One of the chapters in Fritz's book is about how both Adam Sandler and Will Smith had reached a point in their career where they couldn't just get whatever they wanted made. Both had a series of films that either made very little or in fact lost money. Previously the studios would happily do whatever they wanted. Indeed arguably today, only Dwayne Johnson is in that position. Him aside, its franchises rather than stars.
A lot of the book is based around the emails that resulted from the Sony hack, and Sandler had made most of his movies at Sony. Now they were taking a pass or offering him less money. As Fritz tells it, Netflix offered him more (or at least what he used to get), but with the proviso that's there's no back end with them - no points on box office revenues once a film is "in profit." Netflix renewed their initial four picture deal with Sandler, so yes, they will probably be working together for years to come. Sandler gets about $20m a film. On Mon, Apr 23, 2018 at 11:36 PM, Steve Timko <[email protected]> wrote: > When Netflix resigned Sandler they said Sandler's content was their most > popular content. I don't think he is going anywhere any time soon. > > Not sent from an iPhone > On Apr 23, 2018, at 2:16 PM, Adam Bowie <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> Thanks for that link. >> >> I think the author is being a little naive however. I've just finished a >> new book by Ben Fritz called The Big Picture which is very much worth a >> read if you want to understand current Hollywood. As he and many others >> have noted, the middle has fallen out of the market place now. Studios no >> longer make $50-$80m movies because they put all their chips in juggernauts >> that ideally belong to cinematic universes. Yes, at the low end, a few >> independent pictures creep out. Indeed horror is something of an outlier, >> with sometimes very profitable series being made at low budgets. But just >> getting Tom Hanks or Brad Pitt in your film is no longer enough. >> >> So these films go to Netflix - and perhaps Amazon. If they weren't buying >> them, then I'm afraid that they wouldn't appear at all in cinemas. >> Especially outside of cities like New York, LA and London. Everyone feels >> much safer with the Star Wars or Avengers movie. As the article points out, >> major studios are releasing far fewer films altogether. >> >> In the UK Annihilation went straight to Netflix which was a real shame >> because I'm sure that film would have been stunning at the cinema. But I >> couldn't swear that it would have done massive box office even with that >> cast and a British director. (It was even partially shot just up the coast >> from where my parents live!). >> >> I think the marketing of Netflix movies is a struggle - they're not >> spending the cash a distributor would if they released the movies to >> theatres - with a few notable exceptions. Personally, I'd like to see a >> film reviews alongside that week's theatrical releases in newspapers. But >> although I might not recognise all the titles at the top of The Ringer's >> piece, I think it's fair to say that if you listed every film that had been >> in cinemas so far this year, there would be dozens that I couldn't honestly >> remember either. And many of them will have been, well, average. >> >> Both Kodachrome and Mercury 13 are on my Netflix list - but I need to >> catch up with Westworld first. I definitely want to see new films from Paul >> Greengrass and Alfonso Cuarón! I just caught a trailer for Anon by Andrew >> Niccol, and I'm curious because I still love Gattaca (It's direct to Sky in >> the UK, but I believe Netflix elsewhere). >> >> If Netflix does a better job than it has done in alerting me to these >> kinds of films, and spends less time telling me about Adam Sandler films >> that I'm not going to watch even drunk, then perhaps the model might work. >> While the company is haemorrhaging money and to my mind the jury's still >> out on whether they have a long-term sustainable business model, if their >> growth continues and they keep giving me things I want to see and, >> importantly, can direct me to them, then maybe it'll work. >> >> >> Adam >> >> On Mon, Apr 23, 2018 at 6:42 PM, Kevin M. <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >>> Just as there was a dot-com bubble in the 90s, I suspect we aren’t far >>> from an online media bubble, or at least a major restructuring of how >>> movies and TV are financed. Just as the unions seemed to be working out >>> fair (or fairer) compensation for DVDs, content distribution shifted to >>> downloads and streaming. So we have to go through it again. >>> >>> There is a finite number of venture capitalists who can throw gobs of >>> money at all of the companies like Netflix and Hulu, to get nothing in >>> return. >>> >>> On Mon, Apr 23, 2018 at 10:28 AM Steve Timko < [email protected]> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> A recent surge in new movies added to the service has made Netflix the >>>> biggest producer of original films in America. But if most of them are >>>> completely ignored, does it matter how many the company makes? >>>> >>>> https://www.theringer.com/movies/2018/4/20/17258960/netflix- >>>> movies-streaming-business >>>> >>>> Not sent from an iPhone >>>> >>>> -- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>> Groups "TVorNotTV" group. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>>> an email to [email protected]. >>>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >>>> >>> -- >>> Kevin M. (RPCV) >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "TVorNotTV" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>> an email to [email protected]. >>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >>> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "TVorNotTV" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. 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