抵制天价片酬(dǐzhì tiānjià piānchóu): Curb sky-high remuneration of actor and actress

Three major online movie and television platforms Youku, iQIYI and Tencent along with six major movie and television production companies including Huace Media have issued a statement on curbing the unreasonable remuneration of stars.

The public has criticized the sky-high remuneration of leading actors and actresses for a long time. And the unreasonable sky-high payments to stars squeezes the money spent on other production costs, which results in low-quality film and TV works.

The producers depend on big names to get good box office returns or audience ratings instead of paying attention to the quality of their productions, which not only undermines the audiences' interests but also harms the entire industry. The joint statement is seen as a signal that the industry will curb the remuneration of celebrities.

The statement stipulates the maximum paychecks actors and actresses can receive. According to the statement, the overall remuneration of all the actors and actresses in a film, TV play or TV show should not exceed 40 percent of the overall production costs, and the payments of starring actors and actress should not exceed 70 percent of the overall remuneration of actors and actresses. In addition, the remuneration of a single actor or actress per episode should not exceed 1 million yuan ($145,400) pretax, and total remuneration of an actor or actress should not exceed 50 million yuan before tax.