Some may find this interesting, if you've ever wondered about some of the ins and outs of the business.
DTV- Guide.
How Do these movies make their money and how do the lead actors get paid so much?
My findings throughout this relate mainly to the low budget studio and mostly to the following guys: Seagal, Van Damme, Snipes, Lundgren, Norris. Why? Because the system in which these companies work, gain most revenue from these guys, and these are the most well paid of the DTV action heroes.
Firstly the producers gain the financing of their movie (plus a little profit for themselves) through pre-sales. Meaning they have sold the movie to a distributor before the movie is made, and essentially they have made their money back before he film has started. Producers making these movies are basically taking out a loan from the distributors and other financers if you like, but since a movie with say Seagal can guarantee you X amount of dollars worldwide, it’s not much risk and by the time the movie has been out a year, everyone concerned has come off well. The distributers, money men, all get their money back, plus substantial profits, and the producers also earn a profit percentage.
As for the stars? They sell the movie. When a company takes it’s mock up posters etc, around the B-movie film markets (for example the Cannes Film Market) they sell the idea of a film to the money men. As an example “Steven Seagal in a film about stealth fighters.” They MUST have the lead actor in order to get financing. How do the guarantee they can get a movie like this made and line their pockets? They pay Seagal a hell of a lot of money. He earns roughly 5 million dollars a film.
This earning system, whereby, the leading man earns himself roughly a third of the budget, was pioneered in the 80’s by Cannon, headed up by Golan and Globus. Who realised that you could make an action film for little money, and then as long as you had a big star, you had it made. There’s no point paying the Van Dammes and the like, pro-rata, because they’d probably go and earn that sort of money by doing more interesting kinds of projects outside of action.
Here’s a quick rundown of the top earners in the B-market:
Snipes- 5-6mill
Seagal- 5 mill
VD- 4-5mill
Norris- 2-3 mill
Lundgren- 1-2 mill
Some B-movie secrets, tricks of the trade.
The star: The star must be kept happy. If he wants a shot put in, it gets put in. If he wants a shot taken out, it’s taken out. Casting as well, the lead actor has final say. As an example, Anthony Hickox, in his commentary for the Dolph Lundgren movie, Jill The Ripper, stated how hard it was as a director when the star and producer has more power than you. Dolph wanted a shot put in at the beginning, and it was put in. The only re-shoots in the movie were at Dolph’s bequest as well. Producers want future relations with these stars. The want the star to be happy, come back and shoot some more films with them. An ideal situation is get a star in a multi picture deal. Nu Image now find themselves shunned by Steven Seagal, and that means they have lost a seriously good money-maker. Or you could say they ballsed up big time.
The Director: As I said, the director is pretty locked creatively. He must deliver the film, by a set time, within budget. It’s difficult to show creativity because you are heavily confined. The producers give you a script, and (most of the time) the director CANNOT change it. He has to shoot from the page. Inevitably the only time a script is changed is if the director himself wrote it, and the producers, change the plot. For example Sheldon Lettich, who has done some of Van Dammes most popular movies, like Lionheart, and Double Impact, directed Last Patrol, with Dolph Lundgren. Both he and Dolph were promised they could alter the script, but they weren’t allowed. The script was written by the producers, who has previously done mediocre TV stuff and they didn’t allow any Leigh way for changes, believing blindly they’d written something great. The movie turned out awful and the producers had also foolishly lost relations with Dolph. Directors often make shot choices against their better judgement in essence to save time. Tony Hickox for example in Stormcatcher, had a few hours to shoot 8 pages of (naturally poor) dialogue. Rather than annoying and lengthy set-ups, he shot it all handheld and kept the camera moving, all in the name of time saving. Hickox in his commentary for Stormcatcher calls the film “a piece of ****!” and also wished that Mystery Science Theatre could do a commentary on it.
Producers:
Usually businessmen, and usually with little understanding of film. Quality comes second to money for most of them. Again they try hard to brown nose the star. The hire a director to shoot it, quickly and easily. If they can’t find an experienced director to shoot the film, they turn to a member of a transferable department, so they might give it to one of their writers, DP’s or second Unit directors. As an example, Don E Fauntleroy, Mercenary For Justice. That way the movie gets shot quickly and they have someone they can control. DTV action films are a producers medium, not a directors. Sometimes a producer directs the film himself, most usually to disastrous effects with the film looking like it was shot from a beginners text book of filmmaking. There’s the odd occasion when a producer thinks beyond the money and for quality, or when a new upstart film producer wants to do good things, but on the most part, a director will tell you that a producer is a talent-less businessman.
