Pay or Play

Entertainment Law. Coast to Coast.®

January 11, 2021

Happy New Year to all. To kick off 2021, I’ve provided quick takes below on some of the bigger stories we’ll be watching WME v. WGA Just before Christmas, CAA closed a deal with the Writers Guild regarding phasing out of package commissions and partial divestiture of its ownership of production entities. That left WME as the last agency without a deal. The parties were reportedly negotiating but without resolution. Meanwhile, WME’s attempt to gain…

Pay or Play

Universal Faces Racism Charges as Faizon Love Sues over “Couples Retreat” Poster

By Jody Simon

November 30, 2020

The 2009 Universal ensemble comedy Couples Retreat sparked controversy when its Black performers were erased from the film’s international marketing. That controversy has come back to life as the film’s co-star Faizon Love has filed suit against Universal alleging that promises that were made to him were not kept. In posters for the US release, Love was billed fourth after Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman and Jon Favreau, and pictured with Kali Fox, his onscreen partner,…

Pay or Play

CAA, WME Head Back to Court in WGA Dispute

By Jody Simon

November 24, 2020

In my last blog, I expressed cautious optimism that the WGA was making progress in settling its long-running dispute with CAA and WME, the two largest talent agencies and the last two holdouts in signing a franchise agreement that would permit them to represent writers. In April 2019, the WGA directed its members to fire their agents who did not agree to abandon package commissions ownership of production companies. Since then, the WGA agreed…

Pay or Play

Progress in WGA-Agency Talks, but No Breakthrough Yet

By Jody Simon

October 6, 2020

In April, 2019 the WGA directed its members to fire their agents unless the agents agreed to adhere to a Code of Conduct that would end the collection of package commissions and strictly limit their ownership stake in production entities. Buoyed by solidarity among its members, the union was successful in obtaining widespread agreement from the agencies, beginning with Verve in May 2019 to industry leaders UTA and ICM Partners over the summer. This leaves…

Pay or Play

WGA Scores Points in Agency Litigation

By Jody Simon

August 28, 2020

The battle between the Writers Guild of America and the major agencies has been waged on two fronts for over a year, with mixed results. Attention recently has focused primarily on the WGA’s pressure campaign to require agencies to sign a Code of Conduct renouncing package commissions and ownership of production companies as a condition of representing its members. This campaign has proved largely successful. Most of the boutique and mid-sized agencies and two of…

Pay or Play

AMC Throws Hail Mary to Lure Audiences with 15 Cent Tickets

By Jody Simon

August 13, 2020

In a bid to lure virus-wary audiences back into its theaters, AMC Theaters will be offering tickets priced at just 15 cents. The promotion will be available at 100 of the chain’s theaters for one day only on August 20. This is the official reopening date of AMC’s theaters after a five month shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The price point reflects the price of tickets when AMC opened its first theater in Kansas…

Pay or Play

Seventy Years Later, It’s Curtains for Paramount Decrees

By Jody Simon

August 12, 2020

Many of us will remember 2020 as the year that the theatrical exhibition business irrevocably changed. Our last blog covered the landmark agreement between Universal Pictures and AMC, the world’s largest theater chain, to reduce the theatrical exhibition window from three months to just over three weeks. Now a New York federal judge has granted a motion by the Department of Justice to terminate the Paramount Consent Decrees—antitrust rules that have governed the relationship of…

Pay or Play

VOD Goes Viral: Universal and AMC Upend Theatrical Release Model

By Jody Simon

August 3, 2020

These have been hard times for the movie theater business. Attendance peaked in 2002 at approximately 1.6 billion tickets sold. In 2019, that number had dropped by 25%, to around 1.2 billion. The proliferation of subscription streaming services is not the only force driving this trend, but it is certainly a substantial one. Against this challenging backdrop, the COVID pandemic has caused the studios to cut off theatrical release of new movies since March, so…

Pay or Play

UTA Ends WGA Packaging Dispute

By Jody Simon

July 15, 2020

UTA has just announced that it reached agreement with the Writers Guild to sign a franchise agreement that will permit it to resume representation of writers. This will bring a partial end to a dispute that has lasted for over a year. The WGA had directed its members to fire their agents over their practice of receiving packaging fees directly from networks and studios, which the Guild regarded as a conflict of interest.…

Pay or Play

Peace in Our Time: WGA Reaches Deal on New Basic Agreement

By Jody Simon

July 8, 2020

In a down to the wire bargaining session, the Writers Guild of America negotiating committee reached agreement with the studios on a new three-year deal. This was unanimously approved by the governing boards of the WGA West and East and will go to the membership for likely ratification later this month. The pact averts what was widely seen pre-COVID as the very real possibility of a writers strike. The terms track gains previously won by…

Pay or Play

Entertainment Law. Coast to Coast.®

Blog Authors

Stories to Watch in 2021

Universal Faces Racism Charges as Faizon Love Sues over “Couples Retreat” Poster

CAA, WME Head Back to Court in WGA Dispute

Progress in WGA-Agency Talks, but No Breakthrough Yet

WGA Scores Points in Agency Litigation

AMC Throws Hail Mary to Lure Audiences with 15 Cent Tickets

Seventy Years Later, It’s Curtains for Paramount Decrees

VOD Goes Viral: Universal and AMC Upend Theatrical Release Model

UTA Ends WGA Packaging Dispute

Peace in Our Time: WGA Reaches Deal on New Basic Agreement

Stay Connected

Company

Products

Support

New to the Network

Blog Authors

Latest from Pay or Play