The payments hit accounts this week for over 7,900 artists who were engaged on Equity contracts for film, television, radio and cast album productions made under Equity agreements.
This month’s payment — made possible by collectively bargained Equity agreements with HBO, Disney, Sony, Really Useful Group, and others — brings the total paid out by Equity Distribution Services in the last five years to £67.5m.
Every penny comes from the agreements we have negotiated, the payments we have chased down and the producers we have held to account. that's the power of collective action
Paul W Fleming, Equity General Secretary
Performers will receive their first royalty payments for Spider-Man: Homecoming and Grimsby from Sony and for Saint Maud from Film4. Other payments going out include:
- Film royalties due under the Cinema Film agreement for Star Wars titles, including The Rise of Skywalker, Solo: A Star Wars Story and Rogue One.
- Royalties derived from the Equity/PACT TV agreement for HBO’s Rome, Strike Back and Band of Brothers. The last is still one of the highest-earning television series for which we administer royalties 22 years after it was first released.
- Cast album recording royalties from the Really Useful Group and Sony Music for titles including Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Kinky Boots, and Bend It Like Beckham as well as first-time payments for Back To The Future.
- A new source of income for performers in British film and TV programmes arising out of digital video recorder revenue collected from Finland. We have worked with the Finnish organisation Kopiosto to collect and administer these new payments on behalf of British performers.
Commenting on the distributions, General Secretary, Paul W Fleming, said:
"Sometimes it’s hard to distil the power of our trade union, but the work of Equity’s Distribution Service puts it in clear figures.
"Over £67m distributed since 2017, and every penny comes from the agreements we have negotiated, the payments we have chased down and the producers we have held to account.
"That’s the power of collective action, and an effective, modern trades union protecting and advancing the remuneration of your performance rights."
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