The actors’ union and Hollywood studios reach a deal, ending SAG’s longest strike
118 days later… SAG-AFTRA struck a tentative deal with Hollywood’s biggest studios, ending the longest movie and television strike in its history. On Wednesday, the actors’ union said it had voted to approve the latest offer from studios including Paramount, Universal, Netflix, and Disney after talks halted in July. The agreement comes more than a month after the Writers Guild signed its new contract with studios, closing out its own protracted strike.
New lines: Full details of the deal haven’t been disclosed, but actors had been asking for better wages, stronger benefits, and clearer guidelines around AI use for TV and film productions.
Same stage: Once finalized, the deal will allow America’s $134B TV and movie industry to roll back into action. But it may be a while before audiences see it.
Hollywood strikes back… kind of. Over six months, the Tinseltown strikes cost Southern California’s economy over $6.5B and led to the loss of 45K jobs. Writers went back to work on September 27, leading to the return of popular late-night talk shows and "Saturday Night Live." But hit shows like “Yellowstone,” “Last of Us,” and “Euphoria” — along with highly anticipated flicks like “Dune: Part Two” and “Avatar 3” — have faced delays.
Getting back in character takes time… Now that actors are returning, studios’ll be scrambling to get their production pipelines up and running. It could take a while to return to full star power: this week, Warner Bros. reported bigger-than-expected Q3 losses, partly because of the strikes (on Wednesday the stock had its worst day in over two years). And Sony cut its movie division’s annual operating profit forecast because of the actors’ strike. AMC’s CEO said the strikes would continue to have “collateral damage” on the industry.