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It’s officially official: The Writers Guild of America has agreed to a tentative new four-year contract with the studios and streamers, said the Greg Hessinger-led Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the guild tonight. The shocker deal, which was on very few people’s Holy Week and/or Passover bingo card, could prove transformative for how Hollywood labor works, literally and figuratively.
“The AMPTP has reached a tentative agreement with the WGA,” a spokesperson for the group said tonight. “We look forward to building on this progress as we continue working toward agreements that support long-term industry stability.”
Mum on the how long the deal will run for (which could be a hard sell to members), the WGA went online to make it seal the deal publicly.
“Today, the WGA Negotiating Committee unanimously approved a tentative agreement with the AMPTP for the 2026 Minimum Basic Agreement (MBA) for a four-year term,” the guild said in a memo to members on Saturday. “Crucially, it protects our health plan and puts it on a sustainable path, with increased company contributions across many areas and long-needed increases to health contribution caps. The new contract also builds on gains from 2023 and helps address free work challenges.”
The guild reiterated that messaging in a social media post, which is embedded below.
As we reported earlier on Saturday, the agreement between the AMPTP and the WGA, fronted by chief negotiator Ellen Stutzman, is one year longer than usual. That extended contact has proved a major initiative for the AMPTP with all the Guilds this year — as Deadline exclusively reported back in December.
Though it took hours and hours today for the official news to come out, the deal also includes a big infusion of cash (AKA millions and millions of $$$) into the guild’s long troubled health and pension funds, we hear, as the writers’ union indicated in their statement Saturday.
The tentative agreement will have to go before the scribes’ rank-and-file membership for a vote to win approval. That process could take several weeks.
Considering that the WGA was on strike for a historic 148-days in 2023, there was not an expectation that the writers would lead the above-the-line entertainment unions in coming to an agreement — but clearly, miracles happen, this week and others.
Deadline dug into the less contentious mood at the bargaining table this year, which a labor source tells us was due in large part to a desire for “a reset in the relationship” from both parties. Particularly, the AMPTP’s new boss Hessinger was looking to cool things off and approach the union with a different tone than his predecessor.
It remains to be seen how this will affect SAG-AFTRA and DGA talks. The actors are expected to restart negotiations in June, but there’s a chance they pick things up earlier since the directors are not scheduled to bargain until May. Both current contracts expire on June 30.
To that the Christopher Nolan-led DGA praised the WGA tonight, as it prepared for a negotiation odyssey of its own. “The DGA congratulates the WGA on reaching a tentative agreement with the AMPTP that recognizes the value of their members’ work and helps them build sustainable careers,” the helmers’ union said online Saturday night. Echoing the thoughts of many around town this weekend, the DGA added: “We look forward to reviewing the details as they become available.”
https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/WGA-AMPTP-Deal-1.jpg?w=1024
https://deadline.com/2026/04/wga-deal-amptp-studios-health-plan-1236779810/
Katie Campione
Almontather Rassoul
