Triple A Dude: Beating the Entertainment Business at Its Own Game Part II

Survival Tactics for Creators and Performers

When starting the first article, I thought this would be a one-off. I discovered very quickly there was so much more to cover. Deep breath everybody and welcome to part II.

What Do We Now Know?

Now that the writer/actors strike is over, what have we learned about the entertainment business? Writers and actors want fair compensation including a piece of streaming revenue and assurances that they will not be replaced with AI.

Gatekeepers want to own it all and not have to pay much for it. The adage buy low, sell high would apply here, or rather, spend less sell more. Ticket sales and streaming subscribers make this business tick.

Producers/movie companies want to spend as little as possible so they can reap the benefits when the movie is released. Not a bad thing when production costs are up. But, why should the artists and writers bear the brunt of the impact?

What are the survival tactics for creators and performers?

Know Your worth.

Taraji P. Henson mentioned in an interview how she had to fight to get a decent salary for the movie, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”. She acted opposite Brad Pitt who was paid $10 million for his performance.

Taraji had asked for $500,000. They offered her $100,000 and eventually agreed to $150,000.

She said they weren’t paying her anywhere near her net worth. Her performance in that movie earned her a supporting actress nomination. After taxes and paying managers/agents, her take-home was only $40,000.

Terence Howard was paid a reported salary of approximately $3.5 million for his role as James “Rhodey” Rhodes in the film “Iron Man”. He was a first hire after his academy-nominated performance in “Hustle and Flow”. He was promised a larger salary for future sequels before Robert Downey Jr. was hired.

Downey’s performance and the film’s success led to Robert getting a $10 million pay bump for Iron Man II, more creative control, and a slice of the film’s back end. Howard’s salary was shrunk to $1 million. Don Cheadle was eventually brought in for the sequels. It’s not clear if Howard walked away from negotiations or if he was let go.

There seems to be a disparity in Hollywood as in most businesses if you are a female or a person of color when it comes to salary. Academy Award winner Jennifer Lawrence most notably spoke about this in her “Lenny Letter”, upon discovering what some of her co-stars were making in the film “American Hustle” due to a Sony hack.

What is the fix?

Unless you take a producer role and have the power to hire/fire, you have to fight hard and negotiate for a better salary. More on this later. The good news is that if you are a truly gifted performer, people will want to hire and collaborate with you because of your talent.

You Can't Keep a Good Performer Down.

Taraji P. Henson went on to appear in the Karate Kid reboot with Jayden Smith, had recurring roles in Eli Stone and Person of Interest (created by Jonathan Nolan and J.J. Abrams), and appeared in several Tyler Perry movies. She was in the very popular, “Think Like a Man” franchise, produced by Will Packer, performed in “Hidden Figures” opposite Kevin Costner, which won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. She also was featured in the reboot of “The Color Purple”.

Terrance Howard joined the cast of Law and Order: Los Angeles for one season, played as Nelson Mandela, in the film Winnie Mandela, and was in the Lee Daniels hit, “The Butler”. He appeared in the hit, “The Best Man” and the sequel, “ The Best Man Holiday”, performed in a film about the Tuskegee airmen in the movie “Red Tails” (produced by George Lucas), and had a great run with Taraji P. Henson as a principal actor in the hit show “Empire”.

Jennifer Lawrence’s net worth has improved considerably. She scored well with her portrayal as Katniss Everdeen in “The Hunger Games” franchise. She had a recurring role as Mystique in the prequel “X-Men” movies, won an Academy Award for her performance in “Silver Linings Playbook” and won a Golden Globe Award for her performance as businesswoman Joy Mangano in the biopic “Joy”. In 2018, she ranked #4 in Forbes as the highest-paid actress and formed a production company that same year called Excellent Cadaver.

Write/Direct/Produce

Sidney Poitier won an Academy Award for Best Actor in “Lilies of the Field” in 1963. Denzel Washington won an Academy Award for Best Actor in the film “Training Day” in 2001. Hattie McDaniel won Best Supporting Actress in 1940 for “Gone with the Wind”. Halle Berry won Best Actress for her performance in “Monsters Ball” in 2001. Do the math for that gap and what does this tell you? Hollywood is not inclusive when it comes to writing roles. No roles, no work.

Lately, Hollywood has come to its senses. The success of films like “Get Out”, “American Fiction”, “Black Panther”, “Creed I/II “and “Selma” has proved that movies with a diverse story and casts can also make money. This required the efforts of directors/producers of diversity to push these stories. Unless you take a director/producer role to have more creative control this will not happen. Avoid that work-for-hire mindset. If you want to work, create the job.

People of all colors want to see themselves reflected in the movies they watch. Note that the success of films like “My Greek Wedding I/II”, “Crazy Rich Asians”, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”, “The Woman King”, “Us”, and “Parasite” have proven this point. Disney has taken full advantage of this fact with hits like “Moana”, Encanto, Mulan, Lilo and Stitch, and Big Hero Six.

Don’t Give Away All Your Rights.

The beauty of being a successful author is that you don’t have to sell all your rights. Authors like Stephen King, Lee Child, George R.R. Martin, Elmore Leonard, James Patterson, JK Rowling, Suzanne Collins, William Gibson, Michael Crichton, and Thomas Harris have benefited by optioning the movie rights to their books. You choose what you want to sell. If you know your worth that can be very lucrative. Write a series of books with your established characters and you still have ownership of these characters for future books.

Motion pictures and TV have even turned to comic books/graphic novel artists/writers for ideas. Have you thought of using this medium to get your idea out to your fans first?

Use your comic/graphic novel sales as a marketing/optioning tool. If you have a hit, you can option the movie rights for production at a nice price, or produce them yourself.

Need money to get your writing/ comic empire going? Authors/artists have used crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter to get the ball rolling.

Here are some free resources for artists right here.

Has all this got your gears turning? Here are the things to think about:

* Know your worth.

* If you are truly gifted, people will want to hire and collaborate with you.

* Want to work? Create the job. Write/Direct/Produce

* Don’t Give Away All Your Rights.

Did we hit all the right notes here? Let me know. More to come in the next installment.

Need help writing ideas for your next film/novel/comic book? Check out this ebook.