How does Bruce Willis pull it off?

Quote: AZDuffman

The Chinese seem to be the latest people wanting to lose money running theaters. Let them enjoy themselves.

I don't know if you've seen the new Super High Definition (or 4K) televisions being produced by Sony. They have them at Best Buy and presumably other places. The 55", 65", and 84" are respectively $5K, $7K, and $25K. But they look like film. They should come to reasonable prices in two to three years.

I know that people have been saying that TV will kill movies for 60 years, but it hardly seems worth it to go to the movies when you can get this kind of quality at home.

Quote: Pacomartin

I know that people have been saying that TV will kill movies for 60 years, but it hardly seems worth it to go to the movies when you can get this kind of quality at home.

TV has put movies in intensive care. You need to remember when TV came out you might have 3 hours a day of competition to movies. Until 1970ish your TV was B&W or the broadcast was. In the 70s you had HBO and that was the start of the real chip-away. For some time the super-mega-complex was a savior, 15+ screens. But now the cost is so high and what you can get at home so good that movies are for date-nights and people who really, really like movies. 1987-1999 seems to have been a second golden age, since then decline has set in.

The only reason I go to the movies is to audit the trailers for a few extra bucks.

Willis may have lost a bunch on his Planet Hollywood investment in the 90's.

I didn't do any wiki research on this, but I remember that when Willis got $5m for his role in Die Hard, that was unprecedented for a TV actor whose only resumé was Moonlighting. Stallone and Schwartzenegger figured they were worth a heckuva lot more and escalated rapidly till Jim Carrey got $20m/movie after Pet Detective, then Tom Hanks got $60m+ for Forrest Gump....and the race was on for back end deals.

Sort of like reserving a booth at a theater instead of reserving a group of seats, more of a group event... however what you most remember is that the film about the two bombs fizzled! Content over Condiments!!!!

I doubt it will work.

Quote: AZDuffman

TV has put movies in intensive care. You need to remember when TV came out you might have 3 hours a day of competition to movies. Until 1970ish your TV was B&W or the broadcast was. In the 70s you had HBO and that was the start of the real chip-away. For some time the super-mega-complex was a savior, 15+ screens. But now the cost is so high and what you can get at home so good that movies are for date-nights and people who really, really like movies.

Think of Fahrenheit 451... wherein the entire wall of the home is an interactive TV screen. Technology creep.

>The only reason I go to the movies is to audit the trailers for a few extra bucks.
Best audit ever was the Test Your Peter meter in the truck outside the artsy NY theater that debued Is There Sex After Death... a 24 hour camera on the box office and entranceway.

Quote: Fleastiff

>The only reason I go to the movies is to audit the trailers for a few extra bucks.
Best audit ever was the Test Your Peter meter in the truck outside the artsy NY theater that debued Is There Sex After Death... a 24 hour camera on the box office and entranceway.

Nothing that exciting for me, I just record what trailers were shown and the audience reaction, a week later someone puts $15 in my bank account. Not a great deal of cash but it adds up to a little poker money over the year.

Forbes list of highest paid actors last year
1. Robert Downey Jr. -- $75 million
2. Channing Tatum -- $60 million
3. Hugh Jackman -- $55 million
4. Mark Wahlberg -- $52 million
5. Dwayne Johnson -- $46 million
6. Leonardo DiCaprio -- $39 million
7. Adam Sandler -- $37 million
8. Tom Cruise -- $35 million
9. Denzel Washington -- $33 million
10. Liam Nieson -- $32 million

I have never seen Channing Tatum in a movie. The movies look terrible, but I guess they are primarily geared towards women.

I saw a breakdown of what an actor who gets 20mil
for a movie actually makes. Its about 7mil once all
his people and taxes are paid. A big actor like Willis
has a boatload of people who get a % of what he
makes, all stars do. So if he's 150mil ahead after 30
years in the biz, thats really not so bad. He had to live
those 30 years too and thats expensive in Hollywood.

Quote: Evenbob

I saw a breakdown of what an actor who gets 20mil for a movie actually makes.

I understand that it is more like gross revenue for a business, and less like a paycheck. I remember Paul Newman (who is generally thought of as not living lavishly) saying that he calculated that several dozen people were living full time off of his ability. He cut back his retinue and did more modest movies.

But still, if Willis made $120 million on one movie, most of the people he pays must be capped somehow. That is enough money to buy into some fairly high yield investments. But then add the revenue for 40 plus additional movies, it is hard to believe that you could spend that much.

But supposedly he and Demi Moore moved around like royals, surrounded by dozens of hairdressers, stylists, chefs, drivers, etc.

I had a friend who took Bruce Willis and Demi Moore on a private SCUBA trip in the British Virgin Islands. They may have been renting Richard Branson's island that just burned down. She thought they were the most polite people. She despised Richard Dreyfuss. He refused to show her his SCUBA credentials since he had been in Jaws. She got in a big fight with him because being in a movie shot on the water did not mean you actually had SCUBA certification.

Quote: Pacomartin

I had a friend who took Bruce Willis and Demi Moore on a private SCUBA trip in the British Virgin Islands. They may have been renting Richard Branson's island that just burned down. She thought they were the most polite people. She despised Richard Dreyfuss. He refused to show her his SCUBA credentials since he had been in Jaws. She got in a big fight with him because being in a movie shot on the water did not mean you actually had SCUBA certification.

Willis just looks like a nice, down to earth guy when you see him interviewed. Jerks are jerks.

But this reminds me of another certification story. I forget if it was my brother or his co-worker, but they worked at a place where you could take flight lessons or rent the airplane. So an air show is nearby and some fighter pilot wants to rent a plane for whatever reason. So the guy at the counter asks if he is current on that model, as all pilots must be when they fly any plane.

Now the guy was fairly famous among pilots but not to the outside world, kind of like Wiz might be with us. A different employee was amazed that a guy who can fly virtually any plane would be asked for his certification.

The guy simply said it was FAA regs and if Chuck Yeager showed up he would be asked if he was current as well.