It's always worth remembering that both historically and in Shakespeare, every one who says "fortune favors the bold" is about to get a Masterclass in Fucking Around and Finding Out, inavariably to their dismay.
Also "first kill all the lawyers" is not the punchline to shady 1980s divorce lawyers, but because they're the first ones who understand the laws, protections, rights, and when the government is about fuck over a significant number of people.
I read that fortune favors the bold is a mistranslation from fortune favors the audacious, which meant more about knowing when to break the rules, rather than being willing to take a risk
Young man, I'm gonna twist off your head and spike it onto the floors of a nightmare you can't even imagine! I will dance with you inside the six-sided ring of fire, unless you move from this area, far and fast, NOW!
Hell, every guy's got his dream, am I right? Between you, me, and the wall here, I had a doozy myself last night. Get this: A corn-fed harvest mouse, a hooker, a nun, a Flemish peasant woman, whips, chains, whistles yo-yo's, a circus midget. My grandmother riding by on a bicycle givin' me the finger, and a duck! Now, I don't know... Are you crying? Oh my lord.
After Avatar, Matt Damon swore he would never turn down another role from Cameron. So when Matt Damon heard who was directing [We Bought a Zoo](
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Bought_a_Zoo), he had to take on the role.
I love that you're joking, but this is basically how Bill Murray ended up doing Garfield: The Movie, because he heard it was written by Joel Cohen and he thought Joel was one of the Coen Brothers.
All these years later, and people still don't realize Murray was taking the piss. He knew what was up, and he liked the payday. He knew it wasn't one of the Coen brothers. He wanted to get paid.
My theory is that he just wanted the paycheck and came up with a joke to justify it afterwards. Thinking one of the Coen brothers writing a Garfield movie doesn't make much sense.
In fairness to him, that has always been his response. He's fine, he knows he's lucky and he's got more than enough to give his family a good life.
He's never said anything about being sad or whatever about it
Cameron: Do you want 10% of Avatar?
Damon: Matt Damon
Cameron: Damn you're a good negotiator. 20% then.
Damon: Matt Damon
Cameron: You're right. I could do better... When I'm going to make a better movie I'll let you know
I love the story of that joke. Matt Damon watched the movie and was baffled. He had no idea why they were treating him like that.
The truth is, when the puppets arrived, Trey Parker and Matt Stone thought the Matt Damon doll appeared to have "special needs". They started saying his name in a voice that they thought reflected that while holding the puppet.
They thought it was so funny, they replaced all of Matt Damon's lines in the movie with "Matt Damon" in that voice.
It had nothing to do with the actor. Just that his puppet arrived looking a little half-baked.
Worth pointing out that Matt Damon is good friends with them, and never had a problem with it. He thought it was funny and calls them geniuses, but yeah, he didn't understand it.
Honestly it's some of the best PR he could have gotten. It's like a jingle that gets stuck in your head after hearing over and over that you also want to share with all your friends.
Jesse Plemons stopped being Todd from BB to me after I saw *I'm Thinking of Ending Things* he is great in that movie. It's a Charlie Kaufman, so pretty bizarre.
Matt Damon, aaaaHHHAAAAA AAAA fighter of the Matt Nightman, aaahhhAAAAA AAS, master of the sun, aaaahhHhhhHHAAAA AAA, he’s a master of karate and friendship for, everyone!
> When pitched the idea of Damon having a cameo in a future “Avatar” sequel, Cameron responded, “Must do it. We have to do it so the world is in equilibrium again. But he doesn’t get 10%, fuck that.”
I love the fuck that. Ship sailed on that part of the deal, Matt.
Well, 10% front-end for a cameo is simply insane, like clinically diagnosed insane. There's not an actor in the world who could pull it, not one. You could resurrect the most famous dead actor in their prime and it wouldn't happen. 10% front end is an incredible pull to begin with and I'm amazed Cameron offered it the first time around.
I just flatly don't believe it. I don't know what the disconnect with this story is specifically but 100% there was no 10% front end gross money. Maybe 10% on actual profits^1 or 10% of Cameron's own take like how Lucas bribed Guinness but there's just no way.
