Big Robots Lead to Bigger Paychecks for Michael BaySource by Yahoo Movies -
http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/transfo ... hecks.htmlIn a big summer movie, where the emphasis is on spectacle and excitement, not character and emotion, it isn't unheard of for the director to get a bigger paycheck than the leading man. After all, the audience is really paying to see explosions, not the guy running away from them in slow motion.
That was certainly the case for 2007's "Transformers." Shia LaBeouf played the lead character, but director Michael Bay was the real star. LaBeouf was signed to do the movie before "Disturbia," his first starring role, was a surprise hit. Michael Bay, on the other hand, was firmly established as one of Hollywood's biggest action directors since breaking onto the scene with "Bad Boys" in 1995.
So you'd expect Bay to make twice as much money as LaBeouf. Maybe even ten times as much. But the Los Angeles Times reports Bay's paycheck was actually 150 times as large as LaBeouf's was.
According to an article by Claudia Eller and Ben Fritz, Shia LaBeouf received an upfront sum of $500,000 for his role in the first "Transformers." However, Bay's deal passed on a fee for directing and executive producing in exchange for a slice of the profits from all the film's revenue sources. The film, which cost the studio an estimated $155 million to make, earned over $700 million worldwide and was a top-selling DVD. Bay's final take from the movie: somewhere in the neighborhood of $75 million.
LaBeouf is getting a raise for the sequel, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen." His paycheck is estimated at about $5 million. Bay will once again get a cut of the profits, which could take longer to accumulate since the budget for the second movie approached $200 million.
Industry analysts, however, are predicting Bay has nothing to worry about. Audience tracking research estimate that "Revenge of the Fallen" could set a new box-office record for a five-day opening weekend with $160 million. That would pass the $152 million record set by "Spider-Man 2" in 2004.
Interestingly, the L.A. Times also reports that "Transformers" executive producer Steven Spielberg doesn't actually get paid anything for his work on the movie. As part of the deal between Paramount and his company, DreamWorks, he only gets paid directly for movies he directs, not the ones he produces. Still, you don't need to worry if Spielberg will be able to keep his lights on. Forbes estimates that he earned $150 million last year.
If you want to see if Bay is really earning his enormous paycheck, take a look at an exclusive clip from "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" below
(WARNING: contains some strong language).
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