Residual obligations

Residual obligations are the producer's contractual commitments to make ongoing payments to specific contributors — writers, directors, composers, lead performers — out of the revenues a production generates after its first release. Distinct from initial fees + buy-outs.

What triggers residuals

Typically:
- New exploitation in additional territories or modes (e.g. first theatrical → home video → SVOD → broadcast)
- Hits to commercial thresholds (e.g. net profits being achieved)
- Re-runs / format adaptations / sequels
- Specific union-set residual frameworks (SAG-AFTRA, Equity, Writers Guild)

What's typically owed

• A defined percentage of Net profits — the calculation basis (or net producer's share)
• Sometimes a fixed sum per re-run / per exploitation event
• Sometimes a CPI-uplifted flat fee

Residual rate cards

Where residuals follow a union/guild framework rather than a bespoke percentage, the rates are codified in rate cards — standard residual rates keyed by guild × territory × medium (e.g. an Equity rate for UK home-video, a WGA rate for US SVOD). A rate card lets the producer look up the right figure rather than negotiate each line, and lets the same rate drive both the obligation amount and the residual clause in the contract. Togra carries a rate-card lookup (guild × territory × medium) that prefills a new obligation and generates the matching clause; it falls back to a bespoke percentage of Net profits — the calculation basis where no card applies.

Why this matters legally

• Statutory transparency obligation (Transparency reports — Article 19 / S.I. 567/2021) requires producers to report on residual-relevant exploitation
• CAMA — Contract Adjustment Mechanism gives Irish-resident participants a statutory route to adjust where remuneration is disproportionately low
• Mis-tracking residuals creates downstream contractual liability when participants discover unreported exploitation

In Togra

/residual-obligations.php per project tracks every named beneficiary, their participation rate, the threshold for residuals to begin, and the running balance. Surfaced on the participant-side via the Transparency reports — Article 19 / S.I. 567/2021 cycle.