Hollywood gets tough on talent: $20-million movie salaries go down the tubes

The L.A. Times reports:

It wasn't so long ago, after putting in years building up his career, that Denzel Washington finally cracked the $20-million star salary club. But now he's taking a sizable pay cut to star in the upcoming 20th Century Fox film "Unstoppable" after the studio threatened to pull the plug on the picture in order to get its costs down. David Fincher used to make $8 million to $10 million per picture, along with a nice piece of first-dollar gross, as an A-list director. But he's taking considerably less money -- and no first-dollar gross -- to get his new Sony Pictures film, "The Social Network," off the ground.

The same goes for "Dinner for Schmucks" star Steve Carell and director Jay Roach. They may be two of the top comic talents in the business, but the duo aren't getting their usual salary quotes for the upcoming Paramount movie. When Julia Roberts told Disney she wouldn't cut her salary to star in the recent comedy "The Proposal," the studio bailed on Roberts, hiring Sandra Bullock for even less than what it had offered Roberts. The movie turned out to be one of the summer's biggest comedy hits.

What's going on here? In Hollywood, whenever a studio executive would sit down to negotiate with an agent for an actor, writer or filmmaker, one of the first questions volleyed across the table was: What's your client's quote? If you'd written, directed or starred in a big hit, or even enjoyed a couple of modest successes in a row, your quote went up. And unless you ran off to make some nutty labor-of-love indie film where everyone committed suicide in the third act, your salary level was assured. That quote stuck like glue. Even after a few stinkers, a big star could still get their $15- or $20-million fee.

Not anymore. For basically everyone except Will Smith, salary quotes have evaporated, simply vanishing into thin air, as have the much-coveted first-dollar gross deals that top actors and filmmakers used to get. As one successful producer put it: "Quotes and first-dollar gross have just flown out the window -- the studios simply won't make those deals anymore," he explained. "It's all about what the role is worth in that particular movie. The studio pays for the lead actor or actress, but after that, well, the talent is just getting grinded. Everyone else is lucky to be working."

This is a great article on what's going on in the entertainment business.