HOLLYWOOD actors struck a new contract deal with the film and television industry on Wednesday after a historic four-month strike.

After a strike that ground the industry to a halt, negotiators from the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) reached a tentative three-year agreement with the employers which will now need to be ratified by its members.

In a statement, the union said: “We have arrived at a contract that will enable SAG-AFTRA members from every category to build sustainable careers.

“Many thousands of performers now and into the future will benefit from this work.”

The 60,000 members of SAG-AFTRA went on strike on July 14, making this the longest strike in the history of the film and television industry.

They originally walked out alongside the Writers Guild of America, which had already been on strike for two months. But the writers managed to reach a deal with the studios by the end of September.

The screenwriters union applauded Wednesday’s deal.

It said: “We’re thrilled to see SAG-AFTRA members win a contract that creates new protections for performers and gives them a greater share of the immense value they create. When workers are united, they win!” 

SAG-AFTRA said that details of the new agreement would be made public after a meeting on Friday where its board members would review the contract. 

But the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which negotiates on behalf of major studios and streaming companies, said in a statement on Wednesday: “This tentative agreement represents a new paradigm. 

“It gives SAG-AFTRA the biggest contract-on-contract gains in the history of the union, including the largest increase in minimum wages in the last forty years, a brand new residual for streaming programs, extensive consent and compensation protections in the use of artificial intelligence and sizeable contract increases on items across the board.” 

It said that it “looks forward to the industry resuming the work of telling great stories.”

Senior executives from top entertainment companies including Disney, Netflix, Warner Bros Discovery and Universal eventually took a direct role in the negotiations as the dispute dragged on.

But any feeling that the industry could return to business as usual could prove to be temporary. 

Circumstances that brought on the strikes such as the shift from traditional theatrical and broadcast media to streaming, and emerging tech like artificial intelligence, have not been slowed.