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Agence France-Presse

Hollywood actors overwhelmingly ratified a new, hard-fought deal with studios on Tuesday that paves the way for a rebound of an entertainment industry that had seen film and television production come to a halt during a months-long strike.
The Screen Actors Guild, known as SAG-AFTRA, said 78 per cent of members who voted approved the multi-year contract.
“This is a golden age for SAG-AFTRA, and our union has never been more powerful,” union president Fran Drescher said in a statement.
The deal includes more than US$1 billion in new compensation and benefits as well as protections for actors from the use of artificial intelligence by studios, the union said.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents Netflix Inc, Walt Disney and other studios, hailed the union contract ratification.
“With this vote, the industry and the jobs it supports will be able to return in full force,” the AMPTP said in a statement.
Voting ended at 5pm on the US West Coast, with a simple majority of members required to finally seal the agreement.
The union said 38 per cent of its members cast votes.
The tentative deal between SAG-AFTRA and Hollywood studios to end the actors’ 118-day strike was agreed last month, and actors had gone back to work before the ratification vote.
The proposed contract contained higher pay, better bonuses for starring in hit shows or films, and the first-ever protections against the use of artificial intelligence to replace human actors.

It was ratified by the union’s leadership two days later, though not unanimously.
Union leaders have since held meetings and sent out emails and social media posts to members, strongly urging them to approve the deal.
“Today is the day,” said SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, before the release of the voting results.
“This is a big US$1 billion deal with a lot of really important gains in areas like AI, minimums, streaming money,” he said. “It’s a deal that I’m really proud of.”
Melissa Barrera, Susan Sarandon dropped by Hollywood firms after Gaza comments
The vote outcome was not assured, and as details of the agreement emerged in recent weeks, warnings began to circulate online about its shortcomings, particularly over the issue of AI.
Performers feared they could soon be replaced by entirely synthetic “actors”, generated by AI using the body parts of many different humans, whose likenesses have been scraped from film archives.
The deal does not prevent studios from using generative AI, but it has a clause requiring them to inform the union each time the technology is used.
SAG-AFTRA would then have the right to bargain for compensation on behalf of the actors involved – though critics say it would be hard to identify who they are.
Actors also say that the massive number of viewers a show or film needs to attract to trigger bonuses for its performers is too high for all but the very top echelon of hit shows.


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Hollywood

Hollywood actors ratify contract to formally end strike

Hollywood’s dual strikes had shut down production of movies and TV series. File photo: Shutterstock


SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, with other members on a picket line in Burbank, California, in October. File photo: AFP

Hollywood writers reach tentative deal with studios to end strike

Hollywood’s dual strikes had shut down production of movies and TV series and sent late-night talk shows into re-runs. File photo: Shutterstock

Striking writers in front of Paramount Pictures studio in Los Angeles. File photo: AP

Disney CEO Bob Iger, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos and Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav. Photo: AP

Amid Hollywood strikes, South Korean actors in Netflix K-dramas push for better pay – and residual fees like their US counterparts enjoy

Despite the success of K-dramas like “Squid Game”, Netflix does not pay its South Korean actors residuals – and the country’s actors’ union wants that to change, and supporting actors to be paid better. Photo: Netflix

A still from “Black Knight”, a South Korean sci-fi series on Netflix. Digital twins of the main cast members were scanned for use in action scenes, but on the whole AI does not currently threaten the livelihoods of Korean actors. Photo: Netflix

Brian Cox (right) as Logan Roy in a still from HBO’s “Succession”. A-list Korean actors are thought to be earning more than US$400,000 per episode in the streaming era, on par with the cast of “Succession”. Photo: HBO Go

A still from “Physical 100”. Photo: Netflix

Hollywood strikes postpone Emmys awards to January

Emmy Award statues. Television’s equivalent of the Oscars will be postponed until January over Hollywood strikes. Photo: TNS

The 71st Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles. The strike-delayed 75th Emmy Awards will air January 15. Photo: AP

Jeremy Strong, left, Sarah Snook and Kieran Culkin in HBO’s Succession. Photo: HBO/TNS

Hollywood shuts down as actors join writers in historic strike

Members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists are prepared to join already striking screenwriters if needed. Photo: Reuters

SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher. Photo: AFP

The Oppenheimer cast left the movie’s London premiere before the screening began. Photo: TNS

Hollywood heavyweights lead strike rally of actors and writers in Times Square

Actor Bryan Cranston with Screen Actors Guild members and supporters during a rally in Times Square in New York. Photo: Bloomberg 

SAG-AFTRA members and their allies rally in Times Square in New York. Photo: Bloomberg

Actors, Brendan Fraser, from left, Christine Baranski and F. Murray Abraham. Photo: Bloomberg

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SAG-AFTRA actors ratify three-year contract, formally ending six months of Hollywood labour dispute
Contract provides for pay rises and streaming bonuses, includes guardrails around use of AI in filmmaking


Deal paves the way for a rebound of an entertainment industry that had seen film and television production come to a halt during a months-long strike.


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