Friday, October 03, 2014

Show us the MONEEE


The Hollywood Reporter unspools a long article (and fairly detailed breakdown) of who gets paid what in Hollywood, top to bottom:

... How bad is the decline in actor salaries over the past decade? Despite the huge sums still being raked in by such superstars as Robert Downey Jr. (his $75 million comes from his 7 percent, first-dollar slice of Iron Man 3, as well as his $12 million HTC endorsement deal) and Sandra Bullock (a 15 percent, first-dollar deal on Gravity and about $10 million more for her summer hit The Heat), most actors are feeling a definite squeeze, especially those in the middle.

"If you're [a big star], you're getting well paid," says one top agent, "but the middle level has been cut out." Sometimes with a hacksaw. ...

Top directors of photography, of which there are probably about 10 to 15 in the industry, can command $25,000 to $30,000 a week on movies that shoot up to 12 weeks ... On a low-budget indie fare, DPs often take home $2,000 to $5,000 a week. On TV productions, the range is $5,000 to $8,000 a week. ...

Your average studio chief — think Alan Horn, Brad Grey and Amy Pascal — earns a base salary of about $5 million. But bonuses and other sweeteners (structured on box office and production output, among other factors) usually amount to two to three times that payday. Plus, the job comes with the best perks in Hollywood, from private jet rides to 24-hour assistants. ...

Here in Cartoonland, the Animation Guild has its own X-ray machine regarding industry wages, and like our live-action counterparts, we have the "good news", "bad news" thing going on. As Deadline observed:

... Salaries for animators are holding fairly steady this year compared with last year. But the reported median weekly pay for some jobs — most notably staff TV writers, feature storyboard artists, and staff story editors — is down from salaries reported five years ago. The median weekly pay reported by feature animation directors is up compared with 2013 and 24% higher than in 2010. Meanwhile, overall employment at the guild, IATSE Local 839, is at an all-time high. About a third of the guild’s 3,200 members took part in this year’s survey, up from 26% last year. ...

Our takeaway from the various wage analyses? People are working, but people are also getting squeezed. Although TAG members are doing better than their below-the-line, live action counterparts, many are essentially holding their own compared to four, five and six years ago.

Studios have grown accustomed to playing hardball, and they have no compunctions about throwing hard pitches that are fast and inside.

2 comments:

Justin said...

The result of a pitcher that throws fast and inside too often is that eventually the batter charges the mound and the benches clear.

Steve Hulett said...

That's one analogy. Peasants with pitch forks would be another.

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