Creative Artists Agency (CAA), for years has been most powerful agency in the world. The Agency was started 30 years ago when 5 of agents left the then-powerful William Morris Agency (WMA).
The original five agents - Mike Ovitz, Ron Meyer, Mike Rosenfeld, Bill Haber and Rowland Perkins - built it into the juggernaut that it is today, with securing so much talent that most people believe it is just about impossible to compete with them. One studio producer went so far as to say that "You've got to get along with CAA or you're dead, they play rough."
The CAA's closest rivals are WMA and International Creative Management (ICM), who have continuously lost ground to CAA's extraordinary competitive spirit and tremendous work ethic, along with them working as a team.
Some of the talent under their roof is Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks, George Clooney adn Steven Spielberg.
Another manager said "There's CAA and everyone else."
CAA has had the attitude of not giving up. When they couldn't convince the clients to join them, they would then go after the agents that in turn could go get them; and it worked.
Some are saying that the only way that other agencies will be able to compete is to consolidate like some the the studios have done recently.
The bad thing about this is that with weak competition, it has allowed CAA to almost name its price for its stars. But as one manager recently said "The bottom is falling out of the $20 million market." The reason for that is the profit margins are getting slimmer and slimmer and that market doesn't exist any more.
What this will do is make CAA more vulnerable as it has pushed the prices so high that now some of the high-end clients can't get hired, as the market isn't there anymore. You know what it's like when a representative comes back to you with the only option being a salary cut; someone's probably going to think about leaving.
The problem with the merger scene here is that at this time the people in power simply don't have the desire to relinquish the authority that they do have; so the process has slowed even more as a merger between UTA and Endeavor broke down this week those talks fizzled out in part because of clashing cultures at the two agencies.
Continual pressure at the box office and other entertainment venues will continually pressure these high-priced celebrities, and the result will force some of these agencies to make some moves. The shakeup should be very interesting to watch.
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