Hollywood studios, streamers mull terminating deals with writers, Variety says

Big Hollywood studios and streaming platforms are weighing dropping some of their first look and overall deals with writers as soon as August 1, Variety’s Matt Donnelly, Joe Otterson, Michael Schneider, and Gene Maddaus report, citing more than half a dozen sources with knowledge of the term agreements and talks inside these companies. Such agreements would be torn up under contractual force majeure clauses, as the actors’ and writers’ unions continue to strike, the authors note. Decision makers could begin terminating such deals as soon as next week, the authors say. Publicly traded studio owners and content producers include Netflix (NFLX), Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Comcast (CMCSA), Disney (DIS), Lionsgate (LGF.A), Sony (SONY), Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) and Paramount (PARA).