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[grandjedi6]

http://tvdecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/...-daily-show-plans-beyond-playing-guitar-hero/




At least they're having fun.

They should film the bake-off. I'd watch it :lol

 

[Thomper]

They should film the bake-off. I'd watch it :lol

They should buy Rock Band and have Colbert be part of the band. Now that's something I'd watch.

 

[Dupy]

As much as I support and respect the writers here I'd kinda like to see Letterman, Colbert, etc. do non-scripted interview/ad lib shows. It would certainly highlight the core talent a lot of these guys have.

 

[MaddenNFL64]

How many people at GAF are members of a union?

*raises hand*

I support the writers. Hope you guys get what you're asking for.

 

[Salmonax]

As much as I support and respect the writers here I'd kinda like to see Letterman, Colbert, etc. do non-scripted interview/ad lib shows. It would certainly highlight the core talent a lot of these guys have.

Going on with the show would mean more ad revenue for the studios, which would essentially be a betrayal of the writers. They have the right idea just sitting it out until something happens.

 

[Saoh]

...If Dave decides to do this, he's going to be one very pissed off late night host and will use all the time he can to plead the writers' case and slam the studios.

i think this is my biggest surprise in all this. it amazes me how TV actors and hosts all point and blame the greater evil (the studios) and not the writers for putting their jobs too, at risk. because, let's face it, if this goes on for too long many shows WILL be over imo... whether it's for not getting new scripts, new crappy writers crappy material lowers ratings, etc.

i don't think there's a way i can support the writers ('cuz i don't live in the US) but you guys are right on this now leave Ellen alone!!! :x

 

[Thomper]

i think this is my biggest surprise in all this. it amazes me how TV actors and hosts all point and blame the greater evil (the studios) and not the writers for putting their jobs too, at risk. because, let's face it, if this goes on for too long many shows WILL be over imo... whether it's for not getting new scripts, new crappy writers crappy material lowers ratings, etc.

i don't think there's a way i can support the writers ('cuz i don't live in the US) but you guys are right on this now leave Ellen alone!!! :x

I'd say the studios really are to blame in this one. If the writers should or shouldn't earn more money on DVD sales, that's a debate I'm staying out of, but the fact that writers don't get anything at all for TV-shows watched online, that's just stupid. The studios are claiming online episodes are promo's, and everybody knows that's bullshit. I'd side with the writers, too.

 

[Alfarif]

1. The Studios will not negotiate with the writers while they are on strike.

Well here we go... end the strike, then the studios will push even harder to NOT give writers what they want because they "messed up." That's all I see going on there.

2. The writers only receive 4 cents for every DVD sold on a show they've written for. He says they were all stupid and completely missed the boat during the VHS era, and were very late in trying to negotiate something in the DVD era. They had to settle for 4 cents a disc. For some math, lets say a DVD sells a million copies, the writers would get $40,000. Split that between 4 other writers and you get a paltry sum of $8000. Their whole insistance is that they don't get steamrolled over in the new media era as they have in the past 2 eras.

How many copies does the "average" TV box set and/or movie sell in its first year? This puts making "a living" as a writer in perspective... especially considering the location, where apparently if you don't make $60,000+ a year, you're considered borderline poverty.

3. To qualify for health insurance in the WGA, you have to make at least $30,000 per year. The WGA has 12,000 members. Only half of them qualify for health insurance. You've got some writers that make a whole lot of money, while others barely make a living. On average though, he said half don't qualify for insurance, which I take it to mean that half the WGA doesn't even make $30,000 per year. He says they could cover everyone, but they would have to raise union dues so high to do it that it would squeeze out the low end of the guild.

This is probably the saddest part of all of this.

5. He said it was very unfortunate for the industry as it will have a ripple effect on crew members. He couldn't speak for other shows, but he said that on Late Night with David Letterman, Dave is considering going ahead and doing his show without any writers. No monologue, no Top 10, nothing but a straight hour of interviews with Dave doing a few minutes of ad-lib. He said that Dave wanted to do this so that the crew would not have to suffer financially. If Dave decides to do this, he's going to be one very pissed off late night host and will use all the time he can to plead the writers' case and slam the studios.

