The production crews on Disney’s Star Wars streaming shows are paid more than their counterparts working on the franchise’s movies according to new research.
It stands in stark contrast to the fortunes of Hollywood’s actors, who are currently striking in protest of a reduction in their earnings driven by the migration to streaming over the past few years.
In July the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) downed their tools, following a strike by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) that had been in progress since May 2.
It marked the first time that both parties have been on strike since 1960 and after more than 100 days there is still deadlock. Testimony to this, on Wednesday the WGA sharply rebuked the latest offer made by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).
Although both groups have different demands, one area of common ground concerns what are known as residuals. They are essentially royalties paid to actors and writers for reruns of films and television shows that they worked on as well as other airings after the initial release. The basic remuneration structure was developed in the aftermath of the 1960 strike and it has since been applied to successive forms of media.
Actors and writers are typically paid each time a show runs on network or cable television and, likewise, they also receive residuals when someone buys a Blu-ray disc or DVD just as they did when VHS tapes were sold. However, the advent of streaming cast a dark spell on this structure as subscribers usually pay a monthly or annual fee and get access to a studio’s entire library, including any new content it releases during their subscription period.
As subscribers to streaming platforms are not paying per movie or show, the residuals have crashed. SAG-AFTRA proposed that its members should receive a cut of subscriber revenues “generated when their performances are exhibited on streaming platforms.” However, the AMPTP flatly rejected this.
The strikes have shone a spotlight on the plight of WGA and SAG-AFTRA members with even big name stars revealing how streaming has affected them.
Guardians of the Galaxy actor Sean Gunn joined the picket lines and said that he receives “almost none” of the revenue from the Gilmore Girls despite starring in all seven seasons of the show as well as the 2016 Netflix
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Another striker is Tatiana Maslany who plays the eponymous heroine of Disney’s superhero streaming series She-Hulk: Attorney At Law.
Responding to comments from Disney’s chief executive Bob Iger, who called the strike “very disturbing,” Maslany said “he’s completely out of touch with the workers who make his shows happen.” She added that “it’s outrageous the amount of wealth that is not shared with the people who actually make the show.”
It is no exaggeration as Cody Ziglar, who wrote an episode of She-Hulk, revealed that his residuals for it came to just $396. It’s hardly a dream ticket but it’s a different story for most of the production crew.
Paychecks of crew members who work on streaming shows or movies for the silver screen are usually confidential as studios combine the cost of them in their overall personnel expenses and don’t itemise how much they spent on each production.
Movies and shows made in the United Kingdom are exceptions. They benefit from the UK government’s tax relief schemes which allow studios to claim a cash reimbursement of up to 25% of the money they spend there.
To qualify, shows must pass a points test based on factors such as how much filming was done in the UK, the level of UK content and how much they promote UK heritage. Furthermore, at least 10% of the core costs of the production need to relate to activities in the UK and in order to demonstrate this to the government, studios set up separate companies there for each production.
These companies have to file publicly-available financial statements showing everything from the staff numbers and salaries to the total cost of the production and the amount of their cash reimbursement.
The UK government’s regulations state that each company must be “responsible for pre-production, principal photography and post-production.” Accordingly, there is no doubt that their financial statements show all of the costs of each picture. It isn’t even possible for studios to hide costs in other companies as the law also states that there can only be one company in relation to each production.
In short, the staff costs shown on the financial statements are indisputable. They don’t show payments to freelancers, self-employed workers or agencies but they are obliged to show the headcount and salary of everyone on the payroll.
Handily, one of Disney’s biggest franchises was shot entirely in the UK. Not only were its five Star Wars movies made in the UK, but so were two of its streaming shows. Analysis of more than 35 sets of financial statements reveals that the sci-fi saga is a force to be reckoned with for members of the production crew on the streaming shows.
The spending on staff peaked on the upcoming Star Wars spinoff series The Acolyte. Over the 18 months to September 24, 2022 it spent a total of $5.8 million (£4.6 million) on 62 production staff giving an average of $92,828 (£73,702) per person.
Remarkably, this is more than double the $37,382 (£29,680) spending per person on 2019’s The Rise Of Skywalker which had the lowest pay.
The second-highest spending per person came to $61,837 (£49,096) for Andor, another streaming series. It debuted in September last year and the filings show that in the 2021/2022 period, women occupied 26.2% of the highest paid jobs and 51.5% of the lowest paid jobs on the crew.
The two streaming series alone pushed the average spending per person across all seven Star Wars productions to $53,145 (£42,195) which is 26.3% higher than the average annual salary in the UK.
As the table below shows, the Star Wars movie with the highest pay was 2015’s The Force Awakens which came to an average of $52,796 (£41,918).
The Force Awakens rebooted the Star Wars saga following Disney’s $4 billion acquisition of its parent company Lucasfilm in 2012. Four sequels and spinoff movies followed and the pay progressively decreased.
The sole exception is 2018 spinoff movie Solo which was “in excess of the budget” according to its financial statements. There was good reason for this.
Solo was originally directed by Philip Lord and Christopher Miller, the Oscar-winning duo behind the Spider-Verse series. However, they were replaced with Ron Howard who reportedly re-shot 85% of the material that had already been filmed.
The reshoots were done during the 9 months to November 11, 2017 and the financial statements show that over that time the 524 production staff were paid $23.8 million (£18.9 million), a record for any period on a Disney Star Wars movie. It contributed to Solo paying its crew an average of $48,354 across the entire production.
The financial statements for each movie cover multiple periods of different lengths of time during the production cycle (from pre to post). However, they each tend to be around a year so the pay data is roughly equivalent to the annual salary.
It is calculated by adding up the staff spending from every period, repeating this with the staff numbers and then dividing the former total by the latter. This simple calculation reveals the boost in pay from streaming for production crews, in contrast to the complaint of the actors on strike. Reaching a happy ending to the dispute is likely to be a lot more complicated.
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