Tuesday, 25 July 2000

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY: The Hollywood Reporter reports that Martin Lawrence is getting $16.5 million for his next film, Black Knight, which starts after the film he's currently shooting, What's The Worst That Could Happen? (say hello and goodbye to that title, folks), for which he is reportedly getting about $13 million. I rarely get a chance to say this about someone making eight figures, but he's getting underpaid. It's one of those Hollywood phenomena that guys who have consistent hits making lower budget movies creep up the price scale and when they finally reach the top, their movies start costing more and more and the profits really dive. It's almost as though a solid movie star earns $20-$40 million profit per movie (a completely arbitrary figure made up for the sake of this argument) and in their early career, they make $70-$80 million a pop in profit, so later it all evens out when their movies only make money on video and ancillary.

But "evening out" isn’t really the goal, is it? At $20 million or even $25 million, Jim Carrey is still a bargain in a movie that is produced for $50 million or less total. Box office misfire or not, Me, Myself & Irene will break even. And then, if Carrey makes a Liar, Liar (which was a little more expensive to produce…a little), the profits are massive. But as soon as you start making $100 million dramas, I don't care who you are--other than Cruise and Hanks--you are in the danger zone. Even on a movie like The Grinch. Even if it is a near-perfect Carrrey-the-way-we-want-to-see-Carrey confection, you are looking at a movie that must gross over $300 million worldwide to get anywhere near profitability.

Big Momma's House hit actual profit in less than 30 days…and that includes P&A…in North America alone. If Martin Lawrence had been paid $20 million to do it, it would have hit breakeven around now and made a lot of profit n foreign and ancillary markets. Obviously, Fox would rather have the cheaper version. But the scary part is when a Martin Lawrence comedy creeps up over the $70 million mark in costs and suddenly your breakeven is at $180 million worldwide and all of a sudden the international box office is your only hope for making money so you have to change the jokes and the attitude of the movie to allow a bigger audience to connect with it and…and…and…in the end, it's not what it should be as a movie because it's become a commodity first.

Not many filmmakers or stars can rise above that. Those few are the people who become mega-names in this industry. The Hanks and the Cruises, the Spielbergs and the Howards and yes, the Bruckheimers and the Silvers. They commit to who they are and what they do and manage to keep it going year after year after year…sometimes for better and sometimes for worse, but there is a brilliant logic to all the moves. So don't be worried about paying Martin Lawrence $20 million…worry about paying Martin Lawrence $10 million in an effects comedy that costs over $100 million. THAT'S when the hair turns gray.

MONEY MEETS MAGIC: Speaking of mixed visions, Keith Gordon is now on a Disney movie with Francis Coppola as the producer. I'm thrilled that the duo is working and working together and though I haven't read the source material, I'm sure it's interesting. But why Disney? These things drive me nuts. And it's not that I hate Disney. But they don't know how to sell movies that people like Keith Gordon make. Sorry, but it's painfully obvious. The machine just isn't built that way. Maybe M. Night Shyamalan is seen in-house as a filmmaker like Gordon. But he's not. His sensibility is much lighter, even if his photography isn't. Whatever. I hope that Gordon makes a great movie and I'll get to see it even if it never gets the promotion I think it deserves. Or maybe I'll be shocked by the genius of Disney's campaign and commitment to small, intellectual films. I hope that the best of all those options come true. I really do.

FROM COMICON: This comes from one of out Comicon spies…let's call him Mack: "Funny Comicon moment…Harry Knowles stomping to the front of the Bryan Singer line to chat it up only to have Bryan tell him if he wanted an autograph or to talk he'd have to wait in line like everybody else." Yes folks, Bryan Singer puts y'all first. My experience with that was in his Thursday Yahoo! Chat, which he did from his doctor's office, as he waited to have his aching neck examined. The guy was definitely in pain, but he stuck with it and offered to come back for more to make up for his early (45 minutes in) exit. Another X-Men bit that may be the only tape we haven't promoted on this site was out March adventure with the X-Men, also via Yahoo! and Fox. You can see this hour-long X-saga by clicking here.

WHEN BAD IDEAS GET POPULAR: "Who Wants to Be a Movie Star?" has raised over $200,000 via its Yahoo! online auction so far. And suddenly, the stories about the project are getting more and more respectful in media outlets like The Hollywood Reporter. But has anything really changed? We all kind of knew that there would be people out there crazy enough to pay to be in play. And now, it has been proven. Oh the humanity.

"SAG Sags on & ROTD Questions"