What a residual actually is

A residual is often described as a royalty. It is not, and the difference is the reason so many statements are confusing.

A payment triggered by reuse, not by profit

A royalty is usually a share of revenue. A residual is a payment owed when a piece of work is used again in a market beyond the one it was made for. The trigger is the reuse itself. Whether the reuse was profitable is, for most formulas, beside the point.

This is why a title can lose money and still generate residuals, and why a hugely profitable title can generate less than you would expect. The formula is not asking how the title performed.

The agreement in force is the one that governs

The terms that apply to a credit are the terms that were in effect when that credit was first made — not the terms in effect today. A show from 2004 is governed by the 2004 agreement, for as long as that show keeps being used.

Practically, this means two credits on the same statement can be calculated on entirely different rules, and both can be correct.

Why the markets are listed separately

Network, syndication, basic cable, foreign television, home video and streaming each settle differently: different formulas, different reporting timetables, different parties responsible for filing. Your statement lists them separately because they genuinely are separate calculations.

Reading a statement market by market, rather than looking at the total, is the single change that makes the document legible.