Let's do lunch, baby. You're a Hollywood producer on your way to the Paramount Studios with a budget in your hand for the next Brad Pitiful vehicle. You've carefully added the costs for union gaffers and grips, you know what it'll cost to blow up seventeen used trucks, and you know you'll have to shoot eighteen miles of film with a small army of camera men, lighting people, and street sweepers. All of these functionaries are below-the-line costs, because they get paid, and then they go away. Above-the-line players are people like the headliner, Brad Pitiful. Above-the-line also includes the director, the writer, and the producer...yeah, you.
Why the distinction? What is this mysterious line all about? Profit participation. Above-the-line players in Hollywood often take a salary cut, even working for minimum wage, in return for a cut of profits when the film comes to market. Famously, when Jack Nicholson played the Joker in Batman, he took a very small salary and a large profit chunk. That decision ended up netting him somewhere close to a hundred million bucks, in today's dollars. Nice work if you can get it, eh?
Related or Semi-related Video
Finance: What is a Budget?43 Views
Finance a la shmoop what is a budget? that's that thing you throw right out [Woman throws budget out the window]
the window just before you start doing all your Christmas shopping
right but generally it's a plan that lets you see where your money will be
spent if you have a personal budget well you'll be able to decide ahead of time [Personal budget example]
how much money you'll spend on clothes, food, megaphones to annoy and anger your
neighbors and you know whatever floats your boat if you own a company well
you'll probably have much more complicated budget for things like
advertising and lawyer fees either way the plan helps you make sure that you
have enough moolah for everything you need and maybe some leftover for stuff
you want.....Joan wants to control her money so she decides to set up a budget for [Joan setting up a budget on a laptop]
next month she makes a thousand bucks from her summer job and well here's what
her budget looks like.....
Now Joan knows exactly where every penny is gonna go she's not [Joan driving a car]
gonna be caught off guard by any surprise expenses she's not gonna spend
$200 on safecracking equipment and then realize she doesn't have enough left [Joan stood beside a vault of gold bars]
to pay her phone bill although if she does get hit with some unexpected
expenses well hopefully yeah she can just pawn some of those exotic vases she
took from the Peterson place [Joan holding a vase]
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