The Energon Pub

According to a Yahoo.com Movies article which sites the LA Times, Michael Bay earned a whopping 75 million dollars for directing the first Transformers film. The story says that in lieu of collecting a fee up-front for direction the film, Bay, in a very savvy move, opted to take a cut of the back-end sales, including those from the DVD. To put that amount in perspective, Shia LaBeouf earned 500,000 dollars for the first film, and Steven Spielberg earned nothing. His deal with Paramount pays him for films he directs but not for films he produces.

To read more about Bay's massive payday and box office expectations for the new movie, click:

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/transfo ... hecks.html

Hmmm, that means he can afford a lucky draw figure. Nice.

This isn't entirely new. For Animal House, Donald Sutherland was offered either $50,000 or a percentage of the movie's profits, I think 15% or so. $50,000 is a shitload in 1970s money, and Animal House wasn't expected to pull in a whole lot, so he took the safe bet. Had he taken the percentage of the profit, he'd have made several million.

That includes merchandise too doesn't it? A movie like Transformers that have a lot of toys, clothes, video games, and various other tie-ins makes a hell of a lot more than than ticket sales alone. Taking a piece of that is a no brainer.

shia only got 500 000$ ?

wow...i figured he got at least 1-3 million. i realize he wasn't as big a name before that came out but considering the type of movie, its budget and he was the star...yeah i thought he got more.

i'm sure his pay for the sequel was raised significantly though.

but yeah what Bay did was smart, if i'm correct Spielberg does the same for all of his directed movies. we all know Lucas did similar back in 1977 which paid off well i think. lol

More reason for ppl to hate him.


He is just that awesome.

Spielberg got nothing? Bummer.

Michael Bay isn't worth $75 million.

This just goes to show how ridiculous earnings have become for the bigshots. I hope he's spends his earnings responsibly.

Shadowman wrote:This isn't entirely new. For Animal House, Donald Sutherland was offered either $50,000 or a percentage of the movie's profits, I think 15% or so. $50,000 is a shitload in 1970s money, and Animal House wasn't expected to pull in a whole lot, so he took the safe bet. Had he taken the percentage of the profit, he'd have made several million.

Yeah, he blew that one. John Travolta decided to just take a cut of the album/soundtrack sales in lieu of payment for Grease. Needless to say, even though he didn't work much in the 80's, he raked in enough cash to buy his own jet-the big kind. He's still making money on that deal today.

As for Bay, love'em or hate him, he made a great deal.

BATTLEMASTER IIC wrote:Michael Bay isn't worth $75 million.

Considering it's a percentage of a movie he made, I think it means he actually IS worth $75 million.

BATTLEMASTER IIC wrote:This just goes to show how ridiculous earnings have become for the bigshots. I hope he's spends his earnings responsibly.

Correction, it's how ridiculous earnings have become for movies. His paycheck is based directly off of the movie's earnings.

Shadowman wrote:

BATTLEMASTER IIC wrote:Michael Bay isn't worth $75 million.

Considering it's a percentage of a movie he made, I think it means he actually IS worth $75 million.

Thats what I was gonna say.

Like it or not he knew this movie would be big and worked his deal accordingly.


Hate him or love him, he is a business man and knows when to strike.

Whether people love his movies or hate them, noone can dispute his intelligence. Michael Bay is a smart man and knows how to cut a good business deal.

Can I have a percentage?

After taxes Bay ony gets about 56 million . Any bonus pay like this is taxed at 30-33 %. But he should get one hell of a tax refund.

Prime Riblet wrote:Whether people love his movies or hate them, noone can dispute his intelligence. Michael Bay is a smart man and knows how to cut a good business deal.

Absolutely right. Also, I just finally watched the first film with his commentary, and he is actually a cool guy. He seemed to be a douchebag on the extra featurettes but he was pretty cool on the commentary.

I am so going to kick myself for not buying Hasbro shares.



2 more sleeps until a midnight premier of RoFL.