I'm in favor of this. It'll highlight core talent, as mentioned above, but it will also let people see exactly WHAT writers provide. The average person attributes so much to the person they see on the screen when in actuality that person contributes anywhere from 10-20% and the writing staff and producers contribute the other 80-90%. It will put into perspective who REALLY runs Hollywood.

 

[Alfarif]

I'd say the studios really are to blame in this one. If the writers should or shouldn't earn more money on DVD sales, that's a debate I'm staying out of, but the fact that writers don't get anything at all for TV-shows watched online, that's just stupid. The studios are claiming online episodes are promo's, and everybody knows that's bullshit. I'd side with the writers, too.

I don't know how they can be promos when the only way I can watch Heroes IS online (I work nights) and I have to deal with 20 minutes worth of commericials just like if I watched the stupid show on TV.

 

[Thomper]

I don't know how they can be promos when the only way I can watch Heroes IS online (I work nights) and I have to deal with 20 minutes worth of commericials just like if I watched the stupid show on TV.

Exactly. That's why it's so stupid that the writers don't get any money for it. More and more people watch their shows online, whether to watch an episode again or to watch it for the first time. A time had to come when online would have to come in to play into negotiations, and that time has come. The studios just don't seem to want to deal with it.

 

[mre]

Going on with the show would mean more ad revenue for the studios, which would essentially be a betrayal of the writers. They have the right idea just sitting it out until something happens.

And not going on with the show means that the production crew gets fired or at least doesn't paid. Who does that help?

 

[Shinobi]

that would still be better than the last season

:lol

The hypocrisy with studios is just hilarious...downloading movies and TV shows is evil cause it isn't paid for, but watching streamed stuff at our websites is fine even though writers don't get a sniff of it. Just stunning levels of bullshit with that sort of logic.

Hopefully the writers have enough gumption to keep this strike going until the summer...then the actors can get in on the act. And if that happens, Hollywood is going to burn.

 

[Ripclawe]

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/wgae-replies-to-aftra-about-ellen-degeneres/

November 9, 2007

I was sorry to learn that you believe that the Guild erred in not consulting AFTRA before releasing our statement concerning Ellen DeGeneres. I assure you that we have great respect for AFTRA, its members and staff, and we are deeply grateful for the generous support of the many AFTRA members supporting our strike by withholding their services and/or joining our picket lines and rallies.

As I indicated in the telephone conversation to which you referred, it is not the Guild's intention to involve any union, such as your own, in our efforts to encourage individuals to withhold their services. What we ask of them are acts of individual conscience. There are unions with much narrower no strike clauses which we have approached directly and have been able to help us. I am sorry that I did not elaborate on this point in our conversation and make sure that I was understood.

Moreover, with regard to Ms. DeGeneres, she is a Writers Guild member as well as an AFTRAn. The writing of her show is always done by Writers Guild members and, therefore, constitutes struck work. Beyond any issue of membership, there is the obvious ethical issue, which is clearly present in Ms. DeGeneres' decision to write and produce a show without writers in the face of an industrywide walkout by 12,000 writers. Such a decision cannot be redeemed by your spirited and eloquent defense. I understand that AFTRA cannot call upon Ms. DeGeneres to respect our strike. But the Writers Guild can and must.

Mona Mangan
WGAE Executive Director

Fine, Ellen shuts down her show, gets sued and everyone else gets fired. The comparison that she is just the same as Dave or Leno is even more idiotic considering she has a daytime show that doesn't have the stable timeslots or money coming in as them.

 

[Sean]

NBC lays off "The Office" crew

Excerpts from an e-mail from Dale Alexander, a key grip on NBC's "The Office":

"Our show was shut down and we were all laid off this week. I've been watching the news since the WGA strike was announced and I have yet to see any coverage dedicated to the effect that this strike will have on the below the line employees.

"I respect the WGA's position. They probably do deserve a larger percentage of profit participation, but a lengthy strike will affect more than just the writers and studios. On my show we had 14 writers. There were also 2 cameramen, 2 camera assistants, 4 hair stylists, 4 makeup artists, 7 wardrobe people, 4 grips, 4 electricians, 2 craft service, 4 props people, 6 construction, 1 medic, 3 art department, 5 set dressers, 3 sound men, 3 stand-ins, 2 set PAs, 4 assistant directors, 1 DGA trainee, 1 unit manager, 6 production office personnel, 3 casting people, 4 writers assistants, 1 script supervisor, 2 editors, 2 editors assistants, 3 post production personnel, 1 facilities manager, 8 drivers, 2 location managers, 3 accountants, 4 caterers and a producer who's not a writer. All 102 of us are now out of work.

