In filmmaking, a guarantee, or informally a "pay-or-play" contract, is a term in a contract of an actor, director, or other participant that guarantees pay if the participant is released from the contract, with various exceptions.
[1] Studios are reluctant to agree to guarantees but accept them as part of the deal for signing popular actors.
They also have the advantage of enabling a studio to remove a participant under such a contract, with few legal complications.
[2] As Appleton writes, "Memoirs of a Geisha is an example of a film on which the provision came into play... several actors were hired by the studio under pay-or-play deals.
When the contracted start date came and went, those actors began receiving their full salary as if they were rendering services.