Yesterday The Hollywood Reporter‘s Kim Masters posted a rather ominous article detailing the production budget of James L. Brooks’s upcoming romantic comedy How Do You Know starring Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, Owen Wilson and Jack Nicholson.
It’s a film Sony has being keeping close to the chest for a very long time. It went through a ratings appeal over one too many eff-bombs, which after removing one utterance the film was down-graded from an R to a PG-13. It also wasn’t until very recently that Columbia finally released an official synopsis for the film, which involves a love triangle, with Paul Rudd playing a white-collar executive vying for Reese Witherspoon’s affections, and Owen Wilson portraying a professional baseball pitcher who is also a love interest.
Why do I bring this up? Well, in Masters’s article it says the film cost upwards of $120 million with $50 million of that going just to the talent. Reese Witherspoon ($15 million), Jack Nicholson ($12 million), Owen Wilson ($10 million) and Paul Rudd ($3 million) received their quotes, and Brooks will earn about $10 million plus backend for writing, producing and directing.
The film was originally thought to be an Oscar contender considering those involved, but it’s already receiving a considerable amount of bad buzz, some of which I’ve heard in private email conversations that I won’t bother you with here, but suffice to say it’s not a pretty picture. The question that has to be asked now, is why would Sony spend so much on a new Jim Brooks film? Didn’t they learn after Spanglish earned $55 million worldwide on an $85 million budget? It isn’t as if quality can’t come at a reasonable price.
Take, for example, the following budgets:
- The Social Network – $50 million
- The Town – $37 million
- True Grit – $35 million
- 127 Hours – $18 million
- Black Swan – $13 million
- The King’s Speech – $12.3 million
- The Fighter – $11 million
- Another Year – £4.8 million ($7.5 million)
- The Kids Are All Right – $4 million
- Winter’s Bone – $2 million
Those ten films above are considered the year’s best along with the lofty budgeted blockbusters Inception ($160 million) and Toy Story 3 ($200 million), two films that were obviously worth spending the dough on. Now compare the talent in those films to what Columbia is going to get out of How Do You Know. Pick and choose from the list above and you can come out with upwards of eight high-quality, Best Picture contending films for the price of one How Do You Know.
Considering almost half of How Do You Know‘s budget was spent on talent it’s no surprise the days of the movie star are coming to a close and it will also be interesting to see how The Tourist performs this weekend with what are undoubtedly two of the biggest movie stars today in Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. The film is receiving a critical drubbing and I wonder if the combined Jolie-Depp star power will be able to right the ship. The Tourist itself cost over $100 million (source)… was it worth it?
Just how much should studios be spending on their films nowadays and are these numbers proof enough the days of overpaid actors are coming to a close?
