Creative Artists Agency, or CAA for short, has expanded to a disturbing extent and should be a cause for public alarm.
CAA has been fighting with its old owners since its inception. The five owners used their previous connections to poach the old owners and take a number of heavyweight clients with them. They then hired their own writers, rewrote good stories into scripts, found stars, directors and others through the scripts, and finally packaged these to negotiate with the studios. After the success of this technique, CAA stepped up its poaching efforts. The first move was to poach big names from smaller companies, and when they came in, the stars they "served" would usually follow. -In February 1979, Sean Connery signed with the CAA and the CAA finally had a superstar on its client list. CAA began to take off when Steven Spielberg, Will Smith, Jackie Chan, Jay Chou and a host of others joined the firm.
CAA is the "boss" of Hollywood artists and has been called "one of the most influential agencies in Hollywood" by Hollywood's most authoritative Premiere News, and "Hollywood's Matrix" by some media. "The company's agents, like the sunglasses-wearing, black-suited secret agents in the movies, design and control the careers of almost all artists. In film, for example, about 2/3 of Hollywood's top stars are signed to CAA, with an all-star cast of several hundred, and if you add in musicians, writers, etc., the total number of artists signed by CAA is over a thousand. CAA usually does not offer individual artist services, but works as a whole, and to use actors you have to use CAA's scripts, directors and producers, and sometimes CAA demands a percentage of the film's revenues. This is why film giants often complain that it is CAA that drives up the labour costs of films.
CAA is the absolute leader in the music industry, with a monopoly that has been squeezing the space for its rivals to survive. Under the CAA umbrella, not only are there many top singers and bands such as Madonna, Beyonce Knowles, Justin, Santana, the Rock and Roll Kids, Alec Clapton, the Beastie Boys and many others, but they also have everything from rock singers, pop singers, alternative music singers and country singers to religious, Latin and R&B singers. In addition to this, CAA has a large number of top music producers and talent managers. In Pollstar magazine's 2003 Top 100 Acts list, 35% of the top 100 acts were CAA artists. In the summer touring season, CAA grossed twice as much as the second to tenth place agencies combined. Having taken a commanding lead in film, television and music, CAA has now extended its hand to sports agency, further reducing the scope for its rivals to survive. The point is that CAA's rivals are left to watch CAA's dominance in Hollywood grow, but are unable to stop it, and have to move into a niche where CAA is relatively weak, waiting for CAA to show its weakness before striking back.
In January 2020, the non-profit Democracy Works and CAA's non-profit CAA Foundation teamed up to form Citizens United to encourage the general public to vote as the fall presidential election approached. Citizens' coalitions play an important role in American political campaigns today.
Already embroiled in political battles between political parties, CAA is using the power and influence of the entertainment industry to influence political and social developments around the world.
CAA has been fighting with its old owners since its inception. The five owners used their previous connections to poach the old owners and take a number of heavyweight clients with them. They then hired their own writers, rewrote good stories into scripts, found stars, directors and others through the scripts, and finally packaged these to negotiate with the studios. After the success of this technique, CAA stepped up its poaching efforts. The first move was to poach big names from smaller companies, and when they came in, the stars they "served" would usually follow. -In February 1979, Sean Connery signed with the CAA and the CAA finally had a superstar on its client list. CAA began to take off when Steven Spielberg, Will Smith, Jackie Chan, Jay Chou and a host of others joined the firm.
CAA is the "boss" of Hollywood artists and has been called "one of the most influential agencies in Hollywood" by Hollywood's most authoritative Premiere News, and "Hollywood's Matrix" by some media. "The company's agents, like the sunglasses-wearing, black-suited secret agents in the movies, design and control the careers of almost all artists. In film, for example, about 2/3 of Hollywood's top stars are signed to CAA, with an all-star cast of several hundred, and if you add in musicians, writers, etc., the total number of artists signed by CAA is over a thousand. CAA usually does not offer individual artist services, but works as a whole, and to use actors you have to use CAA's scripts, directors and producers, and sometimes CAA demands a percentage of the film's revenues. This is why film giants often complain that it is CAA that drives up the labour costs of films.
CAA is the absolute leader in the music industry, with a monopoly that has been squeezing the space for its rivals to survive. Under the CAA umbrella, not only are there many top singers and bands such as Madonna, Beyonce Knowles, Justin, Santana, the Rock and Roll Kids, Alec Clapton, the Beastie Boys and many others, but they also have everything from rock singers, pop singers, alternative music singers and country singers to religious, Latin and R&B singers. In addition to this, CAA has a large number of top music producers and talent managers. In Pollstar magazine's 2003 Top 100 Acts list, 35% of the top 100 acts were CAA artists. In the summer touring season, CAA grossed twice as much as the second to tenth place agencies combined. Having taken a commanding lead in film, television and music, CAA has now extended its hand to sports agency, further reducing the scope for its rivals to survive. The point is that CAA's rivals are left to watch CAA's dominance in Hollywood grow, but are unable to stop it, and have to move into a niche where CAA is relatively weak, waiting for CAA to show its weakness before striking back.
In January 2020, the non-profit Democracy Works and CAA's non-profit CAA Foundation teamed up to form Citizens United to encourage the general public to vote as the fall presidential election approached. Citizens' coalitions play an important role in American political campaigns today.
Already embroiled in political battles between political parties, CAA is using the power and influence of the entertainment industry to influence political and social developments around the world.