WGA Minimum for a Screenplay 2026: What the Schedule Actually Pays

If you're pricing or negotiating a feature deal this year, the figure everyone reaches for is the wga minimum for a screenplay 2026. The costliest mistake is quoting last year's number. The Writers Guild of America published a new Schedule of Minimums for the 2026 Theatrical and Television Basic Agreement, marked effective May 2, 2026, and every theatrical rate moved. As of late September 2026, the rates in force are the schedule's First Period figures, which run from May 2, 2026 through May 1, 2027.

This guide follows those rates in the order a deal actually happens. It covers what an original screenplay pays at high and low budget, how the money arrives in installments, the new page one rewrite minimum, why the guaranteed second step threshold moved to 225 percent, and what the schedule leaves out. Every figure below comes from the guild's own documents. Where the guild doesn't publish a number, we say so rather than guess.

One point before the numbers. The schedule says plainly that it isn't a substitute for the Basic Agreement, and that where the two conflict, the Basic Agreement controls. Treat the schedule as the price sheet and the contract as the rulebook.

The WGA minimum for a screenplay 2026, in one table

These are the First Period theatrical minimums, the ones that apply to deals made between May 2, 2026 and May 1, 2027. High budget means a picture whose costs equal or exceed $5,000,000. Low budget means costs below that line.

Every figure above is read straight off the theatrical compensation pages of the 2026 Schedule of Minimums. Each line also has Second, Third and Fourth Period figures for the later years of the contract.

A few reading notes, because the schedule's labels are precise and people misread them all the time.

Line A is the hire. An original screenplay including treatment is what a company pays when it employs you to take an original idea from treatment through screenplay. At high budget that's $173,215. It's the number most people mean when they ask about the WGA minimum for an original screenplay in 2026.

Line C is the sale. The schedule groups the original screenplay excluding treatment together with the sale or purchase of an original screenplay. When a signatory company buys a finished original script from a professional writer, this line sets the floor: $126,899 at high budget and $61,990 at low budget. For spec writers, this is the line that matters.

Non original work pays less. Adaptations and other non original screenplays sit on lines B and D. The schedule also prices a non original first draft on its own, with or without an option for a second draft.

Story money stacks. Line E, additional compensation for story included in a screenplay, pays the writer for supplying the story as well as the screenplay.

What changed on May 2, 2026

Guild members ratified the 2026 Minimum Basic Agreement on April 24, 2026. The vote was 4,282 in favor (90.38 percent) and 456 opposed (9.62 percent). The agreement runs from May 2, 2026 through May 1, 2030. The guild's page for the schedule describes these rates as the minimums members may be paid for initial compensation for that entire term.

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The raises come in four steps: 1.5 percent on May 2, 2026, then 3 percent on each of May 2, 2027, May 2, 2028 and May 2, 2029. The guild's ratification release describes the increases as totaling 10.5 percent over the term. That's why the schedule prints four figures per line, one for each period, instead of a single number.

Follow the headline line through the contract: $173,215 in the First Period, then $178,411, $183,763 and $189,275 by the Fourth Period, which starts May 2, 2029.

Now look back. Under the 2023 schedule, the same high budget line was $160,084, then $165,686, then $170,655 in its Third Period, which ran to May 1, 2026. That $170,655 became $173,215, the 1.5 percent step. The low budget column follows the same pattern: $90,904 in the old Third Period became $92,268.

That's the trap this whole topic sits on. Superseded figures stay in circulation for a long time in blog posts, deal templates and old PDFs, and an old figure looks perfectly plausible. It's also no longer the minimum. Earlier schedules are still easy to find online. They're useful for history and dangerous for pricing. Check the effective date on the first page before you quote anything.

The dollar steps are only part of the change. The 2026 agreement also:

• created a page one rewrite minimum, covered below
• raised the guaranteed second step threshold from 200 percent to 225 percent of minimum
• added a protection saying only the individual named in the writer's contract can request rewrites or accept delivery
• raised the employer health contribution from 13 percent to 16.25 percent

If you only compare the headline number, you miss all of them.

High budget vs low budget: where the $5,000,000 line sits

The schedule draws one line. A high budget picture is one whose costs equal or exceed $5,000,000. A low budget picture is one whose costs are less than $5,000,000. The 2023 edition used the same threshold, so this part of the math didn't move. The schedule states the split in exactly those words.

