How Much Do Actors Earn in Residuals? Breaking Down the Numbers Revealed During the WGA, SAG Strikes

usmagazine.com:

Many working actors earn residual paychecks anytime that a TV show they appeared on air in reruns.Such sums even help stars such as Mandy Moore and Glen Powell pay their living expenses between jobs.“Ours is a fickle industry and in my 20+ years of being a performer, my career has ebbed and flowed,” Moore, who has been acting since she was a teenager, wrote via Instagramin July 2023. “I’ve had very lean years where I couldn’t get a job and those are precisely the moments when in years past, actors could rely on residuals from their past work to help them get by.”Powell, for his part, tweeted that same month that he used to survive on residuals “for years” when he was still attempting to “make it as a working actor.”Many actors have since seen their residual check amounts dwindle with the onset of streaming platforms.

Due to the staggeringly low amounts, members of the SAG-AFTRA acting union called out the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) for refusing to compromise on better terms regarding residual checks during contract negotiations.

As a result, the SAG actors went on strike in July 2023 shortly after the Writers Guild of America stood up for similar causes.Keep reading to find out how much the stars really make in residuals:Moore has received 81-cent checks for streaming residuals of This Is Us, the Emmy-winning drama that she starred in between 2016 and 2022. “I was talking with my business manager who said he’s received a residual for a penny and two pennies,” she told The Hollywood Reporter on the picket lines in July 2023.The Lizzie McGuire alum — who played Hilary Duff’s onscreen father on the Disney Channel series — once received a residual check in August 2019 for $0.