36-65 min program with a budget of $3.8 million or more: $39,858.
20-35 min program with a budget of $2.1 million or more: $27,100.
Here are some of the key numbers for the largest streamers in the WGA MBA minimums: The runtimes and size of streamers are all over the place so make sure you read the right section!
Rates decrease again when a platform has fewer than 15 million subscribers.
A platform with over 20 million subscribers pays the highest WGA minimum rates.
Here, not only is budget a factor, but also the size of the streamer
High budget basic cable 1-hr drama story & teleplay: $30,780.
Under 60-min "other than network prime time" story & teleplay: $28,907.
Under 30-min "other than network prime time" story & teleplay: $15,903.
Under 60-min "network prime time" story & teleplay: $39,858.
Under 30-min "network prime time" story & teleplay: $27,000.
This number goes down the more weeks of guaranteed work you have to a WGA minimum of $3,964/week.
I can’t summarize all the WGA minimum rates in a few bullet points, so I’ll focus on what I deem the most relevant items:
Network Prime Time - ABC, CBS, FBC, NBC.
We even have a bible template you can use.
Bible: A document (often used to sell a show) holding information like character descriptions, plot summaries, world-building, character arcs, and season arcs for a show.
Teleplay: The script for an episode of TV.
Pilot: The first episode of a new TV show.
There are so many specifics to TV that the document can be overwhelming. Let’s start with theatrical minimums and what is WGA scale for a screenplay? Otherwise, we'll walk through the highlights. We've got the entire WGA Schedule of Minimums PDF here if you'd like to download a copy. Once the time-frame ends, if they didn’t buy the script, you get the rights back.Īlright, that’s the terminology. During that time, they have the option to buy the script at any point.
Option - The buyer can own the rights to the movie for a certain period of time.
The line between polish and rewrite can be fuzzy.
Rewrite - Pretty self-explanatory, but in this context, a rewrite would involve major changes to a script.
LOW - In this scale, low means under $5,000,000 budget.
HIGH - In this scale, high means over a $5,000,000 budget.
Story - You helped develop the general idea of the script and perhaps some characters, but you didn’t actually write the screenplay.
It should communicate all of the essential scenes, themes, and tone of the projects, characters, and maybe even some dialogue sequences.
Treatment - A somewhat vague term for a summary of a film or television show.
So there are a few words in there people might not know. We’re here to talk about the WGA schedule of minimums.