Ben Affleck and Matt Damon to start film production company

The actors announced Sunday that they had decided to take action

Hollywood’s most powerful stars, directors and writers have been increasingly vocal about their dissatisfaction with streaming-era paychecks, namely the refusal of entertainment companies to share the money generated from breakout hits, as was more common in decades past.

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon announced Sunday that they had decided to take action. Instead of continuing to work for hire, they plan to start an independent production company, called Artists Equity, and have obtained a minimum of $100 million in financing from the investment firm RedBird Capital Partners. Affleck and Damon have also committed an unknown amount of capital, and Affleck, whose hits as a filmmaker include Argo and The Town, has agreed to work exclusively for Artists Equity.

“This is the next act of my career for a long, long time,” Affleck said. Damon has committed to star in a set number of films (he wouldn’t say how many) and will produce exclusively for the company.

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The two hope to capitalize on a shift in the film and television business: Streaming services like Netflix are beginning to care more about the quality of content than sheer volume. To give an incentive to high-caliber actors and off-camera artisans to work for them, Affleck and Damon said they intended to give those people a cut of the profit. Lower upfront fees, potentially big payouts in success.

“As streamers have proliferated, they have really ended back-end participation, and so this is partly an effort to try to recapture some of that value and share it in a way that’s more equitable,” Affleck said. “Not just writers and directors and stars. But also cinematographers, editors, costume designers and other crucial artists who, in my view, are very underpaid.”

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Affleck, 50, will be CEO, while Damon, 52, will be chief creative officer. Over their 30-year entertainment careers, Affleck and Damon have worked on films that have generated $10.7 billion at the global box office. They have three Oscars between them.

“I know what kind of freedoms artists long for and how they can be empowered — treated like grown-ups,” Affleck said.