SAG-AFTRA members voted to ratify the three-year, $1 billion-valued contract with studios this week, officially ending the longest labor battle in the guild’s history. Of the 38% of members who turned out to vote, about 78% approved the deal, while some remained opposed to its terms on AI.
Was 78% “good enough”?
Matt Belloni says that’s about what was expected: “I thought it would be between 75%-85%. [It was] slightly lower than you might have seen if this were an agreement that did not have some pretty well organized opposition to it. But when push comes to shove, actors wanted to work, and 78% of them said, ‘This is good enough.’”
So what’s next for Hollywood? Actors back at promoting their films; current financial situation is driving streamers to license other studios' content; and studios are bundling up, with Disney+ adding Hulu as a tile to its service, and Verizon offering Netflix and Max together for $10 to entice new subscribers. Matt Belloni and Kim Masters take a journey to explore entertainment’s post-strike frontier.
*Kim Masters is a SAG-AFTRA member in a different unit, and as a reporter, she didn’t vote on this deal.