Patrick Stoner welcomes
your questions about movies and the people who make them. Send your
questions to
pstoner@whyy.org.
Q: Why do they say you should never look for profits from Hollywood pictures?
A: Because there are none.
Yes, I know people get very rich in the movie business. Films are the one product in which America still leads the world. You can go into the smallest backwater or the most repressive country, and you will find people devouring Hollywood's products.
Having said that, let me make a suggestion: If anyone ever offers you $100 or 10% of the profits from a movie deal, TAKE THE CASH. As many an otherwise sophisticated person has discovered, even films that make it into the all-time list of box office successes seldom make a profit -- officially.
Why? Well, there are many expenses in making films, and various organizations -- studios, production companies, etc. -- make more than one movie. Indeed, if you want to get rich in Hollywood, then you don't want to make just one picture -- however successful. You want to make a number of bombs as well.
That is, you want to be able to move money among a myriad of projects, some of which are official losses. There are many ways to move expenses. That's why these groups have scores of lawyers and accountants who are not on the payroll to settle work-related accidents.
So, there are some terms that you will want to keep in mind when that film contract is offered to you, like above the line and below the line. If you are ANYBODY, your representatives will get you a piece of the gross -- not the profits. That way, your cut comes right off the top, BEFORE all of the little people get their pay. Generally, this is a little like being given your own printing press and permission to spend the money. Even if it fails, it should make $15 or $20 million, and you'll do quite well.
Every once in a while, somebody nice comes along and gets a break. Here's my favorite example: Tom Hanks gets a huge salary per film. Sometimes that prices him out of those films that don't have much box office expectation. A couple of years ago, he decided to forego his salary and just take a percentage of the gross because he thought the film was worth doing but nobody expected to do that well commercially. The film was FORREST GUMP. Tom's cut passed $60 million when last I checked about a year ago. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy -- except me, of course.
That is an exception, however. A more trustworthy truism was made by director Sidney Lumet when he wrote, "... As far as I know, no studio chief has ever died poor. But an awful lot of writers, actors and directors have -- including D.W. Griffith."