[US Entertainment] Actor

In the face of this situation, people in the industry have expressed their concerns about the American film market with impassioned enthusiasm. Published their own views on this phenomenon and measures to solve the problem on the movie column.

Such a lukewarm movie market and audience response only happened before 2001.

But 2001 was, after all, five years ago.

Compared with 2001, new series of films have emerged in the film market one after another, the actors who can carry the box office have also changed, and the number of actors with a salary of more than 2000 million has almost doubled. Film series such as Pirates of the Caribbean are extremely popular in the market. It stands to reason that this year's summer file brought together the trio of Pirates of the Caribbean and funny star Adam Sandler. Superstars Tom Hanks and Hugh Jackman, but the popularity of the market is far weaker than in the past.

Experts believe this is due to two reasons.

One is that the summer market favors blockbuster movies too much. The rankings are almost all movies with gorgeous scenes and fierce fighting. Popular romantic comedy films such as "Sleepless in Seattle", "Pretty Woman", and "I'm Crazy About Mary" that were popular in the 2s are increasingly rare in the film market. Choices can only pass the time through commercial blockbusters, but many of them are not fans of commercial blockbusters.

The second is that the proportion of actors' remuneration is too high, which seriously affects the enthusiasm of film production, so that the producers have to cut the cost of filming itself to satisfy the desire of film big names.In this example, some critics cite "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" starring Ebert as an example. Top 2000 on the charts, surpassing Fox's "Alien vs. Predator," which cost $8000 million to produce. Just imagine the likes of Ebert, Kate Winslet, and Kirsten Dunst. If the actors whose salary is hovering at more than 33 million US dollars do not take the initiative to cut their salaries, this movie may not be released at all.

As for the solution, the first one is a method that Hollywood has been discussing for several years but has not been able to actually realize, which is to reduce the salary of actors.

But I'm afraid that the movie superstars who have been on the front line for a long time will never agree.

Their reasoning is simple, every dollar they make doesn't just fall from the sky, they started out with little bits and pieces and took decades to get where they are today and what they are paid, if other people stand in their shoes The position will also not choose to cut salary, but because those people do not have the strength to climb to the top, they can only expect a thorough reform of the entire industry.

In fact, at the beginning of this year, Tom Hanks voluntarily proposed the decision to reduce his salary, and Cameron Diaz also adopted the method of reducing his salary when filming "Holiday", because Sony, who was planning to film "Holiday", Columbia's recent works have been poor at the box office. If Cameron Diaz's high salary is paid as usual, the producers may not be able to bear the pressure of another box office loss.

For the stars, this approach eases the burden on the stars when they fail at the box office, and also wins the favor of the producers, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

The development trend of the film market is now more unpredictable than it was in the 90s. At that time, the box office elixir Cameron Diaz, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks and others were not as strong at the box office. In the past, if an actor stubbornly took a high salary, and the market was weak and the box office of the starring movie was not good enough, the only ending the actor faced would be to be rejected by the producer.

The second method is naturally to open up overseas markets. In fact, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan and other countries have always been the ticket warehouses of Hollywood. The positive response from overseas audiences. With a small profit, Hollywood has now actively targeted the markets of China, India and other developing countries, hoping to set off a frenzy of Hollywood-style movies in these two most populous countries in the world, and alleviate the local box office facing failure due to audience saturation. Awkward.

As a member of superstars, the wave of salary cuts will naturally not affect Leonardo. His salary has risen to 2000 million after the box office hit of "Titanic", and has not dropped since then. Since that movie, Leonardo hasn't had a typical hit at the box office, but the movies starring him, whether it's "The Aviator" or "The Departed", have done well at the box office, which makes his salary even get a lot of money. small increase.

It can only be said that Leonardo's audience popularity is really strong. Even though he always looks sloppy in movies, stubborn fans are still willing to buy a movie ticket for his performance.In addition, it is also because he does not take commercial blockbusters, and the embarrassment of a general box office superstar's salary cut due to a certain film's box office failure will not appear on him.