Some tricks from the producers:
-Stock footage: Some movies use stock footage, to make the film look more expensive. Similarly it’s sometimes the case that a film is actually written around stock footage and again this saves time and money on acutally shooting a lot of film yourself. Often a producer will recycle his library footage from one film to the next. You may notice some B-movie companies seem to specialise in films about Submarines, Jet Fighters, Stealth Fighters, for example. An example of awful use of stock footage was in Agent Red, with Lundgren. They actually had the audacity to steal a whole action scene from, get this: Another Dolph Lundgren movie! Naturally from the same producer, they used footage from Stormcatcher.
- These films also must be delivered as in or around 90 minutes. Very rarely is a DTV movie much more than 90 minutes. One trick as well in filling out the time (cause in most cases the film needs filling, not trimming) is to have a lengthy opening credits sequence. This can be done by bulky credits listing, or by showing stock footage relating to theme and setting. Perhaps some aerial city shots of New York, or sweeping vista shots of countryside. Similarly end credits too. Also any shots that seem redundant, and pointlessly inserted are to fill out the runtime.
Writers:
Writers are hired to do spec scripts. These are based around an outline the studio expects. Scripts must be written around the following: Stock footage, budget, CGI, location (Dolph had to come up with a storyline to fit around Bulgarian and Russian locales, in The Mechanik), and must deliver the standard expectations such as a requisite amount of action. Also they must be of a certain type, such as revenge, the die hard movie, the commando movie etc.
A writer won’t be able to sell a script that doesn’t encompass the B-movie way of shooting a film. So it can’t be a big opus, it MUST have action, and it must be a realistic location, or re-write-able as a feasible location.
Some scripts come from the “vault” so to speak. Meaning they have been filed away. These can be films that failed to get off the ground ten years ago, or simply it can mean recycling an idea that the company has already done with another action star. There’s a substantial number of scripts that are dusted off to be filmed, as opposed to scripts freshly written.
Summery
The B action industry is now thriving again. These stars are no longer bankable on the big screen, and were also beginning to slip in the video market, until the DVD boom of about 4 years ago. DVD now means cheaper production, and these films can be released with minimal marketing and will sell many for little outlay because of strong and loyal fan base. This market and way of doing things is quite unique, and it’s always strange to see guys doing straight to video movies, who earn more than people doing big Hollywood movies.
DTV- Guide.
How Do these movies make their money and how do the lead actors get paid so much?
My findings throughout this relate mainly to the low budget studio and mostly to the following guys: Seagal, Van Damme, Snipes, Lundgren, Norris. Why? Because the system in which these companies work, gain most revenue from these guys, and these are the most well paid of the DTV action heroes.
Firstly the producers gain the financing of their movie (plus a little profit for themselves) through pre-sales. Meaning they have sold the movie to a distributor before the movie is made, and essentially they have made their money back before he film has started. Producers making these movies are basically taking out a loan from the distributors and other financers if you like, but since a movie with say Seagal can guarantee you X amount of dollars worldwide, it’s not much risk and by the time the movie has been out a year, everyone concerned has come off well. The distributers, money men, all get their money back, plus substantial profits, and the producers also earn a profit percentage.
As for the stars? They sell the movie. When a company takes it’s mock up posters etc, around the B-movie film markets (for example the Cannes Film Market) they sell the idea of a film to the money men. As an example “Steven Seagal in a film about stealth fighters.” They MUST have the lead actor in order to get financing. How do the guarantee they can get a movie like this made and line their pockets? They pay Seagal a hell of a lot of money. He earns roughly 5 million dollars a film.
This earning system, whereby, the leading man earns himself roughly a third of the budget, was pioneered in the 80’s by Cannon, headed up by Golan and Globus. Who realised that you could make an action film for little money, and then as long as you had a big star, you had it made. There’s no point paying the Van Dammes and the like, pro-rata, because they’d probably go and earn that sort of money by doing more interesting kinds of projects outside of action.
Here’s a quick rundown of the top earners in the B-market:
Snipes- 5-6mill
Seagal- 5 mill
VD- 4-5mill
Norris- 2-3 mill
Lundgren- 1-2 mill
Some B-movie secrets, tricks of the trade.
The star: The star must be kept happy. If he wants a shot put in, it gets put in. If he wants a shot taken out, it’s taken out. Casting as well, the lead actor has final say. As an example, Anthony Hickox, in his commentary for the Dolph Lundgren movie, Jill The Ripper, stated how hard it was as a director when the star and producer has more power than you. Dolph wanted a shot put in at the beginning, and it was put in. The only re-shoots in the movie were at Dolph’s bequest as well. Producers want future relations with these stars. The want the star to be happy, come back and shoot some more films with them. An ideal situation is get a star in a multi picture deal. Nu Image now find themselves shunned by Steven Seagal, and that means they have lost a seriously good money-maker. Or you could say they ballsed up big time.
