Dream Factory received a dream contract

A months-long strike by Hollywood screenwriters ended with the signing of an agreement under which screenwriters will receive a significant increase in salaries and fees. In addition, the authors achieved restrictions on the use of artificial intelligence (AI), the rapid development of which has already caused concern among representatives of many creative professions.

Last night, representatives from the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) reached agreements to end the Hollywood screenwriters’ strike that had been going on since May. As part of it, a new contract was signed until May 2026. The screenwriters’ union’s key demands were an increase in wages and fees due to rising inflation and the popularity of streaming content, as well as limiting the use of generative AI in content creation.

The union managed to achieve both – the base salary of WGA screenwriters will immediately increase by 5%, by another 4% in May 2024 and by another 3.5% in May 2025. In addition, companies that work with screenwriters will increase their health insurance contributions to up to 12% of the revenue generated from the sale of content created by these screenwriters.

The union has also achieved significant success in terms of royalties from series and streaming content – for large projects, such as series with a budget of $30 million or more, the minimum fee for a screenwriter will increase by 18%, to $100 thousand.

For large streaming projects, royalties will be increased by 25%. In addition, the scriptwriters will be paid bonuses if a particular project turns out to be popular during the first time after its launch. The bonus will be 50% of the initial fee for each episode if the show is watched by at least 20% of subscribers of a particular service in the first three months of its broadcast. Estimated CNNin this case, the writer’s bonus could be about $9 thousand for a half-hour episode and more than $16 thousand for an hour-long episode or episode of the show.

In addition, streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+, etc. will be required to present a detailed and transparent diagram of exactly how certain shows and series are broadcast, methods for measuring popularity, counting viewers, etc.

Separate clauses of the agreement are devoted to limiting the use of AI by studios.

In particular, it is stipulated that AI “cannot write or rewrite literary material, and AI-generated content cannot be the source of such material.”

The right to use or not to use AI remains with the screenwriter himself – he can choose which auxiliary functions the AI ​​can perform, having previously discussed this with the studio, if this use does not conflict with current legislation or the rules of the content production company itself. In addition, the company cannot force the screenwriter to use AI. If the screenwriter himself wants to do this, the company is obliged to disclose data about how exactly the AI ​​was used. The Screenwriters Union also reserves the right to monitor whether a screenwriter’s writing is used to train generative AI in order to prevent the screenwriter’s style from being reproduced in the future without his input.

The use of AI to generate texts has caused particular concern among representatives of creative professions. Last week, 17 famous American writers and their representative, the Authors Guild filed a class action lawsuit in Manhattan court against the company OpenAI, which developed the ChatGPT chatbot. Plaintiffs include John Grisham, George R.R. Martin, Jodi Picoult, and others. They accuse OpenAI of copyright infringement, namely that the company used writers’ texts to train its ChatGPT chatbot illegally and without obtaining the necessary permission. The plaintiffs ask the court to find OpenAI guilty and determine the amount of damage caused to them.

The agreement reached between the writers’ union and Hollywood companies ends a 148-day strike, the second longest in WGA history.

This strike has already led to the cancellation or postponement of a number of major projects and events. More than 15 film and television awards events have been postponed, including the Emmy and MTV Awards. More than 10 festivals were postponed or were forced to make changes to their program, including the Locarno International Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, etc. Filming and premieres of more than 30 films were postponed or postponed, including Avatar 3 and 4, “Gran Turismo”, “Godzilla vs. King Kong: New Empire”, a new sequel to the film about Spider-Man, etc. More than 40 television projects have been postponed to a later date, including the continuation of the cult sci-fi series “Babylon” -5”, as well as “Dune”, 911, CSI, etc.

The losses of studios, TV channels and advertisers from the strike are only being calculated. But for Warner Bros. alone. Discovery it could cost $500 million – in early September the company warned regulators and investors that the strike could reduce the company’s annual revenue by $300-500 million. Thus, the total revenue of Warner Bros. Discovery based on the results of the current year Maybe amount not to $11 billion, as previously expected, but to $10.5 billion.

Evgeny Khvostik