Movie packaging

In film industry terminology, movie packaging or film packaging is a type of product bundling in which a top-level talent agency starts up a film or television project using writers, directors and/or actors it represents, before giving other agencies a chance to submit their clients for the project. For this service, the talent agency negotiates a packaging fee. Packaging is frequently done by the “big four” talent agencies Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Endeavor, United Talent Agency, and ICM Partners (now merged into CAA).[1]

In 2019, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) sued several large talent agencies over the practice, arguing that they created conflicts of interest between the agents and those they represented. As a result, packaging practices were prohibited on all new WGA-covered projects after June 30, 2022.[2]

History

Talent agent Charles K. Feldman has been credited with coming up with the first Hollywood "package deal".[3] In June 1942, Feldman signed Marlene Dietrich, Randolph Scott, and John Wayne, and presented them, along with the script and director, as a package to Universal Pictures for Pittsburgh.[4]

Freddie Fields and David Begelman have also been credited with pioneering the movie "package" at their agency Creative Management Associates in the early '70s.[5][6] It has also been claimed that Michael Ovitz of CAA was the first to package movies, in the late 1970s.[7]

Business model

Packaging can be much more lucrative for agencies than the usual 10% fee. Instead, the packaging agency receives the equivalent of 5% of what the studio or network pays the production company; 5% of half (i.e. 2.5%) of any profit the production company earns; and 15% of adjusted gross (syndication revenue minus costs the network does not pay).[7][1][8] In 1989 The New York Times reported that a major talent agency could earn $21,000 to $100,000 for each episode of a network show.[7]

The Writers Guild of America West (WGA West) estimated that 87% of TV shows were packaged during the 2016-2017 season.[9]

Criticism

Packaging as a practice has been criticized by several writers, directors and actors as inherently causing a major conflict of interest between an agency and its clients.[10] In 2019, David Simon published a letter detailing how packaging incentivized his agents to work against his best interests on the deal for the television show Homicide: Life on the Street.[11] Simon's letter eventually led to a breakdown between the Writers Guild of America (WGA, the labor union representing screenwriters in the US) and the Association of Talent Agents (ATA, the group representing the major agencies), when the sides were unable to negotiate a "Code Of Conduct" agreement that addressed the concerns of packaging, resulting in the mass firing of talent agents by all WGA members on April 15, 2019.[12]

Lawsuit

On April 17, 2019, the two WGA groups, Writers Guild of America East and WGA West, sued the "big four" agencies, claiming that packaging fees are an “egregious conflict of interest” that “constitute unlawful kickbacks” from studios to the agencies.[13]

The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court against the four dominant Hollywood talent agencies: Endeavor, CAA, United Talent Agency and ICM Partners.[14] Approximately 95 percent of WGA members voted "in favor of a code of conduct that would cease packaging fees."[15]

References
  1. Koblin, John (2019-04-12). "Hollywood Upended as Unions Tell Writers to Fire Agents". The New York Times. p. B1. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-04-13.
  2. Robb, David (2022-06-30). "The End Of Packaging Fees: The WGA's Historic Campaign To Reshape Talent Agency Business Takes Full Effect Today – Q&A". Deadline. Retrieved 2023-05-02.
  3. Havemann, Ernest (17 Apr 1950). "Packages of Stars: Agent Charles Feldman gambles on bundles of actors, directors, scripts". LIFE. pp. 107–116. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
  4. "SCREEN NEWS HERE AND IN HOLLYWOOD". The New York Times. June 4, 1942. ProQuest 106422136.
  5. Eller, Claudia; Dutka, Elaine (August 9, 1995). "Begelman, Ex-Columbia Chief, an Apparent Suicide : Movies: Former studio president was at center of '70s embezzlement scandal. Body is found in hotel room". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2021-07-06.
  6. "In memory of Freddie Fields". bafta.org. British Academy of Film and Television Arts. 18 January 2008. Retrieved 2021-07-06.
  7. Davis, L. J. (1989-07-09). "Hollywood's Most Secret Agent". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-04-13.
  8. "'But I'm not a lawyer. I'm an agent.'". The Audacity of Despair: Collected prose, links and occasional venting from David Simon. Mar 18, 2019. Retrieved Jan 4, 2020.
  9. Ng, David (2019-03-13). "Hollywood writers consider firing their agents en masse". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2019-04-14.
  10. "Explaining Conflict of Interest". JohnAugust.com. 28 March 2019. Retrieved 2019-04-15.
  11. "'The Wire' Creator David Simon Rips "Greedhead" Agencies Over Packaging, Urges Lawsuit Against ATA". The Hollywood Reporter. 19 March 2019.
  12. "Inside the Final WGA-ATA Meeting Before Breakdown As Balance Of Power Shifts To Rank-And-File Writers". Deadline Hollywood. 13 April 2019.
  13. "WGA: More Than 7,000 Writers Have Fired Their Agents". Deadline Hollywood. 22 April 2019.
  14. Littleton, Cynthia; Donnelly, Matt (2019-04-17). "GA Sues Talent Agencies in Battle Against Packaging Fees". Variety. Retrieved 2019-06-29.
  15. Donnelly, Matt (2019-04-22). "Writers Guild Says Over 7,000 Members Have Fired Agents". Variety. Retrieved 2019-06-29.
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