"I have been in the motion picture business for 33 years and have survived three major strikes. None of which have been by any of the below the line unions. During the 1988 WGA strike many of my friends lost their homes, cars and even spouses. Many actors are publicly backing the writers, some have even said that they would find a way to help pay bills for the striking writers. When the networks run out of new shows and they air repeats the writers will be paid residuals. The lowest paid writer in television makes roughly twice the salary than the below the line crewmember makes. Everyone should be paid their fair share, but does it have to be at the expense of the other 90% of the crewmembers. Nobody ever recoups from a strike, lost wages are just that, lost.

"We all know that the strike will be resolved. Eventually both sides will return to the bargaining table and make a deal. The only uncertainty is how many of our houses, livelihoods, college educations and retirement funds will pay for it."

--Maria Elena Fernandez , LATimes

This sucks. Shouldn't they have three or four scripts left to film? Does this mean no new upcoming episodes at all until the strike is over?

 

[Fifty]

The Office has only one episode left to air, and none left to film. One of the main reasons they're finishing so quickly is because of all the double episodes that aired to start the season.

 

[grandjedi6]

NBC lays off "The Office" crew



This sucks. Shouldn't they have three or four scripts left to film? Does this mean no new upcoming episodes at all until the strike is over?

It was bound to happen. The Office crew were some of the biggest supporters of the strike with the majority of the staff refusing to go to work at all.

 

[Saoh]

what happened with The Office is exactly what Ellen didn't want for her show and the other hundreds that work for/with her. people should cut her some slack, she's taking all the bullets so others can keep their jobs, even for a while. it's her name, image and career that are at risk.

this is what a former writer of her had to say:

First, let me say that I wish that Ellen hadn’t crossed the picket lines. I wish that she would stop making new episodes in solidarity with her writers. I know she is under intense pressure from her affiliates and production companies. Her show is syndicated, and she faces challenges that her late night compatriots do not. But these are excuses and I cannot defend her actions against the strike.

But I can defend her character. And I feel that I must.

Ellen hired me to write for her talk show even though I had little experience. In fact, several of her writers got their start on her show. She’s not afraid to hire green writers. She certainly took a chance on me. She was always patient and supportive. I never felt like she was mad or disappointed when a first draft didn’t pop. In fact, she often told me she was proud of me. She always challenged me to write better jokes, encouraging me to “beat” a joke that didn’t pack a strong punch. She made me a better writer by not settling for average. And I am grateful.

I wrote for her talk show for two seasons. I also wrote for the Oscars with her last year. Ellen loves her writers, that’s the only reason I got to write for the Oscars. She asked the Academy to hire me and two other staff writers from her show, in addition to the 6 other writers already on board. The Academy asserted that they could only pay us less than half of what they were paying the other writers. We all agreed to do it anyway. Right after the show, Ellen gave us each a check. She paid us the difference out of her own pocket. She said it was only fair and thanked us.

I no longer work on the talk show; I quit at the end of last season to pursue my career as a writer/performer. It was a difficult decision because I really loved working for her. Ellen let me move on with grace and kindness and support. She introduced me to her agent, her managers, and offered to help me in whatever way she could. She wished me luck and success. I was incredibly touched by her generosity.

 

[sprsk]

Just like that, no more The Office?

Man.
wtf.

 

[Solo]

Not like they wont all be hired back when the strike ends.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

When the networks run out of new shows and they air repeats the writers will be paid residuals. The lowest paid writer in television makes roughly twice the salary than the below the line crewmember makes. Everyone should be paid their fair share, but does it have to be at the expense of the other 90% of the crewmembers. Nobody ever recoups from a strike, lost wages are just that, lost.

This is what sticks in my craw the most about this. Writers are still making money while striking and people who made even less than they EVER did are now making jack shit. And even the writers weren't making money (because some of them might not be getting any residuals, this was kind of unclear about that) it's still fucked up.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

no more Office? Fuck you hippies if you want more money get a new job! Writers are supposed to be broke anyway!

 

[DeathbyVolcano]

Not like they wont all be hired back when the strike ends.

