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Tom Cruise and 'M:I4' -- the new reality of film deals (Dinosaur Media DeathWatchâ„¢)
Los Angeles Times ^ | February 15, 2010 | Claudia Eller

Posted on 02/14/2010 3:09:00 PM PST by abb

It's hardly a secret that Tom Cruise is no longer Hollywood's top-gun star.

The 47-year-old boyish-looking actor has had a rough stretch, from an embarrassing jumping episode on Oprah Winfrey's couch to the clunker "Lions for Lambs." Many believe that his controversial career has peaked.

Now, in order to revive his big-screen role as dashing secret agent Ethan Hunt in Paramount's "Mission: Impossible IV," Cruise consented to a deal that would have once been unthinkable: He's forgoing a preferential slice of the movie's ticket sales, the sine qua non of clout in Hollywood.

Cruise will still earn a handsome payday. He will be paid $20 million of his $25-million fee upfront to star in and produce the fourth "Mission" film, which is scheduled to hit theaters Memorial Day weekend 2011.

But he won't collect a hefty "first dollar" cut of box-office receipts that entitles stars to skim a movie's revenues before the studio earns back its huge investment and gets a fee for distributing the film, according to people familiar with the deal. If that seems sensible, it wasn't always the case.

Cruise's pay structure illustrates the "new normal" for Hollywood's A-list actors and filmmakers, who no longer can command the super-rich deals that awarded them swollen payouts on movies even when the studios lost money. With once-reliable DVD sales that propped up movie profits in a swoon, the studios are no longer willing to accept second financial billing to talent.

"Over the last 25 years, agents were getting better and better deals for their clients because the studios were star-dependent," said Jeremy Zimmer, a partner at United Talent Agency. "Now, there's a complete retrenchment where the studios are less star-dependent and making fewer movies, so they're more willing to walk away unless a deal makes sense for them."

snip

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cruise; dbm; hollywood; movies
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To: PAR35

I refuse to pay $20 myself, but the wife will sometimes cave for the kids who want one of their “must have” collections that come out.


41 posted on 02/14/2010 5:01:50 PM PST by Abathar (Proudly posting without reading the article carefully since 2004)
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To: abb
I look forward to the day when actors are wholly unnecessary to produce films. With computer generated characters, the technology isn't too far from creating any image doing any thing. At that time, actors will cease to exist - except in Washington.
42 posted on 02/14/2010 5:16:05 PM PST by WorkingClassFilth
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To: abb
Wal-Mart Stores and Procter & Gamble are jointly creating a made-for-TV movie, in an effort to promote “family-friendly” alternatives to what they say is increasingly risqué TV fare.

The movie, which focuses on a single mother....

Of course, they leave out the man / husband / father. When did husbands/fathers become such a taboo? Why does every other drama have to have a single mother? Sheesh.

43 posted on 02/14/2010 5:50:25 PM PST by IDontLikeToPayTaxes
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To: The Comedian

Have you noticed how these scenes are becoming obligatory now? Sorta like the obligatory sex scenes in the later 70’s and 80’s. Its like they can’t make an action film without it. I think the first “explosion” one was one of the Rambo movies. But I am getting old and my memory is going. At any rate, they are way past tiring. The newer James Bond (about anything past Roger Moore) movies are just silly. I think I read somewhere that these movies are made with the aftermarket in mind and the sophistication level one finds in lower class neighborhoods in the Mid East. I wouldn’t doubt it. But it does make you appreciate “No Country for Old Men” and “In The Electric Mist”.

parsy, the movie critic


44 posted on 02/14/2010 6:33:34 PM PST by parsifal (Abatis: Rubbish in front of a fort, to prevent the rubbish outside from molesting the rubbish inside)
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To: dennisw

Not bad but it sounds like somebody got the idea from this classic country number.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jDleaINJKU


45 posted on 02/14/2010 7:04:07 PM PST by RipSawyer (Trying to reason with a leftist is like trying to catch sunshine in a fish net at midnight.)
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To: SkyPilot
Many, many movie audiences are much less apt to even see a movie if he is in it.

That would include me.

Tom Cruise, control freak.

46 posted on 02/14/2010 9:13:33 PM PST by happygrl (Continuing to predict that 0bama will resign)
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To: Cyropaedia; agere_contra
"Collateral" was the last Cruise film I saw.

I thought it captured his real essence.

47 posted on 02/14/2010 9:16:55 PM PST by happygrl (Continuing to predict that 0bama will resign)
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To: parsifal

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910905/

Never heard of it until your post.

Thanks for the tip, Film Critic parsy!


