Budget breakdown on "The Village" - FYI

The talent fees must have been the upfront guarantees, before their back end/profit participation kicked in. The film grossed over $250M at the global box office. (of which, ~ $115M went to the production company) One has to figure another $200M in other revenues - airlines, hotels, PPV, TV, cable, DVD's.

And, fwiw, M. Night Shamalan's net worth (off the various internet sites) is estimated at around $50M.
 
Thanks. Hey, has anyone noticed that M. Night Shyamalan's movies, until recently, could have been made by any of us --- albeit with a no-name cast.

The Sixth Sense: No exotic locations, just some make-up
Unbreakable: The train wreck takes place off screen. There is some TV news footage of the aftermath, which you could do with stock footage or a model.
Signs: Shot on a farm. Only special effects are costume.
The Village: Shot in the woods. Only special effects are costume.

I haven't seen The Happening, and obviously The Last Airbender and After Earth have complex effects. But for a while I was thinking that the man was using some sort of philosophy ("No matter how much money I have, I will never make a movie that I couldn't make as a film student" or something like that).
 
combatentropy said:
Thanks. Hey, has anyone noticed that M. Night Shyamalan's movies, until recently, could have been made by any of us --- albeit with a no-name cast.

The Sixth Sense: No exotic locations, just some make-up
Unbreakable: The train wreck takes place off screen. There is some TV news footage of the aftermath, which you could do with stock footage or a model.
Signs: Shot on a farm. Only special effects are costume.
The Village: Shot in the woods. Only special effects are costume.

I haven't seen The Happening, and obviously The Last Airbender and After Earth have complex effects. But for a while I was thinking that the man was using some sort of philosophy ("No matter how much money I have, I will never make a movie that I couldn't make as a film student" or something like that).
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Let me save you an hour and a half of your life. One of the worst movies I've ever seen. Worse than Ishtar. I practically ran out of the theater as soon as the credits began to roll. God, I which I could have that 90 mins back...
 
The Village earned 256 million USD worldwide. And remember that The Village didn't have actors like Mel Gibson or Bruce Willis. After Earth was marketed as a Will Smith movie by Sony and Shyamalan's name was not there in the promotional material. Else, that would have made more.

His latest film The Visit was made with 5 million and got some 150 million or so. Can't trash a man who can make a film with 5 million and make 150 million.
 
It looks like Bryce Dallas Howard (whose screen time was almost the entire running length of the film) only made $150K upfront, while all the other principals were in the $1.2M to $5M range. I wonder what she made on the back end.
 
QuickHitRecord said:
It looks like Bryce Dallas Howard (whose screen time was almost the entire running length of the film) only made $150K upfront, while all the other principals were in the $1.2M to $5M range. I wonder what she made on the back end.
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Nothing (just her SAG minimum).
 
The Village and Signs are actually my two favorite movies of his. The Sixth Sense was spoiled for me by Howard Stern who mentioned a twist ending so I was looking for it from the beginning and figured it out in the first five minutes. The Village was the film of his that got me with the twist. Unbreakable while decent, never really did much for me. Everything else, eh. Though admittedly I don't mind The Last Air Bender. It helps that at the time my son was young and into it so I saw it through his perspective more than my own. He much prefers the anime though.
 
I took my first date to see Unbreakable. It turned out not to be such a great choice for a date movie, but I enjoyed it enough to buy a VHS copy at my local Blockbuster a few months later. Those were the days.
 
I think The Village was Bryce Dallas Howard's first movie other than some little kid cameos in her dad's films, and a big breakout role for her. Still she did carry the film and it's a classic story of Hollywood (and general) sexism that she only got SAG minimum. But we don't know that these are the final numbers, as only one other role has an actor actually cast (note that Adrian Brody, William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver, the movie's other big stars, had apparently not yet been cast). This is a preliminary budget, not an actual budget. This is a document built when the film was in planning stages, so that the studio could assess the costs and values connected with the production.
 
I don't think sexism had anything to do with Howards salary. If the union would allow it she would have done the role for free or any other actor male or female in the same position career wise (and everyone involved knows it). Producers will shave every dollar they can (hopefully without affecting the films quality) until they are put in a corner and then they throw money at the problem to resolve the situation that usually could have been avoided with reasonable planning and foresight. I worked on a studio pic reasonable budget (40mil) that insisted they were not going to pay for hundreds of extras for a crowd scene. First day the casting company was able to attract a third of what they needed. After two hours they pulled out the check book and rolodex (a while ago) and started paying what they needed to get the stands filled for the required days.
 
lambert said:
I don't think sexism had anything to do with Howards salary. If the union would allow it she would have done the role for free or any other actor male or female in the same position career wise (and everyone involved knows it)...
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That is the standard fee for a supporting role in a Tom Cruise film - nothing. (aka the SAG minimum).

This doesn't make the line any shorter or the agents calls any less urgent.
 
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