But really though, when the fuck is it gonna end? Is there ANY progress being made? Whenever the strike does end, why do you think NBC will just willingly say, "oh sure guys, you have your jobs back, lol."

This fucking sucks. The Office was my favorite show.

Guess it's time to pull out the Arrested Development dvds.

 

[Solo]

But really though, when the fuck is it gonna end? Is there ANY progress being made?

I havent been following any of this shit, as I wont let it bother/effect me until my shows stop running new episodes, but my thought is that it will be sooner rather than later. With all the money they will lose on both ends with the strike going on, I would think things will get done, as money rules everything. Perhaps I am being woefully ignorant here, but hey, thats what I have a DVD collection for.

 

[jett]

Hopefully the writers have enough gumption to keep this strike going until the summer...then the actors can get in on the act. And if that happens, Hollywood is going to burn.

What the. If anything, actors get paid too much. Time to go on strike, movie studios!

 

[Saoh]

if anything the studio's executives make wwaaayy too much

 

[Rabid Wolverine]

What the. If anything, actors get paid too much.

Amen.

Its insane how much TV Stars let alone movie stars are making. Taking out %'s of Gross and all where studios could be seeing that movie flow back in.


If no reality shows existed like Idol this strike would probably be over alot sooner as Networks would need new material. Seems like we are in for repeats and reality.

Been stockpiling on TV DVD Sets just for this. 3 seasons of Greys Anatomy to get through when the drought hits.

 

[Kabuki Waq]

that would still be better than the last season

:lol

 

[smarties00]

Nice Article from one of the Lost creators on the strike

TELEVISION is dying.

I should have realized this four years ago when I first got my TiVo box, but denial is always the first stage of grief. I simply couldn’t acknowledge that this wonderful invention heralded the beginning of the end.

TiVo stores your favorite movies and shows on its hard drive, allowing you to pull up last night’s episode of “The Daily Show” as easily as you click open documents on your laptop. In fact, once you download the original broadcast — sorry, I meant to say “record” it — you can watch it at your leisure. The next morning. Next year. Your call. Because now? You own that episode.

Best of all, you got it free.

Television has always been free. Sure, if you want all the N.F.L. games in high definition, you have to pay the piper, but the broadcast networks still offer their entire schedules for absolutely nothing. The only catch, of course, is that you have to watch commercials. Economically, it’s a fair deal. The network pays for the shows, gives them to viewers, and makes its cash back through advertising. Which regrettably brings us to the most wonderful thing TiVo does: It enables you to ignore the commercials that keep the whole system running.

Twenty percent of American homes now contain hard drives that store movies and television shows indefinitely and allows you to fast-forward through commercials. These devices will probably proliferate at a significant rate and soon, almost everyone will have them. They’ll also get smaller and smaller, rendering the box that holds them obsolete, and the rectangular screen in your living room won’t really be a television anymore, it’ll be a computer. And running into the back of that computer, the wire that delivers unto you everything you watch? It won’t be cable; it will be the Internet.

This probably sounds exciting if you’re a TV viewer, but if you’re in the business of producing these shows, it’s nothing short of terrifying. This is how vaudevillians must have felt the first time they saw a silent movie; sitting there, suddenly realizing they just became extinct: after all, who wants another soft-shoe number when you can see Harold Lloyd hanging off a clock 50 feet tall?

Change always provokes fear, but I’d once believed that the death of our beloved television would unify all those affected, talent and studios, creators and suits. We’re all afraid and we’d all be afraid together. Instead we find ourselves so deeply divided.

The Writers Guild of America (of which I am a proud member) has gone on strike. I have spent the past week on the picket line outside Walt Disney Studios, my employer, chanting slogans and trudging slowly across the crosswalk.

The motivation for this drastic action — and a strike is drastic, a fact I grow more aware of every passing day — is the guild’s desire for a portion of revenues derived from the Internet. This is nothing new: for more than 50 years, writers have been entitled to a small cut of the studios’ profits from the reuse of our shows or movies; whenever something we created ends up in syndication or is sold on DVD, we receive royalties. But the studios refuse to apply the same rules to the Internet.

My show, “Lost,” has been streamed hundreds of millions of times since it was made available on ABC’s Web site. The downloads require the viewer to first watch an advertisement, from which the network obviously generates some income. The writers of the episodes get nothing. We’re also a hit on iTunes (where shows are sold for $1.99 each). Again, we get nothing.

