Summary

• The new WGA Contract 2023 ensures writers are compensated fairly for their contributions to popular movies and TV series, addressing previous disparities in pay.
• Hollywood's use of AI in the writing process will be more transparent, with restrictions on AI-generated material and writers given the choice to use AI tools.
• Screenwriters will receive improved pay, better health insurance and pension contributions, and increased compensation for series employment, including bonuses based on viewership for streaming projects.

As of 12:01am PT on September 27th, 2023, after a historic 148 days spent striking, the negotiations between the WGA and AMPTP Tuesday, have been striking for things like minimum staffing in writers rooms for television series, restrictions on AI use, and bonuses based on viewership residuals for streaming series writers have worked on.

The WGA Contract 2023 ensures professional stability and financial security for writers whose compensation has notoriously not been commensurate with their contributions to some of the most popular movies and television series of recent years. As streaming has sured syndicated television as the most popular format for viewers to access their favorite content, writers' work, as well as their welfare, wasn't a focus reflected in the significant and salient changes that increased revenue for Hollywood's top studios and streamers. Now, the highly anticipated contract championed by the Writers Guild of America will provide writers with the respect and value they deserve.

8 Hollywood's Use Of AI In The Writing Process Will Be More Transparent

The WGA was particularly worried about how Hollywood's use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) would affect ' job security and creative integrity. Under the new contract, AI cannot write (or rewrite) any literary material, and any material generated by AI can't be used to undermine a writer’s credit or be considered source material. A writer can, of their own free will, choose to use AI as a tool provided the company they're working for consents to this, and the writer follows all company policies. That being said, the company cannot require its writers to use AI software (such as ChatGPT) as part of their work.

The company has to be upfront with the writer about whether materials given to them during the course of their work have been generated through the use of AI. The WGA can assert that the exploration of writers' materials, particularly to train AI, is prohibited under law. It's crucial that writers' know what's happening to their material, consent to how it's used, and understand when their ideas could be plagiarized, misrepresented, and altered by AI enough to effectively put them out of business.

7 Screenwriters Will Receive Better Health Insurance & Pension Contributions

The WGA ensured that screenwriters will receive an increase of 0.5%, from 11.5% to 12%, on contributions to the Health Fund for all reportable earnings. The WGA has the right to make further increases to the Health Fund or the Pension Plan in years two and three of the contract of an additional 0.5% by diverting funds from other minimum increases, thus providing its with even more long-term security. Finally, each scriptwriter/writing team will receive health and pension contributions as though they were a single writer, up to the relevant cap, and the contribution for each member of a writing team on a series will be made weekly.

6 Screenwriters Have Secured An Improved Pay Deal

Screenwriters now have an improved pay deal with a guaranteed "second step" that provides security during projects that have a tendency to change writers on short notice. Under the WGA's contract, the second step must occur whenever a writer is hired to create the first draft of a screenplay, at 200% of minimum (or less), and this must include original screenplays, non-original screenplays, and spec purchases. It's also the same for flat rate deals, but screenwriters must be paid 50% of their fee upon commencement, and if they haven't delivered a screenplay after 9 weeks, the fee is reduced to 25% upon invoice, and 25% due upon delivery.

Most of these changes are to maintain professional ability among writers and employers as well as compensate writers for the success of projects. As far as streaming is concerned, when a feature-length/movie project is made with a budget of $30 million or more, the minimum compensation for a story is $100,000 (which is an 18% increase from the current rate) and a full 26% increase in the residual base. When the 3-year contract residual improvements are combined with the foreign residual improvements, the residuals can jump as high as 49%, from $144, 993 to $216,000, on film projects for large streaming services.

5 Screenwriters Have Secured A Minimum Writers Room Size & Compensation Structure

Writers rooms can be the heart and soul of a series or film, and the WGA has secured a minimum writers room size, which must have at least three writers for a first-season show. Obtaining a minimum writers room size has been one of the most difficult issues facing the WGA for the five-month strike, particularly since in the past, showrunners had the freedom to determine how many writers they wanted on staff. The WGA feared that having too few writers on staff would allow studios to cut costs by employing AI to pick up any slack.

For staff writers and writer-producers working on series, writers can expect an overall increase in their minimum weekly rate of 5%, 4%, and 3.5% depending on how long they're with the production. For example, in Year 1 of the 3-year contract, a staff writer could be paid $11,371 for 9 weeks of work on a series, $9,476 for 10-19 weeks, and $8,524 for anything over 20 weeks. For writer-producers, or those at the co-producer level and higher, the WGA has secured a slightly higher minimum weekly rate, up to a 9.5% . In addition, all staff writers have to be paid script fees for every episode they write.

4 Staffing & Duration Provisions Have Improved For Episodic Series

If a series is in between seasons, or something happens during in the middle of development, there are now provisions in the WGA contract that ensure writers remain on television shows affected by the writers strike, a global pandemic, or something else. These are in the form of development rooms (aka pre-greenlight rooms) established before and during the production of a series. Their minimum weekly rate compensation will follow the 9 weeks of work, 10-19 weeks of work, and 20+ weeks of work models, with 3 writers in the room for 6 or fewer episodes, 5 if there are 7-12 episodes, and 6 if there are 13 or more.

3 Screenwriters Have A New Streaming Deal

One of the biggest priorities for the WGA was finding a way to have writers' compensation reflect the success of wildly popular streaming series like Stranger Things or Euphoria. Fortunately, in addition to the fixed existing residual, the Guild established a viewership-based model as well that would reward shows (and thus writers) with greater viewership and studios agreed, provided these projects were viewed by "20 or more percent of the service's domestic subscribers in the first 90s days of release, or in the first 90 days in any subsequent exhibition year" according to the WGA's Contract 2023.

The amount of profit made by original streaming content by Hollywood studios and streaming giants, while the compensation for writers remained the same, was unacceptable to the WGA. SVOD (Streaming Video On Demand) films like Netflix or Amazon Prime originals etc. would incur a 50% bonus under the WGA 3-year contract, including fixed foreign and domestic residuals at that 90-day benchmark. As an example of what that would look like for writers, it would include bonuses like $9,031 for a half-hour episode on Netflix, Amazon, or other major streaming services, and $40,500 for a feature-length film with a $30 million budget.

2 Screenwriters Secured Improved For High Budget Subscription Video On Demand

In order for screenwriters to be able to secure the fixed domestic and foreign residuals for VOD (Video On Demand) and SVOD, they needed streaming data transparency. Therefore, the WGA must now be provided with the total number of hours a series or feature-length film is streamed both domestically and internationally under a confidentiality agreement. This includes certain high-budget original series like Stranger Things or Wednesday, the numbers for which the WGA may share with its , who will now be paid a 150% for original pilots for high-budget streaming videos on demand and 115% for backup scripts.

1 Hollywood Has Improved The Showrunner Training Program

Crucially, the WGA reached an agreement to renew the $250,000 in annual funding for the Showrunner Training Program. It's an important program in the industry that helps creators and writer-producers hone their skills from accomplished professionals in their field. There are provisions in place to help mentors foster a more diverse and inclusive graduating class of showrunners that will help shape the streaming landscape in groundbreaking and dynamic ways.

Source: WGA Contract 2023