“Entertainers are also a major expense. Their paychecks add hugely to the production cost.”
Your summary statement is excellent and probably understated. This is why tv shows are mired in the so called reality shows and getting their rating butts kicked by the cable outlets.
However, one of my female inlaws, a bean counter, says that the cable shows often follow the same financial suicide road. Their successful shows start with one or a couple of leading actors. In a couple of years there are a half dozen or more regular cast members, who are fighting for screen time and more of the financial pot that often maxes out in about the same time period. The cost per show goes up to the point that they have to have hundreds of mini ads to keep the show going. Then, they lose major advertisers and have to depend on the filler ads re miracle products until you buy them.
Her examples are Leverage with Timothy Hutton and one of his past successes, Nero Wolfe. Wolfe was a success and the costs per production soared as Timothy brought more regulars onto the show and their salaries ate up the show. She feels that Leverage is entering the end stage like Nero Wolfe did with Hutton playing less of a role in most shows
and expanded face time for the other actors each week.
It’s too expensive to make a movie these days. In the fifties and earlier, they made great movies without paying the stars much to be frank. And then of course, there are the additional perks that celebs get that studios pay for. then of course the length of filming and I sometimes wonder if stars are showing up prepared and ready to do their job and do it well. They are getting paid too much upfront and I think that studios should instead pay them a couple million and then let them in on profit sharing. Not twenty million dollars in full. I tihnk that studios are going to start working with more unknowns. “The Young Victoria” was perfect because it used people who were not SO well known that their personal lives overshadowed the movie and actors who knew their parts and acted them, not messing up the accents or doing anything silly.
I don’t think that too many stars that are so established are really trying and putting in an effort. Then some don’t even bother with really promoting the film, they just act out and spout about their causes. It’s not the movie, it’s all about THEM. I wonder how long a lot of these ‘big names’ are going to last if quality products aren’t being put out. I watched “The Warlords” recently and it wasn’t distributed well in the US, despite it being a great movie. I am so SICK of the same thing and these days I just download the movies and shows I want and going to the movies is now pretty pointless.
To me the entire industry is on the verge of collapse. It’s too top heavy and too many people are doing too much of the work while the top enjoys all the benefits. Celebs are the French aristocrats, on the verge of being torn down forcibly.