New Projects - LA, NYC Bolstering Production Plans - Awards & Festivals - MoviePass Returns
By Abigail Hardin, August 23, 2022
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Happy Tuesday, UTD!
The last few weeks of Summer are upon us. And while I hope you are enjoying some time in the sun, I hope you will carve out some time and hang out with Annie and me at our free BOOKING FALL FILM/TV WORK workshop tomorrow! Make sure to register via the link below!
- August 24, 2022 @ 3:00 PM EST — BOOKING FALL FILM/TV WORK with Actors Connection
Create a great week!
Awards & Festivals
New Projects Highlighted, Analysts Ready for Fall Season
With fall and winter award season rapidly approaching, it seems like everyone is slowly getting into the spirit and drawing up their watch lists for which projects may win out among the likes of Venice, NYFF, the Oscars, and more. One of my favorite quotes from literature rings particularly true to the end - pulled from The Great Gatsby: "Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall." It's an exciting season, to be sure: auditions are cropping up all over, the heavy summer haze is finally dispersing from cities across the country, and the film industry is readying itself for a new crop of awards candidates, ready to make a name for themselves. Onward! 🎬
On the TV side of things, the Black Reel TV Awards crowned the recipients of this year's prizes last week, with popular newcomer ABBOTT ELEMENTARY bringing home seven wins on the night, including Outstanding Comedy Series. Check out the full list of winners here 🏆
And in the land of theater, 🎭 the 47th annual Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival revealed this year's winners, all six of which will be published through Concord Theatricals/Sam French. The event marks the first time the festival was held in-person in three years, which artistic director Casey McLain said was filled with nerves, cheers, and a whole lot of theatre love!
LA, NYC Bolstering Production Plans
We've covered a lot of emerging hotspots for film and TV production across the country (and across the world) over the last few months, but there's still nothing like a project setting up shop in Tinseltown. A new problem facing studios hoping to shoot in Los Angeles is an interesting one - there are simply not enough spaces that are open. A new developer in the city is hoping to change that, announcing plans to break ground on a 16 soundstage facility, with an expected opening date in 2026/2027. Another FilmLA president Paul Audley is hopeful that the expansive operation will be enough to prevent more productions from skipping town - Atlanta, Oklahoma, New York, we're looking at you
Speaking of the East Coast - NYC's new film office exec Kwame Amoaku is feeling confident that the Big Apple is the place to be when it comes to film and TV. Amoaku has set an ambitious goal to bring production in the city back to pre-pandemic levels, updating the process of obtaining permits to be more production-friendly, and making the most of the state's robust tax incentives. Theatre, film, and TV - we do it all here, folks! 🤩
Political Updates
Abortion Letter Responses, USC Annenberg Launching New Survey
As we've been talking about over the last few weeks, we have yet to see much action from top industry execs after letters signed by nearly 1,000 filmmakers and showrunners called on companies like Disney and Netflix to pledge to protect access to reproductive services for employees living in states that have banned abortions in the wake of Roe vs. Wade being overturned. As many companies offered stale, canned responses in response to the letters, the group of writers followed up with a renewed plea for the studios to outline specific actions they plan to take by Labor Day, as a growing number of women lose actions to reproductive services across the country.
While the industry continues to react and respond to the overturning of Roe vs Wade, a new report from the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative is set to take a deep dive into how abortion is portrayed in film and TV, along with topics like marriage equality and gun violence. "Entertainment has a unique ability to reach viewers and provide that education," Annenberg Inclusion Initiative founder Dr. Stacy L. Smith said. "Our goal is to illuminate how many opportunities there are to use storytelling as a tool to expand the conversation and create substantial attitude and policy change." Alongside the launch of the new survey, the Institute will also select a handful of student directors focused on bringing stories of reproductive health and wellness to life on-screen, granting them $25,000 each to help develop and produce their work.
Unions
Exclusivity Deals Fall, Strip Club Appeals to AEA for Representation
SAG-AFTRA has officially come to an agreement with television studios that will allow actors to pursue other projects outside of their contracted series, once the project has wrapped for the season. This victory over exclusivity deals comes after years of attempting to curtail the clauses in actors' contracts, which the union claimed kept members from earning thousands of dollars while away from their main series. The new agreement will allow a three-month window to take on other jobs as desired. More work, more experience, more money - love to see it!
