Yeah that’s fair and I agree if this was funded by some big corporate studio, $750k is pennies to them, not exactly a big risk. I’d be willing to listen to the contributors making more in profits in that regard. However, even Curry isn’t quite participating in the full profits. To my knowledge, he sold the film for $15m before it went to theaters (still a 20x return). Sort of like the stock example, he sold his share at 20x and the film ended up doing 400x. I get why he sold it 20x on your first film is insane. But I would also say the same thing if he came back complaining he wanted more. Like I’d feel for him, I know he created this amazing smash hit, but he sold it. If anyone could just reneg on payments after the fact, trade cannot exist and all markets can essentially collapse. These agreements must be upheld at that base level, even if it sucks sometimes.
Fair point on RoTS but I would counter that part of the subpar performance is a dialogue issue (the famous “I don’t like sand” + countless examples). Particularly w/ Hayden Christensen he absolutely kills it on conveying emotions, facial expressions, and the physicality of the light saber duels. Don’t get me wrong he didn’t knock it out of the park, but a lot of the issues kind of link back to production.
I don’t watch WWE but I 100% understand its appeal. The NFL steals sooo much from WWE in terms of creating drama and storylines each season. That’s why they’re the king of American sports. And diehard sports-only fans call it gay but me and many others root for storylines we want to see play out.
No I definitely get it, eating a great dish at home vs in a restaurant isn’t the same. Restaurant is better.
But it’s still a great dish regardless of atmosphere.
Eating a shit dish inside a great restaurant still sucks no matter what. I think I have your analogy right here, but my point is production can elevate a mid-to-great performance, but it can’t save a subpar performance. On the flip side, a subpar production can be saved by a great performance.
Aka eating an incredible meal inside some hole-in-the wall shack.
It’s not optimal, but at least the meal is great.
Trust me I understand there’s nuance to pricing and wages. Sometimes people get underpaid because the industry ‘perceives’ their value as less. But in the long run, the market always corrects itself. The film industry has hundreds of years of sales data to suggest that actors and directors draw box office. If they didn’t, BELIEVE ME they would pay those folks as little as possible too!
The thing is, they know they can’t pay big actors small $. Some other studio would offer more, knowing they’d make more money from booking that actor. Thus the market adjusts itself.
Now does the industry probably lean on those standards too much sometimes? Absolutely. Netflix churns out piles of slop with [insert huge name] that flop and get forgotten. They have overindexed on big names and disregarded good writing, and to your point, probably art direction. The market will correct itself again as those projects continue to fail.
I get it seems insane but that’s indie movies. High risk, high reward. Whoever put up the $750K to finance the film risked losing generational wealth if it flopped. Thus they get to participate in the returns.
It’s kind of like the stock market. If you bought a small share of a risky stock and sold for 10% gain, you can’t get mad at the majority shareholders when it goes up 3,000%. You sold your share, you got paid what you were owed. It sucks when it happens but the lesson is invest in what you believe in. Could she have negotiated 0 salary for like 1/10th of a percent of revenues? Probably. That would’ve netted her $300k. You gotta spend money to make money.
@Jejjune@Taskah60@Dexerto Stars Wars btw is one of my favorite franchises ever, I was simply illustrating how u can boil anything down to its dumb tropes and cliches if u want to be unfair.
Man catch football = hero’s journey/tragic hero tropes, space edition.
Both are surface level and dumb.
@Jejjune@Taskah60@Dexerto Totally agree but I’ll add that shite wrapped in gold is still shite. Great production cannot save awful acting/narrative, but great acting/narrative can SOMETIMES salvage awful presentation
Yes, I agree, but that’s also my point. Her face is front and center. She’s what sells tickets. Her performance is what everyone’s talking about, and by far the biggest thing putting butts in seats to generate $.
Art direction is obviously important or they wouldn’t pay people to do it. It’s just simply not a box office draw 99% of the time. Avatar is one of the rare exceptions to that rule, and even then (to your point) a big part of the draw there is the world, and the director James Cameron.
@Jejjune@Taskah60@Dexerto Appreciate it man. Same with you, as I mentioned in my last comment I like the way you are thinking about what actually sells the tickets. That’s the whole point. It’s not that her work sucks by any means it’s just never going to be what generates 300 million for a studio
I like how ur thinking finally. You are correct, word of mouth sold most of these tickets. You are correct, the art direction contributed in some fashion to people’s positive word of mouth.
You are woefully misguided if you think the vast majority of people’s positive word of mouth was not generated by the acting and narrative.
Again, this is not a movie known for technical achievements. It’s a small budget indie filmed in like 2 houses, a car, and a guitar shop. I swear to God they could’ve hired me as art director and the film still would’ve made multimillions. Definitely less than 300mill bc I’m way below replacement-level in that field 🤣 but point being the movie was gonna hit with or without this one specific art director…
Presuming it’s marginal by default is actually the only rational assumption here. Based on both her salary, the other available talent willing to accept that level of pay, and known box office draws across the industry (i.e. well-known actors+directors getting paid the largest % of films budget).
Now if she turns out to be the next Avatar-level art director? Come find me and I’ll happily say she proved me wrong! Inde Navarette only made $20k for Obsession but it’s clear she’s lined up to make millions in subsequent roles because her acting IS A FUCKING BOX OFFICE DRAW like come on dude…
@Jejjune@Taskah60@Dexerto Here’s me valuing the human elements of media consumption literally yesterday.
But since u think sports have no artistic merit you will reject this.
Ironic, coming from the deep, high-minded art appreciator you purport yourself to be 🤨
It’s honestly difficult to even spoonfeed u this point bc ur business sense is so lacking.
We are NOT talking about predicting/guaranteeing success. No shit that’s not possible Sherlock 🤣
We ARE talking about quantifying someone’s marginal contribution to a success that’s already occurred.
The first place to go is labor, and though NOT ALWAYS indicative, it’s pretty telling she only got paid $7k. If she was more talented or experienced (i.e. less replaceable) she MOST LIKELY would’ve commanded a higher salary on a higher profile project…
Then u can also just use industry context. Ticket sales are revenue. What drives people to buy tickets? Faces, names, and cool concepts. That’s why actors and directors get paid shitloads. They LITERALLY bring in the money. They are compensated in accordance with their importance to the project.
A fucking beginner art director is replaceable dude, no matter how much you want to deny it. When I was in the beginning stages of my career I was replacement level too! So was pretty much everybody 🤣 you have to make yourself harder to replace in order to get paid more.
Like u thought this was some diss or slight. It’s reality. She didn’t drive box office revenue, she had little to no experience, and she got paid according to her value in the open market. Take it up with Adam Smith bud.
Can’t wait for u to respond that I got these economists from AI too. It’s simply not possible that I majored in Econ and masters in business? Maybe that’s why I commented on these concepts in my exact area of expertise? Nahhh that’s way too far fetched! I don’t understand it, it’s AI slop!! 😭
@Jejjune@Taskah60@Dexerto Marginal utility functions (aka basic economics) not used in all industries?
Interesting. Walras, Hayek, Nash, Keynes all those guys are wrong, ur right 👌
How could value quantification ever apply to art (a product bought & sold)?? Omg ur so deep for thinking arts special.