Jose Vargas
Top Hollywood executive Donna Langley addressed the ongoing SAG-AFTRAnegotiations on Wednesday night, saying that the studio side will spend “as much time as it takes” in the bargaining room until the parties can reach a resolution.
Declining to speak in specifics at a scheduled appearance at Bloomberg’s Screentime event, the NBCUniversal Studio Group chairman & chief content officer nevertheless said, “I think the best way I could say it is that we’ve been spending time with the actors, and we want to spend as much time as it takes until we can reach a resolution and get the industry back on its feet and back to work as been our goals since day one.” Langley was interviewed by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw in Los Angeles.
As for the potential that the SAG-AFTRA strike could linger and impact her studio’s 2024 film slate, Langley said, “I’m not relishing the thought of a summer season without a volume of films. If I learned anything during COVID, it was that a lack of volume really does impact the moviegoing cadence. And we were just seeing recovery from that in 2023 in the summer. And if we lose that, that’s going to have a really lasting, meaningful, not good impact on our industry.”
Earlier that day, the executive had attended the latest round of negotiations for a new three-year SAG-AFTRA contract that could bring an end to the union’s ongoing strike, which has now lasted nearly three months. She was joined in the talks on the studio side by Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos — who speaks Thursday morning at the Bloomberg conference — Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav and Disney CEO Bob Iger.
During her Screentime appearance, Langley also answered a question about why it took so long for the Writers Guild of America negotiations to conclude with a deal (Langley, Sarandos, Zaslav and Iger were present for the final days of negotiations). “The experience in the room with the writers was a difficult one because we had to deal with issues like AI and minimum staffing and things that had up until this point in unprecedented,” she said. “I can’t speak to why it took the time that it took. It just took the time that it took.”
On Oct. 2, SAG-AFTRA and negotiators for the AMPTP resumed their negotiations for the first time since the performers’ union went on strike. The two parties have been bargaining on and off ever since, with studio leaders — Sarandos, Zaslav, Iger and Langley — once again present in discussions. Their presence has raised hopes that the parties may soon be able to reach a deal and end the actors’ strike, which has essentially resulted in a domestic moratorium on union production except in cases where the union has offered an interim agreement.
Still, there are many issues for both sides to work through. With these negotiations, SAG-AFTRA has put forward a bold proposal for casts from streaming projects to receive a cut of platforms’ subscription revenues. Before they went back into the bargaining room in early October, the two sides had also not yet come to terms on AI regulations, minimum rate increases and a host of other issues.
In terms of AI, Langley said, “Things that people are deathly afraid of are not happening at our company. We are quite a ways away from that. We are big believers that creativity comes from real human beings. There is nothing that has said to us AI can change the way we’ve done business.”
Starting July 14, the SAG-AFTRA strike has hobbled the industry for months. A simultaneous Writers Guild of America strike that lasted for 148 days concluded on Sept. 27, but the majority of major physical production has yet to return without union actors. Employment in entertainment has declined by 45,000 jobs since the WGA strike began in May, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Oct. 6.
In July, Langley was promoted to chairman of studio group & chief content officer as the mega-media conglomerate struggles to adapt to a new world order where a seasoned executive with an established creative vision can oversee all content for film, streaming and TV. Langley previously served as chair of Universal Filmed Entertainment after running Universal Pictures. She’s widely credited for winning over top filmmakers and talent, as well as aligning herself with key production partners including animation powerhouse Illumination Entertainment and Blumhouse.
This year, Universal and Illumination’s The Super Mario Brothers grossed a huge $1.35 billion dollars at the worldwide box office, proving that families are finally willing to return to theaters after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Universal is also home of Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adult drama. The three-hour, R-rated film has defied all odds in earning $939.3 million globally to become the top-grossing biographical drama of all time. (Langley wooed Nolan into the fold after the filmmaker split up with Warner Bros.) So far this year, Super Mario Bros. and Oppenheimer are the No. 2 and No. 3 top-grossing films of 2023 so far behind Warners’ Barbie ($1.43 billion).
Langley didn’t try to sugarcoat the challenges facing the business. “The big picture has never been more volatile and continues to be volatile,” she said, noting that global box office revenue is still down around 20 percent from 2019, although summer 2023 was only down 5 percent. “So when there’s a season filled with good movies that people want to see, I was made to feel pretty optimistic.”
She also agreed it is noteworthy that original films such as Barbie and Oppenheimer did so well. “It sort of goes back to your first question about where cinema-going is headed. I think originality matters. And I think we are perhaps seeing the audience tire a bit of the tried-and-true tested blockbuster formula as good as it may be and as entertaining as it may be,” she said.
Langley was also upfront in admitting that her company has to be careful about spending too much on movies made for its streaming service, NBCU’s Peacock. “We’re still in the experimentation phase with that, to be honest. We’ve done a few of them to varying levels of success,” she said. “When we are making a film through the studio system, it’s got all the bells and whistles. We are geared toward making films for theatrical. I think the price point is maybe a little bit high.”