The gap between the two columns is wide on every line. Here are two comparisons at First Period rates:

• Original screenplay including treatment: $173,215 high, $92,268 low
• Sale or purchase of an original screenplay: $126,899 high, $61,990 low
• Rewrite: $46,152 high, $30,273 low
• Page one rewrite: $57,500 high, $31,500 low

Both columns rise on the same dates.

For writers, the practical question is which column the buyer puts the project in. A company developing a modest feature has an obvious incentive to call it low budget. On a straight purchase of an original screenplay, that choice moves the floor from $126,899 to $61,990. If a deal is quoted at the low budget rate, it's fair to ask how the project falls under the line.

The guild also has a separate instrument for very small films, the Theatrical Low Budget Agreement, with its own reduced structure. The edition we could retrieve may predate the current period, so check its dates. If a project might be small enough to qualify, get the current filing from the guild rather than relying on an older one.

How the WGA minimum for a screenplay 2026 is paid out in installments

A minimum isn't a lump sum. The schedule splits each deal into steps and ties each payment to a delivery. For a working writer's cash flow, that matters far more than the headline figure.

For the high budget original screenplay including treatment, the First Period installments are:

• Delivery of the original treatment: $69,228
• Delivery of the first draft: $69,228
• Delivery of the second draft: $34,759

Those three add up to the $173,215 total. Employment on the version without a treatment (line C) splits $126,899 into $92,305 on the first draft and $34,594 on the second. At low budget, line A splits into $41,806, $36,333 and $14,129.

Flat deals at twice the applicable minimum or less get extra protection. The company must pay at least 50 percent of a step's agreed fee when the writer starts work on it. If the writer hasn't delivered within 9 weeks, another 25 percent is due on invoice, and the final 25 percent is due on delivery.

The timing is spelled out as well. The company must use best efforts to pay within 48 hours of delivery, and in no event more than 7 days after. Late payment earns interest at 1.5 percent a month, or 18 percent a year.

Payment also can't be made contingent on the company accepting or approving the material, or on anything else such as obtaining financing. That's worth knowing before you accept any condition a producer attaches to a check.

Two procedural rules sit alongside the money. The agreement requires a contract or deal memo to be delivered, generally within 10 to 12 days, once the major deal points are agreed. The writer must also be told about every condition the company says has to be met before work starts, such as securing underlying rights. You can't plan around a deal with conditions nobody told you about.

Delivery triggers every one of these payments, which is why the state of the pages matters so much. A draft that reads as finished, cleanly formatted and structurally complete is what each installment pays for.

Rewrites, polishes and the new page one rewrite

A lot of paid screenwriting is work on scripts that already exist, and the schedule prices three kinds of it.

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A rewrite of a screenplay pays $46,152 at high budget and $30,273 at low budget in the First Period. A polish pays $23,077 and $15,148. By the Fourth Period the high budget rewrite reaches $50,432 and the polish $25,216.

The new line is the page one rewrite, introduced in the 2026 agreement. It pays $57,500 at high budget and $31,500 at low budget in the first year, rising to $62,832 and $34,421 by the Fourth Period. The guild's summary says it applies to contracts entered into on or after May 2, 2026.

The catch is in the definition. The page one rewrite minimum applies only if the writer's contract says the writer is being employed for a page one rewrite. If the paperwork calls the job a rewrite, the rewrite minimum is all the schedule guarantees, however much of the script ends up replaced. If you're being brought in to start over, make sure the contract uses those words. Ask for the phrase before you sign, not after the first round of notes, because the definition turns on the contract and not on the work.

So when someone asks what the page one rewrite minimum is, the honest answer is $57,500 at high budget, but only when the contract names it. Without that wording, the floor is the ordinary rewrite rate.

Some writers are paid by the week instead of by the step. The schedule sets a theatrical week to week minimum of $7,511 in the First Period, and longer guaranteed terms carry lower weekly rates, such as $6,970 a week on a 14 out of 14 week term.

The guaranteed second step and the 225 percent rule

This is the least understood change in the 2026 schedule. For writers selling or being hired at or near scale, it may also be the most valuable one.

Here's how the rule works. Say a company employs a writer to write a first draft screenplay, with or without a treatment, or buys a screenplay from a professional writer. If it pays 225 percent or less of the applicable minimum on lines A through D, it must also employ that writer to write a rewrite, at no less than the minimum in section I of the schedule. The 2023 schedule set that threshold at 200 percent, and the guild's summary confirms the move to 225 percent.