Although Ebert is a rising star in the $2000 million club, his return on investment is the highest among all Hollywood movie actors.

Ebert's salary did not really rise to 2000 million until "The Departed", but on his resume, the box office figures are extremely impressive.Even excluding "White Night" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" which were not starring in him, his return ratio is surprisingly high!

"The Pentium Age", with a salary of 500 million US dollars, has a total box office of more than 1 million US dollars, and it also comes with an Oscar nomination for best actor!

The salary of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" is unknown, but based on the total cost of 2000 million, the cost of the film must be a not too high figure. Best Actor nomination.

"Batman Begins", with a salary of 1200 million US dollars, the final box office of the film is more than 3 million US dollars. The nomination of the Golden Globe Award winner also proves that Ebert is not only an actor with box office appeal, In terms of acting skills, he also has the strength far beyond others.

Some people have made statistics on the return on investment of Hollywood actors. In this list, Ebert topped the list with a return rate of US$1 for every US$30 invested. This list does not include the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series. Among them, if counted, Ebert's return ratio will increase by several figures.

In Hollywood, even pay cuts are targeted.

Tom Hanks' recent film works have not been very good at the box office. Compared with the peak period of his career in the 90s, his return ratio has indeed dropped a lot, so Hanks took the initiative to propose a salary cut.

But no one asked Will Smith for a salary cut, and even those financial directors who complained every day that the actors took high salaries but could not make profits for the company could not complain about Will Smith. Will Smith can be said to be close to The actor with the best box office performance in several years, although his salary is very high, the high returns he brings make every film company's heart beat.

Ebert's only response to the scene where the film critics were arguing was to turn on the TV, put his legs on Leonardo's, and kick him every now and then.

Under the big wave of asking actors to cut their salaries across the board, not only will Ebert not be affected, but his pay is likely to show an upward trend.

As a future person, Ebert naturally knows that Christopher Nolan's "Batman: The Dark Knight" has become the second highest box office film after "Titanic" as of 2008. Star Wars 7: The Force Awakens, Avatar, and The Avengers all outperformed The Dark Knight at the box office, but this movie also ranked in the top ten of the North American box office, and "Batman: The Darkness" Rise of the Knights together became the only two Warner Bros. works to enter the top ten.

After all, the box office is simply a bunch of numbers, and it is a bunch of numbers that are refreshed all the time. Compared with "Avatar"'s box office of more than 7 million, in 1975 Steven Spielberg took 900 million for 2 million US dollars. The $6000 Jaws is just as legendary, if not more so.

And once "The Dark Knight" is released and the film's box office breaks Warner's record for so many years, Ebert's salary will inevitably increase greatly.

Ebert secretly thought, by then he and Leonardo would have become the leading actors in the first and second highest-grossing movies in film history, thinking about it, I still feel a little excited!

It would be better for James Cameron to postpone the shooting date of "Avatar" a little bit, so that Ebert can imagine the scene of holding the Oscar in his left hand and the box office record in his right hand, which is simply not too cool!

However, as the most successful representative of Hollywood's new male actors, Ebert still responded to the calls of the Screen Actors Union, Producers Guild and Screenwriters Guild, and joined the wave of encouraging high-paid actors to cut their salaries.

After all, compared to actors, the income of screenwriters who play a pivotal role in the success of the film is really low, and even actors, there are two extremes in terms of remuneration, the leading role may take away one fifth to four quarters of the production One of the salaries, the other actors add up to less than a fraction of the leading role. This has something to do with the major film companies competing to chase high-paying actors, but for the development of the entire industry, this situation is very unfavorable.

Actors at the top of the pyramid can get everything they need, and non-leading actors can only get a little salary even if they work hard. As for the actors who are still struggling at the bottom, even if they serve plates in fast food restaurants The acting is lower.

Of course, this is also the result of the marketization of movies, but when the market goes beyond people's expectations and develops in a bad direction, the industry itself has to make changes.