Shared Risk

Nikki Finke is quickly replacing the NY Times for the worst reporting on Hollywood and is proving that blogs are ruining journalism in general, but Hollywood journalism probably more quickly than non-entertainment news (if there is such a thing anymore). (see http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/2007-08-16/#film1)

I totally get questioning the logic behind Jim Carey simply signing a back-end deal. Studios do work hard to hide their revenue, just ask Peter Jackson or Edward Norton. But journalists like Nikki want to have it both ways. They apparently want to ridicule Carey for thinking the studio will pay him anything on the back end, while also speculating that Tom Cruise made $500M on War of the Worlds. They can't have it both ways.

If TC did make $500M on WotW, how did he get paid? Did Paramount pay him $500M cash up front? No way…he was lucky if he got paid $20M up front. Over two-thirds of the $500M estimate comes from TC's collection on the world-wide backend. If the studios do such great bookkeeping that Carey will never see anything, how the heck did TC convince the studio to pay him hundreds of millions, especially when Spielberg was lining up for his backend take too?

I'm pretty sure TC didn't receive that much cash for WotW, or any movie. But I'm also sure he received something, otherwise his agents would be screaming like Peter Jackson's. So Carey's deal is a risky one for him, but it might be the deal that changes the studio picture's cost structure for a generation. If the movie succeeds and Carey makes millions, other stars could line up for this type of deal…and that's win-win for everyone involved, star, studio, and especially the movie-goer.

Stars demanding too much up front is killing the movie business. Studios have resorted to the tent-pole business model just so they can recoup their loses on films with A-list talent and therefore high front end costs that tank. If you can have Will Smith in a film and take $20M plus out of the production costs, you're gonna see a lot more movies being made.

If I had the time, I'd love to go through Poland's list of current stars and what they get paid up front, add all those costs up over the course of a calendar year, and I'm sure you'll find that studios pay hundreds and hundreds of millions on top talent alone. Imagine the movies that could be made if Hollywood had an extra $500M laying around to spend on movies.

I know that's a simplistic way of looking at things since accounting isn't quite that simple. But if stars would share the risk with studios, it would definitely free up funds for more studio films…and that would so sooo cool. I mean, money's so tight now, Rob Schneider hasn't been in a film for nearly two years!!

Joseph Gordon-Levitt

So I just got done watching The Lookout and it was great. What is most impressive about this is the fact that Joseph Gordon-Levitt is in it and he seems to have a great ability to pick films by first time film makers that I seem to always love. Eric is probably very familiar with him because of 3rd Rock from the Sun, but I was not and so when I first saw him in 2001 in the movie 'Manic' (one of my top ten favorite films of all time) I was blown away. I kept thinking, "Isn't he the same goofy kid from that sitcom that Eric keeps telling me to watch? No it can't be."
I then didn't see him in another movie until 2004 when he was in 'Mysterious Skin'. Not my type of movie but once again I really liked him. Then the next year he did 'Brick' which was one of my favorites of the year. Joseph later had smaller parts in two movies that I thought were pretty good 'Havoc' and 'Shadowboxer'. I saw on imdb.com that he had a movie coming out this year but, by another new film maker and I was immediately disappointed. There was no way he was going to get lucky again and make another incredible film...well, this guy keeps on surprising me. The Lookout isn't the masterpiece that Richard Roeper says that it is (it's missing an explosive ending) but it was an excellent film. Definitely going to make my top 1o this year. The question is, when Killshot comes out later this year, which is done by Oscar Nominated director John Madden, will he still be able to be same actor that I am loving so much right now? Granted he isn't the lead star like he was in the other movie's of his that I love so much, but his character Richie Nix is going to be perfect for him. Gordon-Levitt plays cool so well, I'm excited to see him play a guy who thinks he cool when he's really just a "punk".
Anyway, I finally did what I should have done back 2001 and bought stock in him on HSX. He's only at 5.66 so I think there really is no where to go but up for this guy.