Several Major Hollywood Stars Have A $150 Million Proposal To Help End The Strike
A coalition of A-list stars is stepping up to try and end the ongoing Screen Actors Guild strike, which is rapidly approaching the 100-day mark. Earlier this month, negotiations broke down between SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), with the two sides not currently at the negotiating table. To help move the ball in the right direction, a new proposal has been put forth that would see Hollywood's top-earning actors shelling out $150 million over the next few years.
According to Deadline, George Clooney, Emma Stone, Ben Affleck, Tyler Perry, and Scarlett Johansson recently met with SAG leadership to figure out how to end the strike. Their proposal? They have offered to remove the current $1 million cap on SAG membership dues. This means that A-listers like Clooney or Johansson, who generally can earn millions per movie, would pay more into health benefits and other areas for the SAG-AFTRA membership. It's believed that would bring in more than $50 million annually during the length of the contract, which stretches three years.
The sticking point right now seems to be a sorely-needed, revamped streaming-based residual system, which the streamers and studios have been resisting. In an effort to make streaming residuals for actors a reality, these stars have also proposed a formula that would see the lowest actors on the totem pole as the first to be paid. The report states that SAG leadership brought the offer to its negotiating committee.
'A lot of the top earners want to be part of the solution'
Late last month, the Writers Guild of America was able to come to terms with a new deal with the AMPTP and end their strike. It lasted 148 days, resulting in movie and TV production grinding to a halt for most of the year. Writers are back to work, which has put increased pressure on getting actors back to work as well. What good does a finished TV script do you if you don't have actors? Clooney, in a statement, had this to say about the new proposals:
"A lot of the top earners want to be part of the solution. We've offered to remove the cap on dues, which would bring over $50 million to the union annually. Well over $150 million over the next three years. We think it's fair for us to pay more into the union. We also are suggesting a bottom-up residual structure — meaning the top of the call sheet would be the last to collect residuals, not the first. These negotiations will be ongoing, but we wanted to show that we're all in this together and find ways to help close the gap on actors getting paid."
This newly proposed deal may cost stars like Clooney and Affleck more money annually in dues, but in the long run, it is certainly for the best if it can move the needle towards actually getting a deal done. The longer this drags out, the longer projects get delayed. It will also be harder to sort out actor schedules for those projects once the dust does settle. All the while, actors can't promote movies and TV shows that are coming out, which is having an impact on the bottom line. Whether or not this gets the AMPTP back to the negotiating table remains to be seen.