After more than 100 days and two rounds of negotiations, SAG-AFTRA and Hollywood's studios have finally reached a tentative deal to end the actors' strike.
In a statement on Wednesday, SAG-AFTRA announced the strike would officially end at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, with the guild's negotiating committee voting unanimously to approve the deal. The deal will now go to SAG-AFTRA's national board for approval on Friday, but in the meantime, members of the guild are free to return to work.
It's an announcement that's been wildly anticipated, to say the least, with SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP, which represents Hollywood's studios, meeting continuously over the last few weeks. Most recently, in a statement late on Tuesday night, SAG-AFTRA said they had spent 10 hours deliberating that day, ironing out some of the key measures like articial intelligence.
At 118 days, it marks the end of the longest strike in SAG-AFTRA's history, surpassing 1980 strike which lasted 95 days.
Back in Business
The news comes after the Writers Guild of America (WGA) ended their strike back in September after 148 days on the picket lines. While this meant that the work of writing and development could continue, filming that requires actors to head to the sets (which is, obviously, most of it) could not, leaving much of Hollywood still on hold.
Countless big movies, including recently the eighth Mission: Impossible film, had delayed their release dates. Others, like Deadpool 3, are still in danger of missing their previously announced dates.
This marked the two parties' second attempt to come to the table, as their first round of negotiations broke down on Oct. 12. At the time, a joint statement said that the gap between the negotiating commitees was "too great, and conversations are no longer moving us in a productive direction.”
SAG-AFTRA said in a separate statement that the AMPTP had walked away from talks "after refusing to counter our latest offer." At issue, according to Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, was a proposed revenue sharing model that would see 2% of streaming platforms' subscription revenue allocated to SAG-AFTRA; the actors' guild, however, said they dropped that share down to 1% after hearing the AMPTP's concerns, and that the studios had still refused to counter on several other key measures.
AI reportedly remained a big sticking point in negotiations over the past few days, with SAG-AFTRA highlighting the issue in their own statements.
While we still don't yet know the details of the deal reached, some of the other key areas that SAG-AFTRA was looking to address were an updated compensation structure to accomodate the rise of streaming and higher caps on pension and health care contributions, in addition to AI protections.
Thumbnail credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she's not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
