The SAG-AFTRA strike is over as actors and studios reach new three-year deal

It’s official! After 118 days, the SAG-AFTRA strike is over. The actors guild has reached a tentative agreement with studios for a new three-year contract.

The SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical Committee approved the agreement in a unanimous vote on Wednesday, with the strike set to officially end at 12:01 a.m. Thursday. The next step is to take the agreement to the SAG-AFTRA national board for approval on Friday, after which we can expect to hear the full details of the new deal. Eligible members of the actors guild will then vote to ratify the new agreement, which could take at least a week or more, but as the strike has been called off, actors will be able to return to work on Thursday.

The studios delivered what they called their “last, best, and final offer” just days ago. “We received an offer today from the AMPTP, which they characterized as their ‘Last, Best, and Final Offer,’” read a statement from SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee. “We are reviewing it and considering our response within the context of the critical issues addressed in our proposals.“

While specifics haven’t been announced yet, we do know that the deal will see most minimums increase by 7%, which is two percent more than the deals received by the WGA and DGA. The main sticking point of the deal revolved around protections for actors against artificial intelligence, so I think most people will be very interested to see what was agreed to with that issue.

The SAG-AFTRA strike, along with the WGA strike, resulted in nearly all Hollywood productions shutting down and studios frequently pushing the release dates of their movies. Now that it’s over, I’m sure there are a lot of people who are anxious to get back to work, particularly with what is hopefully a lucrative new deal behind them. Plenty of major movies, such as Deadpool 3 and Mission: Impossible 8, were in the middle of production when the strikes hit, so we can expect those movies to get back in action just as soon as possible.

The strikes certainly brought some ugliness to the surface, but it’s exciting to think that movies will be roaring back to life very soon.