With the SAG in a stalemate with the majors over its feature-primetime contract, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists have opted for a six-month extension of their commercials contract until March 31. SAG and AFTRA, which plan to negotiate jointly on the ad deal, made the disclosure Wednesday [...]

It looks like warring factions inside SAG have found some common ground vs the AMPTP. Finally, all the SAG board agrees that allowing SAG sanctioned, non-Union production and no residuals for certain so called new media production is a bad idea for actors. Daily Variety reporter and AMPTP fanboy, Dave McNary lays it all out [...]

Rank Title Weekend Gross 1 The Dark Knight (2008) $75.6M $314M 2 Step Brothers (2008) $30M $30M 3 Mamma Mia! (2008) $17.9M $62.7M 4 The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008) $10.2M $10.2M 5 Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008) $9.41M $60.2M 6 Hancock (2008) $8.2M $206M 7 WALL·E (2008) $6.35M $195M 8 [...]

No movement. That’s all there is to report on the ongoing standoff between SAG and the AMPTP. Trade publications put attendance at Saturday’s SAG membership meeting in Hollywood at 450 – 750, depending on which industry rag you want to believe. The producer-friendly Daily Variety article actually has the attendance at the upper end of [...]

One of the best reviewed films of the year had a stunning opening this weekend with an estimated take in excess of $155 million while playing on 4,366 screens. Apparently that wasn’t enough screens because the weekend was a virtual sellout and HOLLYWOOD REPORTER published a report of tickets selling on Ebay for around $50. [...]

The following story on Amazon.com‘s new Video on Demand service appears in newspapers across the country today, 7/18/08. This is just one more example of where film and video distribution is headed. And it is one more example of why the AMPTP is trying to force feed a bad deal on Screen Actors Guild members. As [...]

While we wait for a resolution of the current contract ‘negotiations’ between SAG and the AMPTP, a few show biz reports give a look under the tent at why SAG is so concerned about issues like clip usage and residuals from new media. As an example, look at the deal announced this week between YouTube [...]

In what is being termed a ‘sidebar’ meeting, an off the record meeting with an unspecified agenda, the AMPTP has agreed to meet with SAG negotiators today to discuss the current contract stalemate. AMPTP insists that the offer on the table is in fact their ‘last best final’ offer and that there will be no [...]

If there were any doubt that SAG leadership would do anything to avoid asking SAG membership for a strike authorization vote, just look at the course the SAG and AMPTP negotiations are taking. A story in Saturday’s Daily Variety online lays out the scenario: In a move that will unnerve Hollywood, the longtime feud between [...]

As negotiations begin again with the AMPTP, SAG is using one tool at its disposal that might put some pressure on the producers organization to settle, a waiver available only to indie productions. By signing the SAG waiver the production company agrees to comply with the eventual deal hammered out with the AMPTP. This deal [...]