By Ana Susin As the biggest actors’ labor strike on American soil since 1980 continues into its 67th day and actors disclose absurdly low wages, our misconceptions about the lavish and glamorous lifestyles of actors are being challenged. The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) are in a labor dispute over working conditions and fair wages in the entertainment industry. SAG-AFTRA represents 166 000 media professionals, while AMPTP as a trade association negotiates for 350 American television and film production companies, such as Universal Pictures, Warner Bros, Netflix and Amazon Prime. Major points of contention were residuals, revenue sharing from streaming platforms, working conditions and allowance compensations. Residuals are payments actors receive when their work is aired after its original release, a significant source of income for actors whose work is being played on streaming platforms. After no compromise was reached in the negotiations, SAG-AFTRA announced a nation-wide strike for all their members and presented the AMPTP with a 9-page list of strike demands. Under strike rules, actors are withholding all services under TV/theatrical contracts. As of September 19, more than 70 productions have been delayed and the release date of almost 20 projects postponed. When we think of actors, we think of rich people like Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep, which might be challenging to reconcile with the reality of working-class people. The ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike thus raises the question of whether demands are justified or if the actors simply want money for the sake of it. Let’s briefly examine some of the proposals:
Major studio executives deemed the union’s demands as unrealistic and responded with adjustments of their own:
In response to the counter-demands, several actors shared their (residual) checks online to showcase low wages. While actors are paid for their set work upfront, it is often insufficient to cover lawyers, agents, and relocation expenses. In regard to residuals, they were not intended to bring millions of dollars but used to be a way to earn a living from DVDs in between projects. However, the rise of streaming platforms significantly changed this situation. Mandy Moore, a leading actor in This is Us, received 81 cents from streaming platforms. Actors from Orange is the New Black, a show that put Netflix on the map, had to keep full-time jobs despite the show bringing in massive profits to Netflix. Actor William Stanford David reported his wages haven’t increased in the past three decades despite inflation. Actors have also received negative checks, demanding to pay back the studios for their work. Often, this results in them spending more than they are earning. So, let’s summarize the whole situation. Actors are paid for their set work insufficiently to cover their living expenses while filming. Meal and relocation haven’t been adjusted for inflation for two decades. Minors under 14 do not receive pension contributions. After the movie or television show airs, residuals are so low they cannot qualify for SAG-AFTRA insurance, which requires an income of $26 000 a year. For context, premiums for SAG-AFTRA health insurance are less than half of the monthly premiums of an average Californian worker with employer-sponsored health insurance. Actors thus sometimes make less than an average working-class Californian.
The studios’ response to this has not been productive. An anonymous studio executive told Deadline they plan on continuing until union members start losing their apartments and homes. However, this may end up costing studios more than agreeing on the SAG-AFTRA demands. For example, Netflix’s annual revenue for 2022 was $31B. Analysis shows the financial losses AMPTP-covered companies face for not negotiating are much larger than the annual loss they would have had to sustain by complying to SAG-AFTRA demands. The estimated annual loss for demands would thus be $450 million for all the struck companies, only 10% of the revenue expected to be lost to the strike this year. As Netflix alone accounts for $31B yearly earnings, $450 million in the bigger picture does not seem like a lot. We associate actors with lavish lifestyles with mansions and cars, but in reality, the richest of the rich do not make up even 1% of all SAG-AFTRA members. Most actors are simply working-class people who live paycheck-to-paycheck, scraping cents together to sustain a living. So while we baked bread and binge-watched movies during the pandemic, while we procrastinate our coursework by watching just another episode of the Netflix newest trending show, the people that make it possible cash in negative checks, get rejected for health insurance and are losing their apartments and their homes. For further reference: Image source: https://deadline.com/2023/09/actors-strike-sag-aftra-rhetoric-tyrants-1235546907/ https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/hollywood-strike-wall-street-analysts-assess-losers-costs-1235535871/ https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/celebrity/striking-actors-are-sharing-low-residual-checks-social-media-make-poin-rcna96764 https://www.npr.org/2023/07/27/1190336979/actors-strike-residuals-sag-aftra-wga https://web.archive.org/web/20230714033021/https://www.vox.com/culture/2023/7/13/23793828/sag-aftra-strike-wga-hollywood https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/striking-actors-hangout-bar-tiny-residual-checks-no-longer-joke-2023-08-02/ https://www.buzzfeed.com/mychalthompson/sagaftra-actors-residuals https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/08/30/1196652142/hollywood-union-health-insurance-sag-aftra-wga https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/08/30/1196652142/hollywood-union-health-insurance-sag-aftra-wga https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2023/07/19/sag-aftra-strike-mandy-moore-residuals-actors/70431053007/ https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/actors-strike-hollywood-marvel-actress-streaming-residuals-14-cents-1234793994/ a
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May 2024
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