Sunday 7 March 2010
Big money a thing of the past for top stars
Movie stars, who not so long ago vied to make US$20 million or even US$25 million a picture, have seen their upfront salaries shrink in the last several years as DVD sales fell, star-driven vehicles stumbled at the box office and studios grew increasingly tight-fisted.
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Big money a thing of the past for top stars
Even best-film nominees’ actors get minuscule upfront fee
New York Times
06 March 2010
Movie stars, who not so long ago vied to make US$20 million or even US$25 million a picture, have seen their upfront salaries shrink in the last several years as DVD sales fell, star-driven vehicles stumbled at the box office and studios grew increasingly tight-fisted.
How bad is it? Pretty bad.
Most of the three dozen or so top- billed actors in the 10 films up for best picture in tomorrow’s Academy Awards ceremony, including blockbusters such as Up in the Air and Avatar, appear to have received relatively minuscule upfront payments for their work.
When the estimated salaries of all 10 of the top acting nominees are combined, the total is only a little larger than the US$20 million that went to Julia Roberts for her appearance in Erin Brockovich, a best-picture nominee in 2001, or to Russell Crowe for Master and Commander, nominated in 2004.
Peter Dekom, a film industry lawyer who co-wrote the book Not on My Watch: Hollywood vs the Future, pegged the general devaluation of movie stars to a lack of interest among younger viewers. ‘Stars don’t resonate with the ‘what’s next’ crowd,’ he theorised. ‘They attract an over-30 audience, which is going to the movies less in an impaired economy.’
Specific salaries and deal terms are notoriously difficult to pin down. (The estimates are based on interviews with a dozen producers, agents and executives).’Unfortunately, I am not going to be able to be of any help,’ Stan Rosenfield, a spokesman for George Clooney, said in response to a query about Clooney’s pay for his work in Paramount Pictures’ Up in the Air.
That film was made for about US$25 million. It was possible only because Clooney, according to people briefed on the film’s finances, took an initial fee that was roughly a tenth of the US$20 million that Leonardo DiCaprio, a frequent Oscar contender, has received in the past.
Once upon a time, the biggest stars were rewarded with deals that paid them a percentage of so-called first-dollar gross receipts; that is, they began sharing in the profits from the first ticket sale, not waiting until the studio turned a profit. Now studios often insist that even top stars forgo large advance payments in return for a share of the profits after a studio has recouped its cash investment.
The fashionable deal now is called ‘CB zero’. It stands for ‘cash-break zero’, and refers to an arrangement under which the star or filmmaker begins collecting a share of profits after the studio has reached the break-even point. Such deals can be extremely lucrative when they give stars a substantial share in home-video revenue.
So Sandra Bullock, who cut her usual US$10 million fee to just US$5 million for The Blind Side, another of this year’s nominees, will eventually make US$20 million or more from the movie because it was a hit. Clooney similarly stands to make additional millions when all the revenue from Up in the Air is finally counted.
A rare star, in rare circumstances, can still command the kind of deal that was more prevalent five years ago. Angelina Jolie, for instance, still receives US$20 million for appearing in an action film such as Salt, set for release in July by Columbia Pictures, according to two people who were briefed on her deal.
In this year’s best-picture roster, the star that attracted the largest upfront fee appears to be Brad Pitt, for his work in Inglourious Basterds. People briefed on that film’s finances put his initial payment at US$10 million, with more to come from a participation in profits.
But Pitt’s co-stars and the stars of pictures as impressive as The Hurt Locker, which has emerged as a front-runner in the Oscar race after winning a series of professional society and critics’ awards, or Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire, another nominee, often worked at or near guild minimums.
The pay for a number of actors in District 9, A Serious Man and An Education was at or close to guild minimums, as each was made on a relatively low budget.
As for the ultra-high-budget Avatar, the highest-paid appears to have been Sigourney Weaver, though she almost certainly worked for a small fraction of the US$11 million she was reported to have been paid for Alien: Resurrection in 1997. -- NYT
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