Residuals are the closest thing actors will experience to passive income. Once the initial production has wrapped, actors can continue to receive payments for years to come, even if they are not actively working on new projects.
An actor can expect a residual check once a show or movie re-airs on cable or a streaming service, or sells via DVD or VOD. For streamers like Max and Disney+, initial compensation covers the first 90 days a show or film is aired.
How long does it take to get residuals from a movie?
Members should expect to receive their residuals within 60 days from the date SAG-AFTRA receives the checks and producers' information. Want to track your residuals? Click here for the Residuals Portal. Have a question about your residual payment?
I asked a SAG-AFTRA spokesperson for help and here are the basics. Actors (other than background actors) get paid again when a performance is rerun. In TV's past, those payments ended after a certain number of replays; now they can go on forever — making those “Law & Order” reruns an annuity for the actors.
Residuals are financial compensations that are paid to the actors, film or television directors, and others involved in making TV shows and movies in cases of the cable reruns, syndication, DVD release, or licensing to streaming media.
Across TikTok and X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, a handful of actors with big followings are going viral for showing off some of their residual checks, which are paid out quarterly throughout the year for reruns or streams of movies or TV series.
While the exact amount isn't actually known, cast members have revealed that the reruns pay them 6% of their original salaries. If a star made a mere $150,000 per episode across all 20 seasons, that would come in around $200,000 per year in royalties.
As it stands right now, actors are not getting residuals from their work being exhibited on streaming services like when their show is on linear platforms.
What is the difference between royalties and residuals?
“Royalties are a separate agreement between production companies and actors, directors, producers and writers." In other words, residuals are part of collective bargaining by industry unions while royalties are negotiated for on a deal-by-deal basis.
Traditionally, actors and writers are paid for each time a show runs on broadcast or cable television, or when someone buys a DVD, a Blu-ray disc or (long ago) a VHS tape.
The residuals are paid annually, and the annual amounts decline over time as the program ages. If the SVOD service operates internationally, like Netflix, Amazon and Disney+, there is an additional annual payment for international reuse.
If, instead of television work, your work is a SAG film released in theaters, or what's called “Made-for-Theatrical,” and then that work is shown and/or repeated on network prime time, your residuals are to be sent within 30 days of the air date of the initial airing. After that, it's sent quarterly.
This means residual payments may continue well after the performer's death. Although SAG-AFTRA is responsible for administering these payments, residuals are the personal property of the performer, who may leave them to anyone in a will or trust.
As a part of that deal, he got a bigger slice of the money the show made in syndication. For that reason, Sheen continues to make a lot of money off Two and a Half Men. In fact, collider.com estimates that he has made around $20 million from the show's reruns alone since Two and a Half Men aired its finale.
Yes, almost all residual income is taxable. Maybe the income from some tax-exempt municipal bonds is not taxed. Otherwise, whether you got the tax from stock dividends or renting your spare bedroom, it's taxable income.
Actor royalty payments can range from nothing (like with the stars of “The Brady Bunch”) to millions (like with the stars of “Friends”) from show reruns. Payment amount depends on several factors including: What was established in the contract. Time spent working on the production.
Residuals are long-term payments to those who worked on films and television shows, negotiated by unions, for reruns and other airings after the initial release. The basic pay structure was developed in 1960, the last time writers and actors were on strike together.
They are the producer's responsibility, while a streamer like Netflix or Hulu pays the producer a licensing fee. Nonetheless, the structure of that system currently allows for a hit show to be streamed thousands of times while, in some cases, creators are given little to nothing in the form of residuals.
https://www.sagaftra.org/membership-benefits/residuals/history-residuals. The history of residuals starts back at the mid-20th century. By the mid-1950s, both SAG and AFTRA had been successful in negotiating residuals for TV programs re-runs.
Grey's Anatomy does stream on Netflix as well, but it should be noted: The streamer wouldn't be paying those actors residuals; those would come from the show's producers like ABC Studios, who license Grey's to Netflix.
So, do all actors get paid for reruns? According to the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, some do and some don't. For principal performers, royalties can lead to long-term payoffs that trump the original salary.
In general, only "principal performers" receive residuals [source: Andres]. Background actors or "extras" (random storm troopers on "The Mandalorian," for instance) do not usually receive residuals.
It's not like he needs it, but George Clooney reportedly earns about $13 million every year just from reruns of “ER,” on which he played Dr. Doug Ross.
