First-Look Deals: How Much, Who's Getting Them and Why

Lawyers and execs on the new tricky replacement for overalls. Says one: 'They're the worst of all worlds'

(Photo illustration by The Ankler)

If there’s one overarching narrative in Hollywood right now, it’s that there’s been a significant scaling back in content production. Yet despite all the talk, studios and streamers have made a multitude of splashy first-look deals this year with both actors and behind-the-camera talent. 

A select curated list:

Warner Bros.: Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap; Timothée Chalamet; Evil Dead Rise director Lee Cronin (New Line)

Paramount: Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort; megaproducer Neal Moritz; Pet Sematary: Bloodline writer-director Lindsey Anderson Beer; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem director Jeff Rowe (Paramount Animation)

Amazon MGM Studios: Jake Gyllenhaal’s Nine Stories; Tessa Thompson’s Viva Maude; Ryan Gosling’s newly launched General Admission banner 

Universal: Seth Rogen's Point Grey Pictures 

Sony Pictures: Wednesday creators Alfred Gough & Miles Millar

Lionsgate: John Wick franchise helmer Chad Stahelski at Lionsgate

Fremantle: Rachel Weisz’s Astral Projection

Netflix: Prolific multihyphenate Tyler Perry expanded his deal.

When I did a deep dive into the landscape for overall deals earlier this month, several agents mentioned that first-looks are becoming increasingly attractive for talent. They’re not exclusive — less golden handcuff-y is the technical term being thrown around — so if your home studio isn’t on the same page with a particular creative project, you can take it to market and see if anyone else bites. Maybe a first look is missing a zero (or two) from what that overall check would have been, but it’s still a quick influx of cash up front.

A studio exec is quick to tell me that although the first-look market is currently hot, currently is the operative word. “In the moment, there’s actually an acceleration because of the recognition of the fact that it’s talent that drives the process,” the exec says. “It’s just simple economics: You’re paying a couple million bucks for the opportunity to make hundreds of millions of dollars. Everybody is still in that business.” Yet at the same time this person warns, “Soon there will probably be a contraction.”

So it’s not as simple as it seems. Ask talent lawyers and they’ll hesitate to say it’s any busier than usual. In fact, they might just throw a wet blanket over the whole thing and say that they’re already seeing a slowdown in these pacts similar to what we’ve seen with overall deals.

“Post-strike and post-Covid, those deals are much less numerous than they were before,” says one prominent talent lawyer rather definitively. “I had deals on the television side where, even with a tremendous development slate” — multiple shows moving forward, and yet “they did not extend,” this attorney says. “The landscape has become very exciting for huge marquee people who are making incredible deals. For everyone else, whether you’re an actor, writer, director or producer, pay rates are going down and down.”

So . . . who can still land a big payday? For whom is it the best time “in human history” to be a storyteller? 

I spoke with dealmakers and execs to learn: 

• The pros and cons of first-look pacts 

• What’s really driving those starry studio announcements

• What studios look for in an actor or writer’s production company

• When these deals make sense for talent — and when they don’t

• The magic number lawyers want for clients in a first-look

• The first-look offer where they might as well walk away

• Why some dealmakers loathe first-looks

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