How Are Actress and Actors Paid In The Movie Industry?

Question

This is something I always wondered about. Are they paid upfront before the movie even gross? Are they paid by how well the sales are (Movies, rentals, etc). and how are the percentages distributed with so many people in the credits and cast? Thanks for any knowledge on this..

Answer 1

First of all, for the majority, there is SCALE.

   The average salary in 08 for an actor is just under $48K per year. Obviously you can count on your fingers those who make far more, and those who make less can fill a large Metro Phone book.

   Your question might more relate to those million dollar babies, who are contracted at a guarantee, even if the movie fails.

   Any lesser people in a company are paid for their efforts, not at all dependent on the films gross.

   Royalties keep attorneys and the court systems busy, most especially due to DVD's, Trailers, spliced, the WWW, etc.,,which BTW, in the latest news from EGO TOWN, has the actors enraged that anything is accessible to the WWW, and they get ZIP for it.

   IATSE, and the various Guilds and Union, would dictate PAY on demand, most especially within a reasonable period each week and after the end of filming or a final curtain.

Answer 2

WWW.SAG.Org  will give you the exact breakdowns.   Non Union  is paid as a buy out (one time fee only) Union Work  you are paided weekly while you film or if you are a named actor ( Tom Hanks as an example)  this fee is negotiated before filming.    Normal working class actors get paid  upon  the role. Weekly actor gets 3k in change up front. Then when the movie is released in theaters the actors are then paided residuels of the annual gross sales.  Which could be a lot or nothing.   residuels are paid on distribution as well  DVD sales, foreign market and so on.   The bigger the part the bigger the cut and again this can be negotiated before filming

Answer 3

It depends on the contract I know that some times that they do get some money before hand if they need to pay bills, rent or mortages but most of the money or the majority of money is paid afterwards and it gets given to their agent who takes there percentage which is normally around 10%-20% then it is paid directly in to their bank account. I only found this out when I got an agent and i had always wondered about it as well one of thoose things you think about when you have nothing else to think about!

L xox

Answer 4

i think it depends. certain actors get paid upfront before they even shoot the film, they are usually important actors who get paid millions. or sometimes they take percentages of how much the movie made after it comes out.