Big Win for Hollywood Actors: Streaming Platforms to Give Bonuses, New Rules for Movie Magic

Great news for actors! The SAG-AFTRA union, the group that helps actors, and big Hollywood studios made a deal. This deal means streaming services, like Netflix and Disney, will pay about $40 million every year as bonuses to actors. The deal, worth more than $1 billion, got the thumbs up from 86% of the SAG-AFTRA board. Now, the actors in the union will vote on this deal, and we'll know the result by early December.

What's the Deal About?

The president of SAG-AFTRA, Fran Drescher, said they got what they wanted. They convinced streaming services to share more money with actors. Even though the companies said no to some ideas before, like getting money for each person who watches a show, they agreed to pay extra bonuses now.

Fran Drescher said, "We opened a new way to get money. We found another pocket." In simple words, actors in popular shows get 75% of the $40 million, and the rest goes into a fund for actors in other shows on streaming platforms.

More Good Stuff in the Deal:

Besides the bonus money, actors will get more regular pay, and there are new rules about using computer magic in movies, like artificial intelligence (AI). Now, before using an actor's face to make a computer copy, the studio must ask for permission. If they use the computer copy in a big way, the actor gets paid more.

For actors who play in the background and might also have computer copies, the rules say they can't be used without permission. And if a computer makes a whole new actor, the studios must talk to the union and the actor whose face was used.

Ending the Strikes:

This deal comes after a long time of actors and writers stopping work to get better deals. The writers, called the Writers Guild of America (WGA), stopped working for 148 days. Then, the actors in SAG-AFTRA went on strike for 118 days. These strikes cost a lot of money – more than $6 billion – and now, finally, the actors and writers can get back to making movies and shows.

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