Posted on 02/14/2010 3:09:00 PM PST by abb
It's hardly a secret that Tom Cruise is no longer Hollywood's top-gun star.
The 47-year-old boyish-looking actor has had a rough stretch, from an embarrassing jumping episode on Oprah Winfrey's couch to the clunker "Lions for Lambs." Many believe that his controversial career has peaked.
Now, in order to revive his big-screen role as dashing secret agent Ethan Hunt in Paramount's "Mission: Impossible IV," Cruise consented to a deal that would have once been unthinkable: He's forgoing a preferential slice of the movie's ticket sales, the sine qua non of clout in Hollywood.
Cruise will still earn a handsome payday. He will be paid $20 million of his $25-million fee upfront to star in and produce the fourth "Mission" film, which is scheduled to hit theaters Memorial Day weekend 2011.
But he won't collect a hefty "first dollar" cut of box-office receipts that entitles stars to skim a movie's revenues before the studio earns back its huge investment and gets a fee for distributing the film, according to people familiar with the deal. If that seems sensible, it wasn't always the case.
Cruise's pay structure illustrates the "new normal" for Hollywood's A-list actors and filmmakers, who no longer can command the super-rich deals that awarded them swollen payouts on movies even when the studios lost money. With once-reliable DVD sales that propped up movie profits in a swoon, the studios are no longer willing to accept second financial billing to talent.
"Over the last 25 years, agents were getting better and better deals for their clients because the studios were star-dependent," said Jeremy Zimmer, a partner at United Talent Agency. "Now, there's a complete retrenchment where the studios are less star-dependent and making fewer movies, so they're more willing to walk away unless a deal makes sense for them."
snip
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
I been laid off from work My rent is due My kids all need Brand new shoes
So I went to the bank To see what they could do They said son - looks like bad luck Got-a hold on you
Chorus: Money's too tight to mention I can't get an un-em-ploy-ment ex-ten-sion Money's too tight to mention
ping
Of interest.
“He will be paid $20 million of his $25-million”
Barf...
Cruise’s film career has been controversial?
who cares
Oh, ya mean the Hollywood Fat Cats?
There is a lot of reaearch that A-lists stars have zero impact on the BO. Look at the biggest franchises in recent years. None of them have been star driven.
I guess it’s about time for me to see Mission Impossible I, II and III... :-)
Just the move from analogue film to digital recording and distribution; will have a drastic effect on the pay of movie stars.
The film stock for shooting a movie & making thousands of prints costs at least $10 million. Every other expense in movie making and distribution is inflated as a result. A movie needs to draw a huge audience, just to break even. Studios have been willing to pay stars seven figures, in order to “guarantee” a large audience.
With digital recording & distribution, the fixed costs of movie making goes down. Therefore, promotion budgets can be smaller, etc. Therefore, the studio can take a chance on using less famous talent & save tens of millions on pay for stars.
Its ok for an actor to earn $20 mil but not a banker who’s trying to hold this Country together. Where’s the outrage Premier Hussain?
Pray for America
His kind of movie just sucks. 12 mercenaries with automatic weapons spraying fire in his direction and MISS. He fires once with his widdle pistol from 200 yards away and HITS. And then you get the gauntlet scene where he runs thru a gauntlet of automatic weapon fire, shooting TWO widdle pistols, one in each hand, and dodging bullets, and hitting targets. And then the explosion in the background where his shockwave blown air speed is faster than the shockwave blown shrapnel speed.
parsy, who gets sick at this kind of movie
http://newsafternewspapers.blogspot.com/2010/02/earnings-season-newspapers-finish-14th.html
Earnings season: Newspapers finish 14th straight revenue-losing quarter; some intel from Wall Street filings
http://www.homemediamagazine.com/redbox/analyst-sales-window-could-drop-redbox-revenue-50-18453
Analyst: Sales Window Could Drop Redbox Revenue 50%
MI3 was pretty good. 2 sucked. 1 was good too.
LMAO!
If you didn’t know the back story ...
inneresting
Ill take Tom Cruise over some ot the other hollywierd Idiots any day...
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