Is the Actors Guild union hurting movies?

[oppopioneer]

Have any of you thought about how possibly the Screen Actor's Guild union could be hurting Hollywood and the movie industry sort of like the question with the unions and the U.S. auto industry?

I do believe that the actor's union is driving up the cost of movies drastically because of pay. Actors/actresses get paid up front before the movie even opens at theaters. As we know many actors make any where from $5 million to $25 million a movie and most the budget goes to the actors and grew. Most actors don't do most of their stunts and many don't do any stunts at all and the increase of CGi where actors stand in front of green screens and don't do any stunts but pretend they're falling off buildings and getting attacked by a monster also shows they are extremely over paid.

There are countless and countless movies that are just ridiculously expensive and are really not good and do not even look like they cost half of what the budget was. For example the movie 'Land Of the Lost' which was rated one of the worst movies of all time cost $100 million dollars to make, and I ask where did all that money go to? These movies are more than the entire GDP of many countries.

Comparison -
Men In Black = $90 million
The Day the Earth Stood Still = $80 million
Matrix = $63 million

Let's say you want to make a movie and the studio gives you a $40 million budget and you want Will Smith to be in it, well he demands $20 million upfront, that's 50% of the budget for one actor.

A better way to make movies is to pay everyone involved after the movie is released and divide up the total box office revenue to the actors and crew and also some of the revenue from dvd and bluray sales.

[OrlandoEastwood]

I'm sticking non-union because you can do stuff without being told no. The From Dusk Till Dawn documentary Full Tilt Boogie went into this. They got a lot of crap from the guilds.

[retablo]

SAG has been around since 1933. It's not going anywhere. It was started because the studio system was forcing actors into multi-year deals without restrictions on work hours, time off, etc. In the past, the studios gave the big finger to the actors. Now, the actors give the finger to the studios.

[oppopioneer]

Originally Posted by retablo

SAG has been around since 1933. It's not going anywhere. It was started because the studio system was forcing actors into multi-year deals without restrictions on work hours, time off, etc. In the past, the studios gave the big finger to the actors. Now, the actors give the finger to the studios.

That's 1933, before the labor movement and before many child labor laws, we have progressed a LOT since then and the studios won't demand extreme things like they did and like what corporations did 80 years ago. Even Walmart treats it's employees better than that. Plus Hollywood would have to obey many laws in different states they film in and different countries and would be held accountable because we know the amount of lawyers out there chomping at the bit.

There needs to be a better solution than what we have now.

Plus, I don't believe Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton should get millions of dollars and most the time on set they're in their trailers making demands or they run off set.

[DJ Manyak]

https://forum.blu-ray.com/general-chat/

[retablo]

Originally Posted by oppopioneer

That's 1933, before the labor movement and before many child labor laws, we have progressed a LOT since then and the studios won't demand extreme things like they did and like what corporations did 80 years ago. Even Walmart treats it's employees better than that. Plus Hollywood would have to obey many laws in different states they film in and different countries and would be held accountable because we know the amount of lawyers out there chomping at the bit.

There needs to be a better solution than what we have now.

Plus, I don't believe Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton should get millions of dollars and most the time on set they're in their trailers making demands or they run off set.

Regardless, are you going to get rid of the Teamsters, too? What about the Director's guild? Writer's guild? There are in place first and foremost to ensure a BASE salary for their talent. If not, Hollywood would want to pay nothing. Lohan has been kicked off several films because no one will insure her. Many films have been killed because budgets are too high. Even Pirates 4 had to cut big set pieces to keep costs down.

[Duffy12]

I was wondering how this worked with animated films that used current top demand actors to voice their cartoon characters. Because I find it very hard to believe that anybody watched an animated movie because a certain actor was doing one of the voices.


.

[KilloWertz]

Originally Posted by Duffy12

I was wondering how this worked with animated films that used current top demand actors to voice their cartoon characters. Because I find it very hard to believe that anybody watched an animated movie because a certain actor was doing one of the voices.


.

Don't lie. You know you watch the Toy Story movies because you think Tim Allen has a sexy voice.

[tommyboy81]

Originally Posted by Duffy12

I was wondering how this worked with animated films that used current top demand actors to voice their cartoon characters. Because I find it very hard to believe that anybody watched an animated movie because a certain actor was doing one of the voices.


.

Thats why I watched Shark Tale.

[DJ Manyak]

why did you just make another thread on the same subject ? are you a non-union actor or something ?

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by oppopioneer

For example the movie 'Land Of the Lost' which was rated one of the worst movies of all time cost $100 million dollars to make, and I ask where did all that money go to?

Yeah, why did they have to waste a lot of money on some fancy CGI T-Rex, when they coiuld've gone out and gotten a real one for cheaper?

[MyBlu-rayBrotherEd]

Unions had their place and time, but I can't think of one these days that makes things better.

[Secretagentnumber6]

Originally Posted by MyBlu-rayBrotherEd

Unions had their place and time, but I can't think of one these days that makes things better.