A strip club in North Hollywood is making their case for Actors' Equity to represent them at their business negotiations, a move that, if successful, would make them the first group of strippers to be represented by a union in the US. AEA president Kate Shindle expressed her support for the case: "they have much in common with other Equity members who dance for a living... They want health insurance and other benefits, like workers' compensation. They need protection from sexual harassment, discrimination, and unjust terminations. Equity is well situated to advocate for these workers, and we are excited to welcome them into the labor movement at this extraordinary time."
MoviePass Returns, Cineworld Mulls Restructuring
Mega movie fans, rejoice! 🍿 The once-astronomically popular subscription service MoviePass is making a comeback on Labor Day Weekend, with a waitlist for joining the newest iteration of the service set to open this Thursday at 9 AM EST. While details seem to be few and far between as of now, MoviePass will now offer tiered purchase points, as well as a sliding scale of pricing based on users' zip codes. The tiers will correspond to a certain number of credits each month (think ClassPass for the cinema), though the exact amount for each level and the number required to redeem them for actual tickets have yet to be announced. I'm pretty excited for this one, honestly.... let's hope it works out this time 🤞
One of the top cinema exhibitors in the world is still feeling the pinch of getting butts in seats in a COVID world. Cineworld, the second largest theater owner in the world, is currently eyeing up plans to restructure its financials and better position itself for an uncertain year ahead. Following lower-than-expected audience numbers over the last year and a half, compounded by a light film slate in the months to come, execs are looking to lighten their financial load in order to coast through this extended rough patch, with the goal of "taking proactive steps to ensure it has the balance sheet strength and flexibility to adapt to market conditions."
Nexstar Acquires CW Majority Share
There's a new network owner in town: Nexstar Media Group is set to acquire a controlling stake in The CW, with Paramount Global and Warner Bros Discovery hanging onto their 12.5% portions moving forward. The acquisition will remain in limbo pending Nexstar's SEC filing, but execs with the TV giant are already remaining hopeful that they can turn the sinking ship into a broader, more profitable enterprise by 2025. In their brief remarks to shareholders, Nexstar reps called out other companies for prioritizing content for both linear and streaming, saying that their focus "will be unlike other broadcast network owners.... without a dual agenda of greenlighting programming with potential to cross over to SVOD."
Amidst all the corporate jargon and high-leverage financial information, one interesting Easter egg came to light during Nexstar's announcement: the average CW viewer is 58 years old. You know, the network most recently known for RIVERDALE and THE FLASH. A very big hit among 58-year-olds, so it seems. And of course, the Internet did what the Internet does when it gets wind of news like this 💻
Streaming Landscape
Disney Overtakes Netflix for Total Subscriptions, UK Streaming Profits Rise
Recent reports out of the House of Mouse are pointing to a potential divestiture in Hulu, though activist investor Daniel Loeb urged the company to take that move one step further and release ESPN from its corporate umbrella, while adding Hulu content into Disney+. "ESPN would have greater flexibility to pursue business initiatives that may be more difficult as part of Disney, such as sports betting,” Loeb wrote in a letter to Disney CEO Bob Chapek, while also pushing to acquire Comcast's 33% stake in Hulu sooner than 2024 to allow for a quicker transition to Disney+. The company put out a generic response to the measure, saying that they appreciated the feedback from all investors, and are committed to building all aspects of its business moving forward. With the House of Mouse officially topping Netflix for total subscriptions across all of its platforms, it's an interesting time to consider tinkering with their recipes for success.
Both Netflix and Disney may want to reconsider their approaches to ad-supported streaming tiers coming down the pike - a new study from Fandom found that 57% of those surveyed had no interest in subscribing to a streaming plan with ads. Also of note - conversion rates continue to favor loyalty to brands, as only 41% said they would change services to go to an ad-supported plan. The folks at Warner Bros Discovery must have gotten wind of this revelation - the newly merged company announced a limited-time discount on its tiered services for both new and existing subscribers, set to run through October 30th. Streaming execs, take note! 📝
Ancestry has been taking a new approach to ads recently, choosing to ditch the 15 or 30 seconds slots in favor of short-form movies about users' experiences, and ad execs believe it may be another way to intrigue users that are already bombarded with content each day. Streaming platforms are taking notice too - the original Ancestry ad is now available to view on Paramount-owned Pluto, speaking to a report from earlier in the summer that users did not necessarily have a preference if content was created by a studio or an ad agency, so long as it was entertaining. A new era of material is upon us!
