Debate Big Actor Wages

Personally, I think that the money actors make is 100% ludicrous. There's no way that reading someone else's writing in front of a camera is worth multiple millions. No way.

- Ark

 

I think these actors from today should take a page out of the history books.

Sir Alex Guinesse didn't get any pay for doing the Star Wars movies--instead, he put in his contract that he would get an approved percentage of the gross earnings that the project would make.

Note: He said project, not movies---This man made a killing on royalties on every piece of merchandise and viewing that the Star Wars name made.

Right till the day Obi 1 passed away, he was being paid by Lucas Films. In my opinion, well worth the dollars.

Maybe todays actors/actresses should only get a % of sales. If they make a stink bomb--their wallets will show it.

Vic

 

I agree with you on the over pay issue. I didn't know that other actors put in the % clause in their contracts (must be all Star Wars Fans )

Maybe they should all agree to a much lessor %. Might make them work harder to make better flicks.

Vic

 

You guys are being really unfair to the actors. America is an unashamed capitalistic country. Knowing that, it's perfectly morally correct for actors to take those huge sums of money. A company is willing to pay them a salary for their work. It doesn't matter if that company if McDonalds or Miramax, or if the salary is twenty thousand dollars or twenty million dollars.

Of course I'd LIKE for actors to make better use of their money, but no one should be blaming star actors simply because their talents are so sought after and studios are willing to pay such large salaries.

 

Personally, I view the amount actors get paid the same way I view professional athletes. It doesn't make any sense. The only contribution these people make to society is entertainment, and half the people out there can't stand them anyway. Explain to me how someone like Clooney or Kidman or Banderas should get more money than someone like a farmer who produces the food we need to survive, or the police officers who protect the common man (basically, anyway).
The cast of Friends have, for the last three years or so, been paid over a million dollars per episode. That's more money than I'm likely to see in my life, for saying a few lines in front of a camera.
And how about live stage? I know a lot of people who would rather watch a play than a half-assed overbudgeted sit-com or movie, but theatre actors don't make nearly what screen actors do. Probably due to the size of the audiences.

I agree that actors should get a percentage of the earnings, though. That way, they share in the success and the failures.

 

I wonder when humanity decided that actors were more important and deserved to be treated like royalty instead of, say, the people who teach our children, the social workers who help people repair their family relationships, the people who save lives in medicine/firefighting/police work, or just those who muster up the energy to go to a job that they hate every day so they can afford to eat. While actors and actresses are buying their fifth car or getting those $20,000 dollar "goodie bags" at the Oscars, regular people might be worrying about whether they will have a place to live the next day.

Interesting, the way things are nowadays.

 

Come on, femme_fetale and Novus, you're being totally unrealistic. Teachers don't make movies for a country that loves movies like nothing else. Social workers don't make music that millions of people want the albums of. Doctors aren't in front of a TV camera every week, delivering funny lines that make America laugh on a consistent basis.

It's like I said before, huge corporations know that by giving actors and musicians enormous amounts of money, the average population will likely give them their back in the form of sales for movies, music, and everything else. The farmers, policemen and everyone else are paying the salaries of those entertainers by buying CDs, going to the movies, and watching TV shows. the If you want to blame someone, just don't blame the entertainers themselves. Blame the corporations, the audiences, whoever you want, but when entertainers have literally millions of dollars dangled in their faces, it's easy to see why they would become such a big target.

 

I'm sure laughing is what America needs more than medicine and proper education...

The question is, do actors deserve every dollar they make? Is it right that they are being given so, so much money? It's not a matter of how come we as mankind place these entertainers on a higher pedestal than the people femme_fatale mentioned, but a matter of whether or not they deserve to be there.

I, for one, don't think that they do. Agreed, when you come home tired and need to relax, the first thing most people do is probably turn on their tv. But at the same time, are these people, the ones who relax us and make us laugh, the people who should be living in four houses with seven cars?

All in all, I don't think providing people with a few minutes or sometimes hours of false happiness should have such a great reward.

 

BakaMattSu, I am in NO way devaluing the wonderful things that teachers, doctors and all the other jobs you mentioned contribute to society. Everyone knows that, when all is said and done, a surgeon is ten times more valuable to society than a movie star.

That said, though, you answered your own question. People like mindless entertainment, plain and simple. What's more enjoyable, learning calculus or watching a busty babe shoot the hell out of some bad guys and save the world? I didn't watch the new Lara Croft movie (And I never will), but I'm not to say that I didn't enjoy the Lord of the Rings movies, and they're among the biggest in terms of blockbuster pop movies.

You also ask if actors deserve the money because it's there for the taking. My answer is YES! That's exactly what I'm saying. Would you blame teachers for accepting an 8-figure salary for doing their job? Of course not. As such, it's ridiculous to expect actors to say, "No, I don't want to make a lot of money because my job isn't as important as other peoples'."

For CDs, however, I'm with you 100 percent, which is why I have about 2500 songs on my hard drive. But that doesn't have to do with the musicians themselves, but the corporations who are overcharging like mad to get more profit, and they DO deserve the decline in sales they're getting.

I just want to stress that I'm no bigger a fan of Jennifer Lopez, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly or any other of the horrible actors and actresses out there than you all are. What I'm simply saying is, just because they make a lot of money doesn't mean they're horrible people. It's unfortunately true that most people think more highly of them than doctors and teachers, but that's just a product of our mass-media culture, where you can't go ANYWHERE without seeing Ben Affleck's face.

 

Really, if the corporate types were smarter, they'd just cut the pay of all the big actors. If every studio did it, the actors would have no choice but to just accept it.
If offered a choice between less pay or no work, what are they going to do, go back to working as a janitor in the same studio, making minimum wage? Hell no.
And of course, there would be the union, threatening strikes, but who really cares? I know a lot of people who are better actors than half the people out there, and are better looking to boot. They could do the same job for less than a quarter of the pay, and just be happy to be doing it at all.

 

I think the reason they make so much money is beacuase they practically have the world watching them every secound. They have no private life. If you guys say that actors aren't needed, I'd like to remind you that voice actors for anime characters make alot of money as well. Without them though, they'red be no anime.

Since the topic of docters not making enough money has been over worked, I'd like to bring up another.
That said, I'd also like to remind you that Movies are not the only form of entertainment. How about art? (Manga?) Personally, I find art more challenging than acting, but thats a different story. And If you realize something, artist make little to no money. And writers? This also aplys to danceing. Why should one form of entertainment, make more money than another?

So I agree with everyone, Actors and actress are over payed.

 

I, personally, would like to see an anime in the style of them old silent black and white movies where the words are just shown in a black screen with a fancy white box around 'em. That'd kick ***. Anyways... Yeah, some of them are over-paid... but Hell, to get to see people like Brad Pitt in Fight Club or Johnny Depp in From Hell and the likes, I dun care.

 

The only thing more rediculous than actor's wages is athlete's wages.

 

Agreed. I don't understand why knocking someone senseless *as in boxing* should allow you to make millions of dollars. I don't see how it furthers society. Besides teaching kids that: VIOLENCE IS GOOD!

please