comment #1

raygo says ...

Nice work if you can get it ... no one to blame but the ticket-buying public.

comment #2

Ryansi51 says ...

amazing

comment #3

televisiontears says ...

Forgive my big-budget outsider ignorance, but is 20% about average for a project like this? It seems pretty steep.

I know Emmerich would be considered somewhat of a specialist for the material, but wow.

comment #4

Ray says ...

Wow .. that's awesome.

Roland, gimme $20,000 of that monstrous wad so that I can make a little indie movie that could.

comment #5

Gordon27 says ...

"but is 20% about average for a project like this?"

TVtears - it depends on (1) the director and (2) if it has any stars who are a bigger draw than the director. Spielberg gets upwards of 40-50%. In this case, Emmerich is the main draw, and has repeatedly shown that he can make movies that bring in money without major stars.

comment #6

DeeZee says ...

Gordon: Um, 10,000 B.C. and Godzilla were busts.

comment #7

Gordon27 says ...

'Godzilla' did almost $400 mil worldwide; its regarded as a flop more because of expectations that weren't met; they still made a profit before home video on that one. Meanwhile, he has 'ID4' which did $800 mil, 'Day After Tomorrow' which did $550 mil, and are the two movies '2012' was emulating.

Plus, oh yeah, there's the fact that Hollywood itself certainly agrees with me, since they factually gave him 20% of the gross of the movie. But I'm sure you'll argue against that too.

comment #8

televisiontears says ...

Thanks, Gordon. I knew Spielberg got those figures, but figured that was an anomaly. Thanks again.

comment #9

Gordon27 says ...

I believe Jackson set that bar with 'King Kong'. They wouldn't give that much to a director if they were also paying a leading man, though; the director of a Will Smith movie won't get that [unless Spielberg makes 'Oldboy'], because Will Smith is the draw, and studios don't like to give out much more than 30% total [one book I read said that studios actually don't like working with Spielberg as much as you'd think, because he gets so much of the gross].

comment #10

Gordon27 says ...

Hey, is Don Murphy around? I'm wondering what percentage Bay gets off of 'Transformers'.

comment #11

AnimalStructure says ...

Fuck my life...

comment #12

StevenKar says ...

There were article that came out around the time TRANSFORMERS 2 came out that gave estimates of how much BAY made from his movies:

$40 mil from PEARL HARBOUR, $75 mil from TRANSFORMERS 1 (which apparently included a few million from the toys based on the movie...)

What I'm confused about is the whole "first dollar gross" and "20 against 20". Will EMMERICH get the money from the total gross or from whatever is left for the studio to divvy up? And if he was already given $20 mil upfront, does he return it to the studio and keep the $100 mil from the worldwide gross of 2012?

comment #13

Stringer Bell says ...

Emmerich is the Jay-Z of moviemaking.

They know they 'create' absolute crap, but they know it pays handsomely with the idiot masses.

Smart businessmen. Not talents.

comment #14

VictorLazlo says ...

Jay Z, no talent? Wow. You must not be a fan of hip hop.

comment #15

DeeZee says ...

Gordon: Godzilla's considered a bomb, because it didn't make a dime here, and because it was over-priced, given the budgets of the Jurassic Parks.

comment #16

Gordon27 says ...

"And if he was already given $20 mil upfront, does he return it to the studio and keep the $100 mil from the worldwide gross of 2012?"

I'm speaking generally, so it's possible his specific details differ, but generally speaking, "twenty million against twenty percent of the gross" means that he is paid $20 million beforehand. After release, 20% of the gross, but the first $20 million of that [luckily the math is easy; the first $100 million at the box office] goes to pay back the studio.

comment #17

Gordon27 says ...

"Godzilla's considered a bomb, because it didn't make a dime here"

True; if you only go by the US release, the movie only made its money back, no profit. But the foreign gross alone is about double the budget. So it's not really all that floptastic; it clearly made money.

"because it was over-priced"

I love how arbitrary and binary your brain is.