Posted on 05/20/2005 1:06:46 PM PDT by West Coast Conservative
Lighten up, I was joking! Besides, I'm a geek of a different kind.....LOTR.
I think he got the great deal because each of the following movies were financed by the previous one.
I would think for the newer releases - The Phantom Menace & The Clone Wars and the newest one "The Revenge of the Sith" probably just goes with 80% {or whatever figure they went with} of the gross for him.
I did end up seeing it a third time. I really love this movie. Sure it has its faults, but the story is incredible. You are correct about it being eye candy, too. On my third viewing I was paying more attention to the scenery, and it is unbelievably detailed. The space shots, the battles, the background on Coruscant--you name it. I'm loving this movie.
BTW, did you see the one shot of Hayden Christiansen when he was coming out of shadows and he looked EXACTLY like Mark Hammill in TESB? It was unbelievable. Talk about "like father, like son!"
He can't get 80% of the gross, Fox the distributor has to get something, and the theaters have to get something, the standard is the theaters start off with 20% and it increases as the movie stays in. Now he might be getting 80% after the theaters take their cut, but there's no way in hell he's getting 80% of the total, there'd be no reason for the theaters to show the movie then.
Dang! I was hoping you'd say you didn't like the last two. Now I have to take your endorsement of ROTS with a grain of salt, because I was *extremely* let down by the last two. I'm going to go see ROTS, but as I read more what people are saying about it, I'm getting the feeling I'm going to be let down again -- which is a bummer because I was really hoping to be able to like this one. I grew up with Star Wars and I'd like to see the series end on a high note.
"The rumor I'm hearing is that there will be three more..."
Where? I highly doubt it. GL is developing, writing and directing a live action TV series. Its to take place bet 3 and 4. GL will write and direct the first season and then turn it over to someone else after that.
"As for Portman, she has turned in decent performances in CLOSER and GARDEN STATE. It's more likely the script and the directing. And the fact that she apparently was feuding with Lucas."
There was a lot of blue screen work in Ep. III and Portman just isn't talented enough.
"The novelizations of 7,8 and 9 are pretty interesting, and fun.:
Um Dude they aren't the actual novelizations because GL didn't write them.
Fox is getting something. They got to show TPM and now tonite AOTC on broadcast TV.
Whoopdee-doo. Getting to show two of the movies on TV is hardly a return on a $50 million investment. The standard distribution deal is 1/3 to half of what the theaters don't get. I can see Fox settling for 20% of the post theater cut plus a cut rate on the movies for broadcast, figuring they'll make it up in sheer volume (20% of a HUGE number is nice), but Murdoch is too smart to settle for just making Fox's money back plus broadcast conciderations, that's too much money to leave on the table, Rupert didn't get where he is today leaving money on the table for no good reason.
It is huge. Its during the May sweeps when viewing counts.
That's not huge, actually that's a huge cost, because it means Family Guy and American Dad won't get any sweeps ratings for this week, which will drag down their numbers and lower what Fox can charge for commercials. Sweeps really only matters for regulation TV shows because it sets the advertising rates, for special events like movies it's completely meaningless. And actually sweeps aren't as cool for regular TV shows any more, at least not on major networks, they have enough other sources of data it's just not that big a deal anymore.
What's huge is that a normal distribution deal. Ep 2 made 302 million, with normal deal structure figure the theaters got between 80 and 100 million of that and the distributor got around 100 million, which still left 100 million and change for George, not a bad deal. Now why would Fox spend 50 mill on distribution just to leave the 50 mill of profit on the table? Just doesn't make sense.
Uh, yeah. But from your handle, you obviously enjoyed them, too.
Sounds to me like GL is through with screenwriting and directing. It's an open question how much involvement he would demand over the plot and script for 7-9.
It is hard to overstate the importance of the deal Lucas cut with distributor Twentieth Century Fox nearly three decades ago, when he was a young, up-and-coming director with the single hit movie “American Grafitti” to his credit. Desperate for income to build the technical facilities he needed to realize his special-effects vision, Lucas reportedly accepted a $500,000 reduction in his directing fee in exchange for rights to all sequels and ancillary revenues from “Star Wars.”
As for the ancillary rights, their value hardly could have been dreamt of at a time when VCRs were in their infancy and there were no DVDs, product placements, pay-per-view or fast-food promotional tie-ins. Nor was there any precedent for movies to be used as a vehicle to sell toys, trading cards, T shirts and all the other paraphernalia that are now routine for big-brand franchise movies
As a result of that long-ago deal, Twentieth Century Fox gets a distribution fee for its involvement in “Episode III” which it declined to disclose, but is not involved in the financing of the film, nor does it participate in the “upside” profits after the movie recovers its production costs.
Since they aren't talking, then neither am I, but I would think it covered their print & distribution cost.
You might say the force was strong in George Lucas.
As for me, I am going into carbonite hibernation from this thread. Nighty, night.
Standard distribution deals are a percentage of gate after the theaters get their cut, generally around 1/3, sometimes as low as 1/5 sometimes as high as 1/2. Nothing in there to indicate they're not getting something in that range, which would still be a pretty happy chunk of change.
Go see Shattered Glass. Christensen is very good in that movie about a New Republic staffer who makes stuff up a la Jayson Blaire (sp?). A true story, of course (otherwise they'd have a fake magazine and not use a real magazine).
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