48 posted on 02/14/2010 9:22:12 PM PST by happygrl (Continuing to predict that 0bama will resign)
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To: abb

Man, you are right about that. THAT is significant news. Once more companies realize they can be in the film business (now that the cost of making movies has gone way done, as has the cost and trouble of distribution, and fewer projects are star-driven), the studios are goners.

Look at those films made by that little church in Georgia. One was called “Fireproof,” I think. All the actors except one lead were just folks in the congregation, and the film was quite good. It certainly didn’t come off as amateurish compared to a lot of studio drivel.


49 posted on 02/14/2010 9:25:33 PM PST by fightinJAG (Behold the Republican Super-Minority !! (h/t ArchAngel1983))
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To: happygrl

Even the music is great:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9752u61LqEg

parsy, who loves this song


50 posted on 02/14/2010 9:26:57 PM PST by parsifal (Abatis: Rubbish in front of a fort, to prevent the rubbish outside from molesting the rubbish inside)
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To: WorkingClassFilth

>>>I look forward to the day when actors are wholly unnecessary to produce films. With computer generated characters, the technology isn’t too far from creating any image doing any thing. At that time, actors will cease to exist

Here’s a preview of what you want. Using that scenerio they made a good little movie nobody has seen. S1m0ne (2002)

A producer’s film is endangered when his star walks off, so he decides to digitally create an actress to substitute for the star, becoming an overnight sensation that everyone thinks is a real person

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0258153/

As for Cruise, besides being a Scientology he is a mouth-breather. Watch and you will see, his chipmunk teeth are on permanent display. He doesn’t close his mouth.


51 posted on 02/15/2010 1:10:51 AM PST by tlb
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To: parsifal
But it does make you appreciate “No Country for Old Men” and “In The Electric Mist”.

In The Electric Mist..... I have read all of James Lee Burke's books and love them all, especially the Dave Robicheaux character. Tommy Lee Jones was great, but they butchered the book in that movie.

52 posted on 02/15/2010 1:37:06 AM PST by Rummyfan (Iraq: it's not about Iraq anymore, it's about the USA!)
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To: parsifal
The newer James Bond (about anything past Roger Moore) movies are just silly.

Not true. Daniel Craig's first Bond feature, Casino Royale was better than any of the Roger Moore installments.

53 posted on 02/15/2010 1:52:03 AM PST by Cyropaedia ("Virtue cannot separate itself from reality without becoming a principal of evil...".)
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To: Rummyfan

I haven’t read them all yet but I’m working on it. There was another one that made it to film, Heaven’s Prisoner, I think but I haven’t seen it in a while.

parsy


54 posted on 02/15/2010 7:32:47 AM PST by parsifal (Abatis: Rubbish in front of a fort, to prevent the rubbish outside from molesting the rubbish inside)
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To: abb

So he’s “only” going to pocket 25 mil from this movie. Guess he will have to tighten the belt like the rest of us.


55 posted on 02/15/2010 2:51:05 PM PST by MovementConservative (Love my Mariners. Certain 2010 AL West Champs!)
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To: MovementConservative
So he’s “only” going to pocket 25 mil from this movie. Guess he will have to tighten the belt like the rest of us.

True, but it still is quite a trim from the $80 million he got from MI 3.

56 posted on 02/15/2010 3:06:29 PM PST by abb ("What ISN'T in the news is often more important than what IS." Ed Biersmith, 1942 -)
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To: parsifal
Well of COURSE they couldn't hit him.... too small of a target. ;)

amd; who didn't know midgets were sex symbols, and doesn't think “boyish” applies to this 47 year old in any way other than his physique.

57 posted on 02/15/2010 3:13:26 PM PST by allmendream (Income is EARNED not distributed. So how could it be re-distributed?)
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To: happygrl
Watch Cruise in “Magnolias”.

An amazing performance, but then again he was playing a reprehensible scumbag hawking his book to socially awkward guys on how he thought they should treat women, entitled “Seduce and Destroy”.

I hear Cruise is up to Ch 10 on Katie Holmes. ;)

58 posted on 02/15/2010 3:19:25 PM PST by allmendream (Income is EARNED not distributed. So how could it be re-distributed?)
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To: allmendream

LOL! Like Alan Ladd and his step stool. I think this guy did a better “Top Gun”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nKuoNhihh4

parsy, the strange


59 posted on 02/15/2010 3:24:24 PM PST by parsifal (Abatis: Rubbish in front of a fort, to prevent the rubbish outside from molesting the rubbish inside)
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To: allmendream
Katy Holmes' contract may run out soon;-)

The only wife who really got what was promised was Nicole Kidman, although it may have been a case of sheer talent in her favor.

60 posted on 02/15/2010 9:28:12 PM PST by happygrl (Continuing to predict that 0bama will resign)
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