Why does that matter? Under the old rule, a buyer could pay a little over twice scale and move on from the writer after one draft. The price below which a purchase must come with a paid rewrite has now gone up, so more deals include one. The guild's Screen Compensation Guide lists the caps effective May 2, 2026:

• Original screenplay including treatment: $389,734
• Non original screenplay including treatment: $337,813
• Original screenplay excluding treatment: $285,523
• Non original screenplay excluding treatment: $233,600

Each one is exactly 225 percent of the matching First Period minimum, so the guide and the schedule agree. A high budget purchase of an original screenplay at or below $285,523 now comes with a guaranteed second step.

A related protection targets free work. According to the guild's summary, companies must instruct producers that only the named individual in the writer's contract can request rewrites or accept delivery. The problem it addresses is familiar: informal notes from people with no authority to request work, which leave writers turning in unpaid drafts to keep a project alive. A second step is only worth something if the first step's delivery is clearly defined, and this rule makes that definition sharper.

What the WGA minimum for a screenplay 2026 does not include

The schedule sets initial compensation. Several things that change what a deal is really worth sit outside it, and a few that people assume are included aren't.

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Agent and manager commissions. Initial compensation for writing services, and for an option or purchase of literary material, is generally subject to a 10 percent commission, whether or not the deal is at minimum. Residuals, program fees and sequel payments aren't commissionable. A writer paid exactly scale takes home less than scale.

Employer contributions. On top of the writer's fee, the company pays into the guild's benefit plans. That's 11.25 percent to the pension plan, 16.25 percent to the health fund (rising to 16.75 percent on May 2, 2027) and 0.25 percent to the Paid Parental Benefit Fund. The guild's summary lists health contribution caps for screen projects of $325,000 from May 2, 2026, $375,000 from May 2, 2027 and $400,000 from May 2, 2028. These are costs the buyer pays; they aren't taken out of the writer's fee.

The publication fee. Credited writers are also owed $12,500, in the aggregate, within 30 days after final determination of credits, for the company's right to publish the script on disc or a new media platform.

Residuals. Credited writers on a theatrical film earn residuals when the picture is reused, including on television, new media, disc and electronic sell through, at rates set by the agreement. Those payments come later and separately from the fee, and they vary widely with how the picture is distributed.

Deals outside the guild. The minimums apply to purchases by signatory companies from a professional writer, as the agreement defines the term, or from a writer who has negotiated the right to be treated as one. The schedule sets no figure for a sale between a writer and a company that hasn't signed the agreement. A non signatory buyer paying less than the guild floor for an original screenplay isn't breaking a guild rule, because no guild rule covers that deal.

What the market actually pays. The minimum is a floor, and the guild's own data shows how far above it established deals can land. Its Screen Compensation Guide, published in July 2026 from nearly 800 high budget screen deals made under the 2023 contract, reports a median one step first draft deal of $450,000 across all companies, up $200,000 from 2021. At major studios and streamers the median is $500,000, and the highest reported deal is $2,250,000. Multi step first draft medians were $375,000 across all companies and $550,000 at the majors, with a reported maximum of $3,850,000. One step rewrite medians were $200,000 and $250,000. Treat those figures as a picture of guild reported deals, not a forecast for any one script.

What the schedule means for sellers and for buyers

For sellers, the schedule only gives you leverage if you know which line you're on. A finished spec sold to a signatory company is a line C or line D purchase, not line A. For an original, the budget column decides which floor applies. Write down which line and which column the buyer is using, and ask them to confirm it in the deal memo. If you're being hired rather than selling, find out whether the job includes a treatment, whether the contract names a page one rewrite, and whether the price falls under the 225 percent cap that triggers a guaranteed second step.

Options are the other place sellers get squeezed. Under the schedule, a company may option material from a professional writer for up to 18 months for not less than 10 percent of minimum, and each renewal of up to 18 months needs at least another 10 percent. Check any option offer against that before you sign.

For buyers at signatory companies, the schedule is a list of obligations with dates attached. The deal memo is due promptly once deal points are agreed, payment is due promptly after delivery, and late payment carries interest. Budget the contributions on top of the fee. And remember that a purchase at or under 225 percent of minimum comes with a rewrite you've already committed to.

Everyone should keep one boundary in mind. The guild schedule sets a floor only for WGA signatory deals; non guild deals are negotiated one at a time, so an indie offer is a different kind of number from a guild minimum. Comparing the two directly tells you very little, while a read of the pages, from a trusted reader or ScriptLix's coverage, tells you much more.

What does carry across every kind of deal is the quality of the pages. Before any of these numbers come into play, a reader decides whether the script is worth pursuing. If you want a quick sense of where your own material stands, score your logline or opening page for free below.