Strike in Hollywood: negotiations between studios and actors suspended

Striking actors and Hollywood studio bosses suspended their negotiations on Wednesday, compromising hopes of a rapid resumption of film and series production, after long months of strike.

The bosses of studios and platforms like Disney and Netflix have been talking since last week with representatives of the SAG-AFTRA union - which defends the interests of 160,000 actors, stuntmen, dancers and other professionals from the small and big screens, whose members have deserted the film sets since July.

But in a statement late Wednesday, the studios, represented by the Association of Cinema and Television Producers (AMPTP), announced that this discussion had stopped and was for the moment suspended.

“After serious discussions, it has become clear that the gap between the positions of AMPTP and those of SAG-AFTRA is too great, and these discussions no longer move us forward in a fruitful manner,” the studios said.

The AMPTP accused the actors of making excessive demands, including a sharing of revenues from the distribution of works on streaming platforms which “alone would cost more than $800 million per year.” For the studios this is an “unsustainable financial burden”. They also accused the SAG-AFTRA union of rejecting the pay increases that were accepted by the screenwriters.

“We hope that SAG-AFTRA will review its positions and return to productive negotiations quickly,” said the Hollywood studios.

Last month, the AMTP reached a salary agreement with another corporation, that of Hollywood screenwriters, which ended a strike lasting almost five months.

Given the similarity between the actors' demands and those of the writers, optimism about the possibility of a rapid agreement seemed appropriate.

The SAG-AFTRA union did not immediately react to the producers' association's statements on Wednesday.