If this strike lasts longer than three months, an entire season of television will end this December. No dramas. No comedies. No “Daily Show.” The strike will also prevent any pilots from being shot in the spring, so even if the strike is settled by then, you won’t see any new shows until the following January. As in 2009. Both the guild and the studios we are negotiating with do agree on one thing: this situation would be brutal.

I will probably be dragged through the streets and burned in effigy if fans have to wait another year for “Lost” to come back. And who could blame them? Public sentiment may have swung toward the guild for now, but once the viewing audience has spent a month or so subsisting on “America’s Next Hottest Cop” and “Celebrity Eating Contest,” I have little doubt that the tide will turn against us. Which brings me to the second stage of grief: anger.

I am angry because I am accused of being greedy by studios that are being greedy. I am angry because my greed is fair and reasonable: if money is made off of my product through the Internet, then I am entitled to a small piece. The studios’ greed, on the other hand, is hidden behind cynical, disingenuous claims that they make nothing on the Web — that the streaming and downloading of our shows is purely “promotional.” Seriously?

Most of all, I’m angry that I’m not working. Not working means not getting paid. My weekly salary is considerably more than the small percentage of Internet gains we are hoping to make in this negotiation and if I’m on the picket line for just three months, I will never recoup those losses, no matter what deal gets made.

But I am willing to hold firm for considerably longer than three months because this is a fight for the livelihoods of a future generation of writers, whose work will never “air,” but instead be streamed, beamed or zapped onto a tiny chip.

Things have gotten ugly and the lines of communication have broken down completely between the guild and the studios. Perhaps it’s not too late, though, for both sides to rally around the one thing we still have in common: our mourning for the way things used to be. Instead of fighting each other, maybe we should be throwing a wake for our beloved TV.

Because the third stage of grief is bargaining.

And bargain we must, because when television finally passes on, there will still be entertainment; there will still be shows and films and videos, right there on a screen in your living room. And just as the owners of vaudeville theaters broke down and bought hand-crank movie cameras, the studios will figure out a way to make absurd amounts of money off of whatever is beaming onto whichever sort of screen.

And we’ll still be writing every word.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/11/opinion/11lindelof.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

 

[Ghost]

I keep reading the writers arguments, what are the studios counter points? Why dont they think the writers deserve residuals for streams and downloads?

 

[Lazy vs Crazy]

Wow at above post. If all of that is true, I fully support this strike.

Under 30k a year? Really? Ouch.

That just means half the members of the guild aren't good enough to get much work.

 

[Lazy vs Crazy]

I keep reading the writers arguments, what are the studios counter points? Why dont they think the writers deserve residuals for streams and downloads?

Because they get paid a large sum to actually write the episodes. Writers are paid fairly well. Studios invest a huge amount in production. If the show flops they take a big hit. If the show flops, the writers still get paid. What the writers want is to retain this no-risk form of doing business, but also to reap the rewards when something is a big hit.

 

[Femmeworth]

Not like they wont all be hired back when the strike ends.

Oh god, I hope so.

Edit: Why couldn't the strike happen after season four ended?

Have any other shows been laid off yet?

 

[Ghost]

Because they get paid a large sum to actually write the episodes. Writers are paid fairly well. Studios invest a huge amount in production. If the show flops they take a big hit. If the show flops, the writers still get paid. What the writers want is to retain this no-risk form of doing business, but also to reap the rewards when something is a big hit.

That argument might have been valid if writers recieved no residuals at the moment, but they already took a paycut to get residuals in the first place, they shouldn't have to take a further pay cut just to get the same residuals on media that wasn't invented when the original deal was written. It's not like the new media is adding to the revenue, it's replacing revenue from DVD and TV, removing the writers cut.

 

[border]

If the show flops, the writers still get paid.

Except that the show is off the air, so now they're not getting paid...

 

[Lazy vs Crazy]

Except that the show is off the air, so now they're not getting paid...

But they still got paid for the work they did.

 

[Koomaster]

TELEVISION is dying.

I should have realized this four years ago when I first got my TiVo box, but denial is always the first stage of grief. I simply couldn’t acknowledge that this wonderful invention heralded the beginning of the end.

