Hollywood agrees to end actors' strike

Hollywood actors and major studios reached a agreement to end the strike that has paralyzed film and series production in the United States for many months and has cost the American economy billions, the actors' union SAG-AFTRA announced.

The strike will end on Thursday, thanks to the achievement of a new three-year collective agreement for the actors, whose value is “estimated at more than a billion dollars,” the organization explained in a press release.

The union will publish the details of the agreement in a few days, but assures that it is “extraordinarily far-reaching.” It notably includes a significant increase in minimum wages, safeguards on artificial intelligence, and establishes “for the first time” a bonus system for streaming reruns.

For big stars and extras to return to the set and allow filming to resume, the 160,000 actors, dancers and other stuntmen who are members of SAG-AFTRA must still approve their new collective bargaining agreement by a vote. A step largely seen as a formality.

Hollywood's biggest names celebrated the end of the strike. “Perseverance pays off!” Jamie Lee Curtis exclaimed on Instagram.

“I'm very happy that we all came to an agreement,” Zac Efron said from the red carpet at the premiere of the film “Iron Claw.” “Let's get back to work, let's do it, I'm so happy.”

Negotiations with management have been taking place almost daily for the past two weeks, often with the CEOs of Disney, Netflix, Warner Bros., and Universal in person.

Because the need to end this labor unrest was becoming urgent. Aside from a minority of celebrities, most of the actors without a filming schedule were finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. Some have fallen back on other jobs.

The studios, for their part, were accusing gaping holes in their release schedules for next year and beyond, with the postponement of major productions, such as the second part of the “Dune” saga or the series “Stranger Things”.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represented them in the negotiations, called the agreement a “new paradigm” for the sector. The employers' organization “looks forward to the industry getting back to work telling great stories”, it explained in a press release.

The sector has just gone through a historic double social movement: when the actors went on strike in mid-July, the scriptwriters had already stopped working since the beginning of May. Hollywood has not experienced such a crisis since 1960.

In total, the paralysis of the sector in recent months has cost at least six billion dollars, according to recent estimates by economists.

Relieved, the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, hailed a “fair agreement”, recalling that the strike had affected “millions of people” in the country.

Actors and screenwriters shared one observation: apart from star actors and star “showrunners”, most of them were no longer able to earn a decent living in the era of streaming.

Not only because the platforms produce series with much less episodes per season than on television, but also because Netflix and its ilk have drastically reduced the revenues from each rebroadcast of films and series.

Unlike television, where a repeat can be paid for through the advertising model linked to audience figures, a work broadcast via streaming was subject to a flat rate payment, regardless of the popularity of the program.

The studios finally reached an agreement with the writers in late September and most of them have since returned to work. But negotiations with the actors have dragged on.

According to trade press reports, the compromise results in an increase in the minimum wage of around 8% compared to the previous three-year agreement, the largest increase in decades, although below the actors' initial demands.

On the streaming side, a bonus system for actors starring in successful series or films will be put in place.

The supervision of artificial intelligence was another major point of tension, particularly in the final stretch of negotiations.

The actors feared that studios would use this technology to clone their voice and image, in order to reuse them in perpetuity, without compensation or consent.

In recent days, the two parties have notably fought over the conditions surrounding the rights of studios to the image of star actors after their death.

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