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Hollywood Salaries Are Steadily Dropping

By:
Kristen Bahler
4 min read
Leonardo DiCaprio, who still bags $25 million per picture, is the exception. - George Pimentel—WireImage
Leonardo DiCaprio, who still bags $25 million per picture, is the exception. George Pimentel—WireImage

So Hollywood pay is stellar? Well, actually, actor, director, and producer compensation is going down. The Hollywood Reporter has released salary trends for 2016, with this startling observation for some of your favorite celebrities.

'There's never been a better time to be a CEO," the magazine said in a blog post on Thursday. "But actors, directors, and producers may want to start clipping coupons."

Sure, it's a little tongue-in-cheek — but for an industry where payouts once knew no limit, the data is shocking nonetheless.

Here are some noteworthy changes:

Movie Stars

There was a time, THR notes, when A-list actors would earn $20 to $30 million up front for every picture. Not so these days, when even Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, one of the best-paid actors in Hollywood, nabs just (just?) $19 million a film. Leonardo DiCaprio still makes about $25 million per starring role, but he's in the minority.

As a result, some actors are taking more of an ownership stake in films, compared to previous years. As the publication notes:

Vin Diesel, who gets paid tens of millions for the Fast & Furious movies, recently cut a similar deal for XXX3; sources say he's getting $1 million up front plus an ownership stake. "More and more of these deals will be happening," predicts one producer who works in the studio and indie worlds. "It's smart and modern."

Directors

Like actor salaries, director compensation isn't as clear cut—or as colossal—as it once was. Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Interstellar) is said to be nabbing $20 million upfront and 20% of the gross for his upcoming World War II epic Dunkirk, but that far outpaces most. The average director salary for a studio film is in the $750,000 to $1.5 million range, depending on past credits, according to THR.

... even a director as esteemed as David Fincher can find himself getting nickeled and dimed when a studio is less certain of a project’s future; Fincher lost Steve Jobs to Danny Boyle because he wouldn’t back down from his $10 million asking price (plus, he wanted control of marketing).

Producers

First-time producers are faring better than their predecessors salary-wise, but "once you get to the top of the food chain, you hit a ceiling," THR says.

"For the most part, those super-plum deals that used to spew out tens of millions of dollars now are all but extinct, replaced by stingier cash break-even contracts, where producers don’t get paid until the studio recoups its production and marketing budgets."

Big names are still pulling in the big bucks, though. Superstar producers like Scott Rudin (Steve Jobs, Ex Machina) and Lorenzo di Bonaventura (Deepwater Horizon, Transformers ) make as much as $2.5 million in upfront cash, plus a percentage of box office earnings, THR observes.

 

 

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