Hollywood actors’ strike ends

SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents actors, reached a tentative deal with entertainment companies that will end the longest strike in Hollywood history.

Margot Robbie on the SAG-AFTRA picket line.

And … action! SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents actors, has reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract with studios, heralding the end of the longest actors’ strike in Hollywood history.

SAG-AFTRA confirmed in a brief statement on Thursday that its negotiating committee had voted unanimously to approve a deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), who represents Walt Disney, Netflix, and other media companies.

The tentative deal will be passed on to the union’s national board on Friday for “review and consideration.”

The sticking points for the negotiations included protections for actors against artificial intelligence, increase in compensation for streaming shows and films, and better health care funding. The historic pay increase will see most minimums increased by 7%.

SAG-AFTRA, who represents some 160,000 actors, confirmed that the 118-day strike would officially end on 12:01 a.m. on Thursday (Eastern Standard Time).

Negotiations between studios and the actor’s union restarted on October 2, with studios delivering their “last, best and final” offer last Friday, November 3. Which included increases in minimum rates, protections against AI, and a success bonus for streaming TV.

Like the final days of the writers’ negotiations the talks, held at the union’s national headquarters in Los Angeles, were attended by Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, Disney CEO Bob Iger, and NBCUniversal Studio Group chairman and chief content officer Donna Langley.

The studios walked out on October 11 over SAG-AFTRA’s proposal to charge a per-subscriber fee, a move that Sarandos called “a bridge to far.”

The union has so far been reticent on the details of the agreement, which will likely emerge in the days prior to the union’s ratification vote.

In a statement on Thursday, the AMPTP said that the agreement “represents a new paradigm.”

“It gives SAG-AFTRA the biggest contract-on-contract gains in the history of the union,” it said. “AMPTP is pleased to have reached a tentative agreement and looks forward to the industry resuming the work of telling great stories.”

Hollywood was brought to a standstill in July after actors walked off the job and joined the writers, who had been striking since May, on picket lines. It was the first time since 1960 that actors and writers were both on strike.

Australian stars, such as Margot Robbie and Sarah Snook, joined the striking actors, with Robbie telling Sky News that she was “absolutely” supportive of the walkout. ““I’m very much in support of all the unions,” she said.

The Writers Guild of America, which represents 11,5000 screenwriters, reached a tentative agreement with studios on September 24 and ended its 148-day strike on September 27.

The strikes cost California more than $US6 billion ($9 billion) in lost output, according to a Milken Institute estimate.

While actors can technically return to work on Thursday, it has been predicted that production likely will not restart until January because of the the end-of-year holidays.