For performers who are still on strike, Halloween this year won’t be about keeping up with the zeitgeist. The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) has asked members to steer clear of dressing up as characters from “struck content.” That means no Barbie-Ken couples, no Wednesday Adams breaking into iconic dance sequences, and definitely no Marvel superheroes.
To avoid violating the strike, they should “choose costumes inspired by generalized characters and figures — ghost, zombie, spider, etc.” the union warned.
Those who forgo the guidance and still choose to dress up as movie and TV characters have been asked to not post their photos on social media. The reasoning is likely that the public endorsement treads on the territory of publicity or promotional activity—things that are not allowed, in addition to shooting and auditioning, during the strikes.
With talks between SAG-AFTRA and entertainment companies derailed, the performers’ strike is nearing its 100th day. The union’s guidelines suggest it doesn’t expect a deal for better pay, streaming residuals, protection from AI, and so on, to come through within the next 10 days.
Halloween costumes in 2023, by the digits
$12.2 billion: Record Halloween spending expected to this year, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF), up from $10.6 billion people in 2022. This includes what’s expected to be a record $4.1 billion spent on costumes, up from $3.6 billion a year ago.
1: The ranking for “Barbie” costume searches, according to the Google Trends Halloween tool Frightgeist. Wednesday Addams is the sixth most-searched costume.
1.8 million: Adults who intend to dress up as Barbie, the titular character from the billion-dollar-grossing movie starring Margot Robbie that debuted in July, as per NRF data. “When the parties start happening, we’re gonna see a lot of Barbie,” Marisa Uzzolino, personal relations manager for Spirit Halloween, the largest Halloween costume retail chain in the US, told NPR’s Morning Edition. “Western Barbie, Skating Barbie, Skating Ken.” Other popular costumes among are from the Addams Family and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles—both TV and movies releases that are off the table for SAG-AFTRA members.
160,000+: The number of actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, dancers, DJs, news writers, news editors, program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers, voiceover artists, and other media professionals represented by SAG-AFTRA.