Thursday, December 9, 2010

I KNOW BECAUSE THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER PUBLISHED IT: James L. Brooks' romcom How Do You Know cost $120 million to make (minus $20M in tax credits from Phila and DC), including $40M in salaries between stars Paul Rudd, Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson and Jack Nicholson. Before you click on that link, guess how much of that $40M went to each of them.

16 comments:

  1. Pre-click--$15 to Reese, $10 each to Wilson and Nicholson, and $5 to Rudd.

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  2. Also, I expect it's going to do pretty well.  Tron doesn't seem to have "crossover Blockbuster" written all over it, Gulliver and Yogi look like disasters, early buzz on "Little Fockers" is nothing short of god-awful, and I don't think "This Christmas: VENGANCE" is going to be a terribly effective tagline for True Grit.  It's got the adult/upscale/light demographic pretty much to itself, and there's at least one performer in the movie for everyone.

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  3. Meghan10:04 PM

    That Paul made $3M to Owen's $10M just destroys my sense of what's right in the world.  I do, however, love that Reese made more than Jack.  Did not expect that.

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  4. Joseph Finn10:13 PM

    Pre-Click $10 each for Rudd and Wilson, $15 for Whitherspoon, $20 for Nicholson's 5-10 minutes.

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  5. Joseph Finn10:15 PM

    Whoops, messed up my math but sticking to my proportions.  

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  6. pre-click, guessed the order as Reese, Jack, and Wilson and Rudd at the same amount. surprised that Rudd's is so much lower than Wilson's.

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  7. Hannah Lee10:19 PM

    Yeah, I'm with you one the Wilson-Rudd disparity.  I had guessed Witherspoon, Nicholson @ $15m each, and Rudd, Wilson @ $5m each.  Wilson must have an really good agent. 

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  8. Aristophanes10:22 PM

    I was not prepared for the piles of money thrown at Wilson compared with Rudd. He's a national treasure! Isn't he more famous by now than Wilson?

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  9. Let's look at the numbers: 

    Paul Rudd--Top grossing movies as a lead?  Dinner for Schmucks (73M), I Love You, Man (71.5M), and Role Models (67M).
    Owen Wilson--Last movie with him as a lead grossed 143M, and has had a 200M grossing comedy with him as co-lead.

    Actually, if anyone's overpaid, it might be Witherspoon--her numbers aren't as spectacular as you might think, in part because she hasn't worked much in recent years.

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  10. I Love You, Man and Role Models both made around $70M.  So did Dinner for Schmucks.  And he's more easily replaceable than Wilson -- just bring in John Krasinski.  

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  11. Maggie11:01 PM

    I will totally see this movie - it was filmed a few blocks from my office last year and have "fond" memories of tripping over a ginormous cable on my way to the office on a Saturday.  Still have a scar from the huge strawberry on my knee.

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  12. I like John Krasinski as much as the next person (maybe more), but he's no Paul Rudd. 

    Count me in for seeing this one. As a huge fan of Broadcast News, I'll give it a shot as much for Brooks as for Witherspoon and Rudd. 

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  13. bella wilfer1:22 PM

    Not surprised about the salaries. Surprised at how much I hate the poster. Am I alone?

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  14. isaac_spaceman2:27 PM

    On the one hand, this looks terrible.  If the most sellable joke in a movie is that a guy's heartfelt declaration is that he is so sad that he broke a lamp, the rest of the movie is going to be torture. 

    On the other hand, Valentine's Day might have been the worst movie ever made, and it was a hit.  This looks like basically the same movie (in general, not specifically plotwise) with what will certainly be better execution, so it will probably make enough money to justify the cast salaries. 

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  15. Carrie5:37 PM

    Poster is awful. Movie very much in vein of As Good as it Gets. I liked it (meaning HDYK). Never understood why so many movie geeks condescend to Brooks, who inevitably gets tarred with the "he brings sitcom values to the big screen" brush. No sitcom would dare to be as mordant as his movies.

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  16. Carrie5:38 PM

    p.s. to Spaceman: Fortunately the movie is very different from the trailer, which is as bad as the poster. 

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