TiVo stores your favorite movies and shows on its hard drive, allowing you to pull up last night’s episode of “The Daily Show” as easily as you click open documents on your laptop. In fact, once you download the original broadcast — sorry, I meant to say “record” it — you can watch it at your leisure. The next morning. Next year. Your call. Because now? You own that episode.

Best of all, you got it free.

Television has always been free. Sure, if you want all the N.F.L. games in high definition, you have to pay the piper, but the broadcast networks still offer their entire schedules for absolutely nothing. The only catch, of course, is that you have to watch commercials. Economically, it’s a fair deal. The network pays for the shows, gives them to viewers, and makes its cash back through advertising. Which regrettably brings us to the most wonderful thing TiVo does: It enables you to ignore the commercials that keep the whole system running.

It's called a VCR and it was doing all that before TiVo was ever dreamed up.

I agree with his general sentiments tho.

 

[border]

DVRs allow recording and storage of content on a level that is light years beyond that of VCRs.....otherwise nobody would have cared.

 

[JonathanEx]

I keep reading the writers arguments, what are the studios counter points? Why dont they think the writers deserve residuals for streams and downloads?

I think the claim is that the online broadcasts are just "promotions" for the TV showing of the show, and they don't need to pay the writers for promoting?

 

[Tobor]

I think the claim is that the online broadcasts are just "promotions" for the TV showing of the show, and they don't need to pay the writers for promoting?

Which is utter garbage. Online distribution is going to replace disc based media and traditional broadcast. The studios know it, and see an opportunity to cut the writers off from all profits.

The writers were willing to take DVD royalties off the table for a reason.

 

[Gary Whitta]

Pretty good article, from EW of all places, on why the writers are right...

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20159387,00.html

 

[Liferebooted]

Pretty good article, from EW of all places, on why the writers are right...

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20159387,00.html

Screw the writers, they're screwing up our tv programming.

 

[Incognito]

Polling

 

[rollingstart]

so, what are the chances The Office will return after the strike?

 

[Grizzlyjin]

so, what are the chances The Office will return after the strike?

I'd say pretty good. Even with the firings, I really doubt NBC would let The Office go when things get worked out.

I think shows like Scrubs, and lots of the newer series are in more danger. If a show was on its last legs or under performing to begin with, the aftermath of the strike might be a good excuse to just let it go.

 

[boo7z]

I keep reading the writers arguments, what are the studios counter points? Why dont they think the writers deserve residuals for streams and downloads?

They claim they need more statistical analysis to determine what the writers' fair share is for media distribution.

 

[Yogi_bear]

They claim they need more statistical analysis to determine what the writers' fair share is for media distribution.

The problem with that is they could just keep repeating the same excuse over and over again. If they were serious about getting the statistical information, they would set a date to get the numbers calculated. I think if they did say they would give a deadline, then that would help with the strike situation. Online media has been around long enough so that they should have been able to get numbers and the fact that writers do not get any compensation for DVD sales is just dumbfounding.

 

[Dan]

and the fact that writers do not get any compensation for DVD sales is just dumbfounding.

They get .3% of DVD sales. It's everything online they get no part of.

 

[Shinobi]

Polling

Be interesting to see how (if at all) these figures change over the next few weeks and months.

 

[super funk]

You know, I had also dreamed of entering the television prodcution business, but this strike just shows how unstable the job is unless youre a studio bigwig. Sounds like a fun job, but the way the industry is going, it must be a huge risk to try and enter (and stay) in the business, all while trying to live a decent life.

 

[Ripclawe]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/12/business/media/12strike.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

Screenwriters Seek Bigger Slice of Half-Eaten Pie
By MICHAEL CIEPLY

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 11 — As Hollywood digs in for a second week of a strike, the screenwriters might want to send a few angry picketers over to Will Smith’s place. Or Steven Spielberg’s.

And maybe the studio executives should think about joining them on the line. As it turns out, the pot of money that the producers and writers are fighting over may have already been pocketed by the entertainment industry’s biggest talent.

That is the conclusion of a surprisingly bleak new assessment of financial dynamics in the movie industry titled “Do Movies Make Money?” The researchers’ answer: not any more.

The report, prepared by the research company Global Media Intelligence in association with its partner Merrill Lynch, concludes that much of the income — past and future — that studios and writers have been fighting about has already gone to the biggest stars, directors and producers in the form of ballooning participation deals. A participation is a share in the gross revenue, not the profit, of a movie.