Netflix Must Pay $42 Million to Writers in Unpaid Residuals After ‘Bird Box’ Arbitration Ruling
thewrap.com“Netflix argued the WGA should accept a substandard formula the company negotiated with DGA and SAG-AFTRA. After a hearing, however, an arbitrator determined differently: that the license fee should have been greater than the gross budget of the film,” read the WGA West memo from president Meredith Stiehm and other leaders.
As a result, the arbitrator ordered Netflix to pay “Bird Box” screenwriter Eric Heisserer $850,000 in residuals along with $350,000 in interest for a total of $1.2 million.
Because the arbitrator ruled that writers on original Netflix productions should be paid on the same level as the licensing fees the streamer pays for third-party titles, the decision is also being applied to 139 other original Netflix films, meaning that 216 writers for those films will receive $42 million in unpaid residuals, with Netflix still pursuing an additional $13.5 million in interest payments.
In total, the affected writers will receive $64 million in residuals, which the Guild says is $20 million more than what they would have received had they agreed to be compensated under the pattern formula negotiated by SAG-AFTRA and the Directors Guild.
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