “success” bonus that the Writers Guild achieved.

SAG-AFTRA will almost certainly compromise on the key issues to a degree. And in fact, it already has.

Jonathan Handel • October 13, 2023

Can the Actors Beat the Writers’ Deal?

The WGA, after a nearly five month strike, got essentially everything the quieter Directors Guild got, plus more. Now, as talks between SAG-AFTRA and the studios hit a major speed bump, the actors want what the writers got—and more. Will it work?

Love Is Blind

Julia Alexander • October 3, 2023

The Great Streamer Transparency Fallacy

Hollywood’s fixation with forcing Netflix and the others to reveal consumption data is commendable. But what if that transparency isn’t as transparent as the writers, actors, and agents all hoped?

Jonathan Handel • October 1, 2023

The WGA Deal Ten Commandments, Part II

Five more takeaways after five months in hell, including the much-discussed performance bonus in streaming and why the wins in A.I. might be short-lived.

The WGA says the new deal contains $233 million per year of gains, which is almost three times the $86 million that the guild says the studios were offering before the nearly five-month strike (though it’s nowhere near the $429 million the guild sought).

Jonathan Handel • September 28, 2023

The WGA Deal 10 Commandments, Part I

Herewith, the most important conclusions and long-term takeaways from five months of hell.

The studios made it clear that if there wasn’t a deal this weekend—and preferably before the Yom Kippur sundown—they were planning to move on to SAG-AFTRA.

Matthew Belloni & Jonathan Handel • September 25, 2023

Hollywood’s Post-Writers Strike Reality

Both sides claim victory as the 146-day impasse ends, the actors wait in the wings, and the next weeks and months come into focus. A sigh of relief in Hollywood, yet there are reasons to believe this aftermath will look very different.