UK streaming saw a 27% increase in profits between 2020 and 2021, as more subscribers turned to their TVs during COVID, even amidst moderate price hikes among platforms. Viewership numbers themselves went down slightly - a 9% drop in the same timeframe - but the report also found that any cancellations had a high likelihood of resubscribing in the future.
An interesting new partnership has bloomed in the media-sphere this week - apparently, there's a Walmart+, and Paramount+ is now partnered with it? Membership for the ad-supported tier of the streaming service will now be a complimentary addition to all Walmart+ subscriptions, as the retailer tries to siphon off some of Amazon Prime's streaming + shopping competition. Walmart+ comes in at $12.95 per month and offers same-day delivery on thousands of products. Learn something new every day!
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Representation Increasing, Process Changes Remain Elusive
After partnering with DEI consulting firm ReadySet, the Television Academy unveiled the first round of its Industry Data Report, designed to magnify the experiences of Academy members throughout Hollywood and beyond. The findings of the report were a mixed bag: representation throughout the industry continues to climb, but many feel that the pace is slow and calculated, particularly among members with backgrounds spanning more than one marginalized community. The manner in which DEI infractions are dealt with was also called into question, as only a fraction of those surveyed felt enough is being done to address harassment issues in the workplace. With the news that the most recent iteration of California's tax incentive bill includes a robust diversity requirement for productions, we're remaining hopeful that representation numbers will be pushed further in the right direction in the years ahead.
Bryce Dallas Howard shared her story of pay inequality from the JURASSIC WORLD movies over the last 10 years, addressing the reports of gaps between her salary and that of her on-screen counterpart Chris Pratt. "The reports were so interesting because I was paid so much less than the reports even said, so much less," Howard said of the articles claiming that she was making $2 million less than Pratt through the series. She went on to applaud her co-star's efforts in using his position to rectify the discrepancy, saying that while the original three-movie contract was signed and sealed in 2014, Pratt took the reins on negotiating terms for rides or games associated with the series - "I've been paid more for those kinds of things than I ever was for the movie."
Calling all Latinx filmmakers! The third annual Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival is officially accepting submissions for its 2023 event, which seeks to celebrate the stories of the Latinx community and empower the fellows each year by opening up avenues for their projects to be seen by viewers and industry execs across the industry. Partnered with Netflix, LALIFF has seen its winners utilize their $30,000 to finish development on their short films, which have gone on to be recognized with nominations at Cannes, the Oscars, and more!
Host of Opportunities for Black Creatives
The Black List announced initiatives with two separate groups this past week, strengthening their commitment to highlighting and empowering up-and-coming writers in the industry. The first partnership, struck with representatives from CBS Studios and the NAACP, will identify up-and-coming Black writers whose projects will receive an additional review from industry execs in the months ahead. A second partnership with YouTube will spotlight a group of Black writers tasked with developing a proof of concept series that reflect experiences in the Black community. The Black List x YouTube Originals Black Voices Creator Fellowship will then provide fellows $40,000 to produce their projects over six months. "It's no small thing for writers to have access to substantial financial resources to further realize their artistic ambitions without sacrificing their ownership of that work in order to get them," Black List founder Franklin Leonard said.
Another exciting partnership this week came between talent agency CAA and the Black Theatre Coalition to boost the number of Black talent representatives in the industry. BTC will work to seek out individuals interested in pursuing careers in the representation field and pass along its list to CAA who will then train these up-and-coming agents to prepare them to jumpstart their work in the industry. "Our goal is to create hands-on experiences that help participants develop meaningful relationships, learn hard and soft professional skills, and identify a strong network for continued success," BTC program director Nik Whitcomb said. "We look forward to this long-lasting collaboration with CAA and know that together we will make an impact on the industry."