Another Voice
Charter Member of The Element
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2000
- Messages
- 3,191
They get 20%+ of every dollar that Disney receives, not on the "profit". There are some contracts out there that take the cut based on box office receipts - I've heard that's how Bruckheimer's contract is written, but haven't been able to confirm it so I left it out of the calcuations.
At World's End was already sold to the USA Network for (if I recall correctly) $28 million. Not a lot of dough, is it. Network will, of course, go to ABC - but it's hard to say that's really bringing in cash to studio. Disney is just shifting dollars from one pocket to another.
A studio typically sees 15%-20% of DVD rentals- so it's hardly a fountain of cash. Studios see higher returns on DVD sales, but most of that market is controlled by WalMart and returns have been falling greatly. In fact last year total DVD sales actually fell for the first time. Additionally, DVD sale & rentals tend to closely follow box office patterns. Given that the box office take for AWE is still being revised downward (the weekend drop-off is now pegged at 68% - second highest in history), one can expect a lot less enthusiasm for the DVD than there might have been.
And merchandise sales - unless you have a George Lucas toy operating going - they don't amount to anything worth mentioning. A couple million in the scheme of things (which the studio never sees anyway), you could make more than that just be cutting back expense reports by 3%.
Which kinds of brings up the whole problem - Disney invested half a billion dollars to earn about the same amount it will cost to produce Wilder Hogs: Beer Guts on Bikes. Is that really worth all the time and effort. Could Disney have made more money elsewhere? Imgaine what you could do to WDW for half a billion dollars. That's a whole new theme park - a business that will generate revenue for decades. At World's End will be lucky to still be in theaters after a month.
