Negotiations between Hollywood’s actors’ union and studio alliance continued with an all-day meeting this week on Friday and plans to continue on Monday.
Despite production being largely shut down at all the major studios, industry insiders are optimistic that the current talks will produce an agreement rather quickly. The topic of residuals, which was tricky to resolve in the WGA’s negotiations with the AMPTP, is also a major sticking point for the SAG-AFTRA.
Actors are asking for additional compensation when a streaming series takes off, to the tune of 2% of overall profits for the series. While AMPTP negotiators are claiming that this is a non-starter, the studios did eventually agree to pay writers additional amounts on successful streaming series, making it likely that actors will wind up securing a similar package.
The actors are also said to be asking for wage increases and protections from the studios using AI to replace actors. Once the actors and studios can agree to terms, it will be a relief to everyone when the industry returns to business as usual.