comment #1

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

lol@Radcliffe listed as a "filmmaker".

You be careful in picking out that trophy cougar, young man...

I don't think I need to go into how much that Bay total sickens me. He probably had a huge back-end deal with Hasbro on those damn movie toys, too.

How much does this guy give to charity?

comment #2

Rich S. says ...

It's all market driven. Build it, and if they come, you haul off the booty. Bay's movies may suck, but damn if they don't bring in the ducats.

Cameron's number in this same column next year is going to be nothing short of sick.

comment #3

Jonathan Spuij says ...

I think Cameron will earn so much from Avatar he'll be on top of the list for years.

comment #4

TheJeff says ...

Considering that the 13.5 million Pitt earned is ostensibly just for producing The Private Lives of Pippa Lee and The Time Traveler's Wife, that's a pretty sweet deal. He likely earned another 20 million or so for being a Basterd.

comment #5

Eloi Manning says ...

I always wonder why older actors and directors still hold out for these massive paychecks before they consider doing films. Like Harrison Ford. He's probably got more money than God, and he's old now, but he'd still rather do Extraordinary Measures for $20m than some good film for $5m. What is he gonna spend it on? What more does he need?

comment #6

Snoop Marlo says ...

Ford got 20 mil for Extreme Measures? Geez ....

comment #7

Snoop Marlo says ...

Weird. I don't see 'Carrot Top' in the Top 10.

comment #8

Burbanked says ...

I've got three young sons at home, but I also have an iron-clad rule: not a single Transformers movie-branded toy is permitted. Not even as gifts. I only wish several million others held the same standard so as to avoid future movie abominations.

comment #9

Eloi Manning says ...

Snoop: Not sure if he got $20m up front, but the word according to Finke is that he still refuses to lower his usual quote which is why he doesn't make that many movies these days.

comment #10

Snoop Marlo says ...

Does anyone really make 20 mil up front as a starring vehicle anymore? I thought most deals these days are back-ended.

comment #11

jse33 says ...

I thought part of Emmerich's deal with Sony to make 2012 was for him to pocket at least $100 million.

comment #12

corey3rd says ...

Todd Phillips at #5 is hilarious since I remember when he was hustling a semi-faked frat house documentary. Now he's a true Hollywood hustler.

comment #13

Gordon27 says ...

So, wait, did Spielberg do anything besides put his name on 'Transformers'? He can't have made any money off of 'Lovely Bones'.

comment #14

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

I'm a little curious how this list works, too. When did Inglourious wrap? Did that go into Pitt's 2008 earnings? I thought I remembered him getting a $20 mill. payday for that, as well, but maybe he passed on some of that upfront cash for a back-end deal (if so, that gamble certainly paid off)?

Do these earnings include home video? Actors and directors generally don't make too much off of the DVD/BD sales/rentals, do they?

comment #15

lazespud says ...

"Todd Phillips at #5 is hilarious since I remember when he was hustling a semi-faked frat house documentary. Now he's a true Hollywood hustler."

I think it was on Elvis Mitchell's show where he pointed out that the producers were intensely grateful to him for delivering a cheap movie; and it one point when It looked like it would go over budget a bit he deferred his own salary a bit, o something like that. So before the movie was released, they decided to give him a piece of the move.. not points, but an actual ownership piece of the movie. When it turned out that it became the biggest comedy in history, he made major bucks.

He called it "his own personal star wars," which was a reference to how Lucas ownership of the licensing rights to star wars merchandise ended up bankrolling the entire rest of his life...

Philips seemed like a major good guy in the interview and it was clear that he wasn't seeking the ownership deal; it was just given to him by the producers...

comment #16

markj says ...

It's sad to see Harrison Ford these days. I just try and remember him as he was.

comment #17

Gordon27 says ...

"Do these earnings include home video? Actors and directors generally don't make too much off of the DVD/BD sales/rentals, do they?"

The standard deal is that the studios get 90% of the "home video" money off the top, and then the other 10% goes to them also until the movie is "profitable", at which point that other 10% becomes open to other participants.

There are folks who have a better deal than this -- Spielberg is one of the few.

comment #18

Steven Kar says ...

Comment 17,

Also Will Smith. He makes a killing from these kinds of deals.

comment #19

Gordon27 says ...

yeah, I mean, anybody who has *real* pull, because it's a really well known thing the studios have that everybody knows is bullshit, but nobody can get it away from them.

comment #20

Gordon27 says ...

sorry, above, I was unclear -- the other 10% is then treated like box office money (but without exhibitors), so gross participants do get their piece of it, but most of it goes back to the studio.

comment #21

corey3rd says ...

i think the Star Wars comment comes from a time when getting points in a film wasn't those wonderfully worthless "net points." Lucas gave Wolfman Jack points on American Graffiti that paid handsomely. Not to mention points to the stars of star wars.

Nowadays with studio accounting, they make sure that any of those net points never pay off because just expense of figuring of how much you might be owed gets billed against your net points outcome. So your money constantly vanishes no matter how high the box office goes.

comment #22

mtnz says ...

Wow. Down year for Bruckheimer.

comment #23

Phatang! says ...

The Todd Phillips story is that he didn't take any salary upfront because he wanted to be able to choose his cast. So it was all deferred to the back end. That worked out.

DeNiro is, I think, the ultimate "older actor" who only cares about salary. He's apparently upfront about it. Gene Hackman too, to a lesser extent. Why? Who knows. Maybe an actor's thirst for achievement dries out before his thirst for money.

comment #24

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

Gene Hackman has been retired for years, hasn't he??

I'm not really sure this supports your point about his "thirst for money"...

comment #25

Gordon27 says ...

Yeah, but for years prior to that, he said he'd take roles that would pay him over roles that wouldn't because he'd already been heartbroken by taking a small movie he believed in ('Scarecrow') and watching it fail.

comment #26

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

Wow, did he really say that? Isn't that sort of admitting artistic defeat on a pretty exhaustive level? Scarecrow was a loooong time ago, too. That's really depressing, actually. No wonder he quit.

comment #27

Gordon27 says ...

I might be mischaracterizing slightly, and I'd certainly allow for the possibility that the comment is apocryphal, but that's the gyst of it... To be fair, this is also saying that he considers 'Scarecrow' his best and favorite performance, and I've heard that said about 'The Conversation as well.

comment #28

Gordon27 says ...

I guess Hollywood really does screw the writers... Orci & Kurtzman wrote 'Transformers 2' and 'Star Trek'; they exec produced 'Star Trek' and 'The Proposal' (not sure why, I guess they did a re-write)... and they have the TV show (I guess they didn't count this, even for Abrams).

I would've thought they'd make it onto a list like this with a year like that.

comment #29

Gordon27 says ...

I just read that list... Spielberg gets $50 million a year to serve as consultant on a theme park, and has gotten it for the last 23 years.

Sometimes you see something that puts richness into perspective, and it's always weird.

comment #30

mao says ...

To be fair, this is also saying that he considers 'Scarecrow' his best and favorite performance, and I've heard that said about 'The Conversation as well.

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comment #31

Natali Watson says ...

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