The Director: As I said, the director is pretty locked creatively. He must deliver the film, by a set time, within budget. It’s difficult to show creativity because you are heavily confined. The producers give you a script, and (most of the time) the director CANNOT change it. He has to shoot from the page. Inevitably the only time a script is changed is if the director himself wrote it, and the producers, change the plot. For example Sheldon Lettich, who has done some of Van Dammes most popular movies, like Lionheart, and Double Impact, directed Last Patrol, with Dolph Lundgren. Both he and Dolph were promised they could alter the script, but they weren’t allowed. The script was written by the producers, who has previously done mediocre TV stuff and they didn’t allow any Leigh way for changes, believing blindly they’d written something great. The movie turned out awful and the producers had also foolishly lost relations with Dolph. Directors often make shot choices against their better judgement in essence to save time. Tony Hickox for example in Stormcatcher, had a few hours to shoot 8 pages of (naturally poor) dialogue. Rather than annoying and lengthy set-ups, he shot it all handheld and kept the camera moving, all in the name of time saving. Hickox in his commentary for Stormcatcher calls the film “a piece of ****!” and also wished that Mystery Science Theatre could do a commentary on it.
Producers:
Usually businessmen, and usually with little understanding of film. Quality comes second to money for most of them. Again they try hard to brown nose the star. The hire a director to shoot it, quickly and easily. If they can’t find an experienced director to shoot the film, they turn to a member of a transferable department, so they might give it to one of their writers, DP’s or second Unit directors. As an example, Don E Fauntleroy, Mercenary For Justice. That way the movie gets shot quickly and they have someone they can control. DTV action films are a producers medium, not a directors. Sometimes a producer directs the film himself, most usually to disastrous effects with the film looking like it was shot from a beginners text book of filmmaking. There’s the odd occasion when a producer thinks beyond the money and for quality, or when a new upstart film producer wants to do good things, but on the most part, a director will tell you that a producer is a talent-less businessman.
Some tricks from the producers:
-Stock footage: Some movies use stock footage, to make the film look more expensive. Similarly it’s sometimes the case that a film is actually written around stock footage and again this saves time and money on acutally shooting a lot of film yourself. Often a producer will recycle his library footage from one film to the next. You may notice some B-movie companies seem to specialise in films about Submarines, Jet Fighters, Stealth Fighters, for example. An example of awful use of stock footage was in Agent Red, with Lundgren. They actually had the audacity to steal a whole action scene from, get this: Another Dolph Lundgren movie! Naturally from the same producer, they used footage from Stormcatcher.
- These films also must be delivered as in or around 90 minutes. Very rarely is a DTV movie much more than 90 minutes. One trick as well in filling out the time (cause in most cases the film needs filling, not trimming) is to have a lengthy opening credits sequence. This can be done by bulky credits listing, or by showing stock footage relating to theme and setting. Perhaps some aerial city shots of New York, or sweeping vista shots of countryside. Similarly end credits too. Also any shots that seem redundant, and pointlessly inserted are to fill out the runtime.
Writers:
Writers are hired to do spec scripts. These are based around an outline the studio expects. Scripts must be written around the following: Stock footage, budget, CGI, location (Dolph had to come up with a storyline to fit around Bulgarian and Russian locales, in The Mechanik), and must deliver the standard expectations such as a requisite amount of action. Also they must be of a certain type, such as revenge, the die hard movie, the commando movie etc.
A writer won’t be able to sell a script that doesn’t encompass the B-movie way of shooting a film. So it can’t be a big opus, it MUST have action, and it must be a realistic location, or re-write-able as a feasible location.
Some scripts come from the “vault” so to speak. Meaning they have been filed away. These can be films that failed to get off the ground ten years ago, or simply it can mean recycling an idea that the company has already done with another action star. There’s a substantial number of scripts that are dusted off to be filmed, as opposed to scripts freshly written.
Summery
The B action industry is now thriving again. These stars are no longer bankable on the big screen, and were also beginning to slip in the video market, until the DVD boom of about 4 years ago. DVD now means cheaper production, and these films can be released with minimal marketing and will sell many for little outlay because of strong and loyal fan base. This market and way of doing things is quite unique, and it’s always strange to see guys doing straight to video movies, who earn more than people doing big Hollywood movies.