Thank you!! I have been saying for years that Unions have outlived their usefulness. They are a corrupt system now, that essentially does some good but their harm to businesses have far outweighed their good. The auto industry has their share of problems and unions while not totally at fault have refused to help at all and in the end the employees suffer the wrath of the companies, where unions continue to take the money of hardworking employees while letting large numbers of them be outsourced and lose their jobs because of factories closing which the union has zero control over. Unions refuse to make concessions to even try and save these jobs. Now tell me why. I will tell you because unions are profit organizations more concerned with their bottom line that the good of their members. While I think the hollywood unions are a little different, they are still hurting the industry more than helping, by driving up salaries for the top actors, writers, directors to breaking points as the OP said. While the smaller salaries of lower actors are helped they are not helped enough to outweigh the ridiculous salaries of the top actors. The only way the oceans movies were ever made is because all those actors were friends and agreed to scale.

[MyBlu-rayBrotherEd]

Originally Posted by Secretagentnumber6

Thank you!! I have been saying for years that Unions have outlived their usefulness. They are a corrupt system now, that essentially does some good but their harm to businesses have far outweighed their good. The auto industry has their share of problems and unions while not totally at fault have refused to help at all and in the end the employees suffer the wrath of the companies, where unions continue to take the money of hardworking employees while letting large numbers of them be outsourced and lose their jobs because of factories closing which the union has zero control over. Unions refuse to make concessions to even try and save these jobs. Now tell me why. I will tell you because unions are profit organizations more concerned with their bottom line that the good of their members. While I think the hollywood unions are a little different, they are still hurting the industry more than helping, by driving up salaries for the top actors, writers, directors to breaking points as the OP said. While the smaller salaries of lower actors are helped they are not helped enough to outweigh the ridiculous salaries of the top actors. The only way the oceans movies were ever made is because all those actors were friends and agreed to scale.

Then they take their profits and advance their political agendas with them.

[LynxFX]

SAG protects the pay and benefits of the 99.5% of the actors that don't make over 50k a year. Same with the DGA and WGA. The whole basis of your argument is utterly flawed and ridiculous.

[MyBlu-rayBrotherEd]

Originally Posted by LynxFX

SAG protects the pay and benefits of the 99.5% of the actors that don't make over 50k a year. Same with the DGA and WGA. The whole basis of your argument is utterly flawed and ridiculous.

To each their own.

[jadedeath]

Originally Posted by oppopioneer

A better way to make movies is to pay everyone involved after the movie is released and divide up the total box office revenue to the actors and crew and also some of the revenue from dvd and bluray sales.

I hate to burst your bubble here pal, but Hollywood is a business.

If you want the big name actors, then you have to pony up the cash.

It's well known that Will Smith will be able to up the box office grosses on a movie, and that's why he demands the big money for his roles.

Also, paying for a movie after it's filmed doesn't feed the families of the people who are working behind the scenes of the movies. A better way of doing that would be to sign better contracts in Hollywood, but they go with what works.

It's also not the Actors alone that are driving up the costs of movies, it's this little concept I like to call 'inflation' it's rare but it does happen, set design costs more, camera operators no longer wish to work for $0.25 an hour, you will be hard pressed to find even backround talent that will work for IOU's {and sometimes Y's} next thing you know bloody interns will start demanding money for getting you coffee...

Then again, there's also folks that download movies illegally, I mean if some 1000's of people take something and not pay for it, I'm sure that any business will just leave the price on the remaining stock {or for those that wish to actually PURCHASE what they watch/listen to} the exact same. No, they pretty-much have to raise the price in order to make sure that they come close to breaking even.

In short, they're not really helping, but when movies have budgets on a fairly regular basis of $100million+ I don't think that spending $20million on talent alone is that much of a stretch.

Logan

[jadedeath]

Originally Posted by MyBlu-rayBrotherEd

Unions had their place and time, but I can't think of one these days that makes things better.

Certain Unions have.

But if you've ever been on a film set, you'd understand that there are certain unions that still have a place.

Logan

[jadedeath]

Originally Posted by Secretagentnumber6

Thank you!! I have been saying for years that Unions have outlived their usefulness. They are a corrupt system now, that essentially does some good but their harm to businesses have far outweighed their good. The auto industry has their share of problems and unions while not totally at fault have refused to help at all and in the end the employees suffer the wrath of the companies, where unions continue to take the money of hardworking employees while letting large numbers of them be outsourced and lose their jobs because of factories closing which the union has zero control over. Unions refuse to make concessions to even try and save these jobs. Now tell me why. I will tell you because unions are profit organizations more concerned with their bottom line that the good of their members. While I think the hollywood unions are a little different, they are still hurting the industry more than helping, by driving up salaries for the top actors, writers, directors to breaking points as the OP said. While the smaller salaries of lower actors are helped they are not helped enough to outweigh the ridiculous salaries of the top actors. The only way the oceans movies were ever made is because all those actors were friends and agreed to scale.

I was recently on a small movie {well small-ish} set and I got paid around $300 for 8 hours of shooting. For a non-speaking roll, and that was non-union.

The point is, the industry has the money to pay for this sort of thing, and if they pay for it, the actors aren't doing harm to the industry by accepting it. It's all about the contract negotiations, if the studio doesn't want the big name actor, they could find someone else. But if they WANT the big name actor, then they're going to pay for them to be in the movie. It's that simple, it's a two-way street and complaining that the actors guild is harming movie-making is like complaining that the truck you use for your business to deliver goods runs up too much of a gas bill... if you can afford it, then you pay for it, the truck then brings in the goods, if you can't, then find another line of work. You can't blame the truck for needing gas.

Logan

[Gaius Marius]

Originally Posted by MyBlu-rayBrotherEd

Unions had their place and time, but I can't think of one these days that makes things better.

Yup, you especially see that here in California......