What the 2023 Hollywood Strikes Put Into Writing

On May 2, 2023, film and television writers stopped working. On July 14 the actors joined them — the first dual strike since 1960 — and most U.S. scripted production shut down. Streaming had rebuilt the business on shorter seasons and thinner residuals; viewership was a trade secret; and AI raised the possibility of studios training on writers’ scripts and scanning actors’ faces.

What ended the strikes was not a handshake on principles. It was contract language — definitions, thresholds, and payment triggers — negotiated line by line through the studios’ bargaining alliance, the AMPTP.

Two strikes, two calendars

The writers held out 148 days. A tentative deal came on September 24, the strike ended on September 27, and members ratified the contract on October 9 — 99 percent of the 8,525 ballots cast. The guild valued the deal at $233 million a year, with minimums rising 5, 4, and 3.5 percent.

The actors struck for 118 days. Their deal came on November 8, work resumed the next day, and members ratified it on December 5 by 78.33 percent. SAG-AFTRA valued its package above $1 billion; minimums rise 7 percent in year one (11 for background performers), then 4 and 3.5 percent.

What the writers won on AI

The Writers Guild’s agreement begins with a definition: AI is not a writer, and nothing it generates counts as literary material. AI-generated material handed to a writer cannot count as source material for credit or as assigned material for pay — a writer asked to rework an AI draft is treated as the screenplay’s first writer, not a cheaper rewrite hire. Companies must disclose AI-generated material given to a writer. A writer may use AI tools with the company’s consent; the company cannot require it.

One question was left open on purpose: whether companies may train AI on covered scripts. The guild proposed a ban; instead it reserved the right to assert that such training is prohibited — a fight deferred, not settled.

Streaming money, with the numbers attached

Streaming residuals used to arrive unverifiable. The writers’ contract attacks that in two places: transparency, and a bonus for hits. On transparency, the companies must give the guild the total hours streamed, domestically and internationally, for high-budget streaming programs, reported quarterly from 2024. The data is confidential, shareable only in aggregate — but the union can finally see the denominator behind the checks.

A title watched by at least 20 percent of a service’s domestic subscribers in its first 90 days earns its writers a bonus of 50 percent of the fixed residual: $9,031 for a half-hour episode, $16,415 for an hour-long one, $40,500 for a streaming feature over $30 million. Foreign residuals were rebuilt rather than raised: they now scale with a service’s subscriber count abroad, and on the largest services the first-year foreign residual for an hour-long episode rose 76 percent, from $7,006 to $12,311.

Rooms with minimums

A development (“mini”) room, convened before a series is ordered, must employ at least three writer-producers, each guaranteed at least 10 weeks. Once ordered, the minimum room is three writers for up to six episodes, five for seven to twelve, six for thirteen or more, guaranteed 20 weeks or the room’s life if shorter. Staff writers now draw script fees on top of weekly pay — the room’s most junior member no longer writes for the weekly rate alone.

The actors’ contract: consent, in so many words

SAG-AFTRA’s AI fight was about the body rather than the page. Its agreement requires informed consent and compensation for digital replicas of performers, living and deceased — two kinds: replicas made with a performer’s participation on a job, and replicas built out of existing material without them. The intended use must be described with reasonable specificity, and consent for one project does not extend to another. A replica used in place of a performer’s work carries pay for the days they would have worked, plus residuals in most cases; even wholly synthetic performers, based on no real person, require notice to the union and bargaining.

The actors adopted the success principle too: a streaming participation bonus of about $40 million a year by the union’s estimate, paid on titles clearing the same 20-percent bar — 75 percent to the performers on those titles, 25 percent to a joint union-studio fund for performers on titles that stream without becoming hits.

An organized no campaign argued the AI terms still pressure performers: consent to be scanned, or watch the job go to someone who will. The yes vote locked the deal in; it did not close that argument.

The bill for five months of stillness

Reuters reported preliminary estimates of more than $6 billion in lost wages and business damage across California and other production states; the Associated Press, citing a Milken Institute estimate, put California’s lost output alone above $6 billion. Much of it landed on crew members, caterers, and prop houses, and finished films sat unpromoted — Dune: Part Two was pushed back because striking actors could not publicize it. Production restarted in November, into an industry already past “peak TV.”

Analysis: why the fine print outlasts the picket signs

Analysis. The durable move of 2023 was definitional. The contracts specify what counts as literary material, what counts as a view, what counts as consent — and definitions are where the next negotiation starts. Both agreements run only to 2026, and the guild’s 2026 round has already strengthened those AI protections and raised the viewership bonus — the 2023 text worked less as a settlement than as scaffolding.

Training was reserved, not resolved. The viewership data still flows only to the guilds, under confidentiality. Consent is signed by people who need the job. Nothing self-executes, either: the writers’ bonus carries a third-party auditor for disputes. A contract of this kind is not the end of a conflict; it is the conflict given an address — clauses to invoke, audit, and, in the next round, rewrite.

Sources & further reading

1. Writers Guild of America, 2023 MBA Contract Changes FAQ
2. Writers Guild of America, A History of WGA Contract Negotiations and Gains
3. SAG-AFTRA, Members Ratify TV/Theatrical, TV Animation Agreements
4. The Hollywood Reporter, Writers Guild Agreement Reveals Details of Tentative Deal With Studios on AI, Data Transparency, Mini Rooms (republished)
5. Reuters, Hollywood strikes sap economy as industry readies for revamp (syndicated)
6. TheWrap, SAG-AFTRA Members Ratify New Contract With 78% in Favor