Scouting Hollywood: Nov. 16-22

A roundup of news, gossip and history of the entertainment business brought to you from Hollywood, Calif.

Photo by Alex Litvin on Unsplash

IT’S OVER! After nearly six months of labor disputes in Hollywood, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) negotiations committee voted unanimously to accept an offer from the Association of Motion Picture & TV Producers (AMPTP), and the SAG executive board announced a return to work effective Thursday, Nov. 9. Full details, at time of writing, have not been announced but substantial pay increases as well as profit participation for streaming shows and issues around artificial intelligence appear to be hammered out. 

Fallout continues from the sordid behavior of convicted rapist (and former mega producer) Harvey Weinstein. British actress Julia Ormond has filed suit in New York City against her former agency, Creative Artists Agency (CAA), for knowingly sending her to be assaulted by Weinstein and then, when confronted by her, played it down and ultimately dumped her as a client. Also named as co-defendants are Weinstein’s former company Miramax and its parent Walt Disney. 

The end of AMC Entertainment May be fast approaching. Risk-management and credit-monitoring company Creditsafe recently reported that AMC's debt-to-equity ratio and late payments could be the warning signs before its demise. The multi-screen exhibition company owned or leased a total of 865 theaters at the end of 2022. At $1.6 billion in total property value, each theater would be worth roughly $1.9 million.  At the end of 2017, AMC reported a total of 1,014 owned or leased theaters. They were valued at around $3.1 billion on the balance sheet that year, about $3.1 million per theater. During that same period, AMC's revenue fell from $5.1 billion to $3.9 billion, and the firm stopped making consistent profits in 2016. Since 2017, it has generated roughly $7.4 billion in net losses. And attendance dropped from 1.2 billion in 2017 to 708 million in 2022. It’s “days-beyond-terms” (a measure of how late it’s paying vendors) has nearly tripled since March. All are signs the firm is burning cash and bankruptcy is nearing.