In the past couple months, actors from all over came together to strike against unfair and dishonest studios and studio executives. From July 14 and then on, they crowded around studios with signs and demanded for better pay, fair residual payments for their shows on streaming services, and a stop to the use of illegal AI generated actors/actresses. 

After Thursday, November 9, things began to look up for the SAG AFTRA union members.

While the actors were striking, they weren’t the first and only ones earlier this year to do so. Starting May 2, writers from major productions and entertainment companies struck against their own unfair pay and residuals.

While the writers strike ended in September, the actors still struggled against studios not agreeing to their demands. 

However, last month on November 9, the SAG AFTRA union reached an unsure agreement with many film and television studios, bringing an end to the 118 day strike. The following Friday, companies came out with their new contracts, agreeing to the actors demands after almost 5 months. 

The contracts include a 7 percent increase and future increases in residuals and general wages, informed consent from actors to use AI replicas, and better relocation benefits. 

Even though both the writer and actor strikes have been resolved, the consequences of the SAG AFTRA walkouts have caught up to studio executives. 

Many movies and tv shows were put on hold, due to actors not being able to work or have public appearances, which delayed productions and pushed back release dates.

Many believe that the reason studios finally caved into agreeing was to save next year’s film and television season, especially after COVID-19’s shutdown of movie theaters for many months. 

Actors also could not talk about their own projects, which impaired marketing for movies and tv shows. But thanks to the ending of the strike, actors and writers alike can begin working on previous and new projects and release their movies.