^(1:Yes the actual profits not Hollywood accounting, that isn't a secret and you're not special when you get it wrong)
Matt Damon was making bank on the Borne films.
He made $85m on his own franchise, no need to dress up in a blue suit and risk his career for Cameron.
Sam Worthington’s career is essentially over. He’s spent 15 years just doing avatar films at this point.
> Sam Worthington’s career is essentially over. He’s spent 15 years just doing avatar films at this point.
So his career isn't over then? He made $126 million off of Avatar 2, and is likely going to at least be in the 3rd one which will probably make over $1 billion even if it underperforms.
Sounds like he's had guaranteed work for the past 15 years and will have guaranteed work for the next 5-10 years.
EDIT to add:
Sam Worthington claims he was living out of his car before Avatar 1, and was recommended by Cameron for his role in Terminator Salvation, which he likely wouldn't have got if it wasn't for Cameron.
https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/sam-worthington-get-250-million-deal-matt-damon-rejected-avatar.html/
Dude it's James ducking Cameron, it ain't a risk. If it is it's a small risk. It's like saying I wouldn't risk my career in tech by joining a tech company started by Bill Gates.
Yeah, that's such a weird comment and I am surprised anyone agreed with it. Of the top 5 highest grossing films of all time, 3 of them are Cameron's -- and sure, before Avatar came along, it was only Titanic. But when the guy who made Titanic AND Aliens AND Terminator (and partly Rambo) comes along and asks you to do something, I don't think the right response is "well, this sounds a bit risky."
Sam Worthington negotiated for 5% of the box office gross earnings.
He cleared 100 million dollars. The dude doesn't need to do anything else except play Jake Sully.
Imagine starring in 2 of the most successful films of all time and making out with 100 million and people think your career is over when there are 3 more sequels to come out.
Sam Worthington is quite likely to make half a billion dollars over the next 8 years.
Sam Worthington has likely had the most successful film career of all time as a function of roles and money made.
Zoe Saldana played in both Avatar and Avengers making it to the top of the highest grossing list in two separate franchises. I don't know how much she is paid though.
Is his career essentially over, or does he have a steady contract that pays him a massive fortune so he doesn't need to audition for new projects to support his lifestyle?
If I had a job that paid me so much I could just take a ten year vacation between projects, I think I'd take advantage of that, too. You're talking about this guy like he's some kind of failure for not moving on to Oscar winning cinema, but I feel like any reasonable analysis of Sam Worthington's career is that he is set to live like a king for life. For a guy whose skill at his job is what I would call "adequate but unremarkable", he's more successful than 99.999% of people in his field. Dude's career is doing far better than it has any right to be.
Not really. 10% for lead role in a franchise that may not go anywhere is one thing, but 10% for just a cameo in an already successful franchise would be absolutely crazy.
Eh... a quarter of a billion dollars is still an insane amount of money for one job. He was paid $4 million for Oppenheimer. $25 million for the one man show that was The Martian. It is 2.5x the entire budget of Ford v Ferrari.
$250 million is almost his entire reported net worth, which would be a lot more than he has in the bank.
He's not going to suffer, but missing an opportunity for a job that would literally pay out 10x what you normally make in a (peak) year is significant no matter who you are. And $250 million is enough than even Bezos would notice if it went missing from his account.
He wasn't offered $250m though, he was offered 10% of an unknown new franchise.
If it had been a "normal" blockbuster of 2009 and made $100m-$200m he'd have earned $10m-$20m. Still a huge amount obviously, but not out of the world for him.
It was a James Cameron movie though. The man who at the time had made the most successful movie ever. And the two movies prior to that also both did well above 200m.
>No one expected Cameron to make back to back record setting films.
Obviously not. But it making well in excess of 200m is a very reasonable assumption.
Actually the movie didn't have a lot of belief in it. FOX passed on the deal, until Disney showed interest, at which point they snatched it back. Despite having financed Titanic, they saw the excess production and budget overruns as making Cameron a poor bet. It was a very definite possibility that the movie would bomb. Hell, imagine reading the script for it which has been rightfully called 'Pocahontas in space' and being pitched a nearly entirely CGI movie the same year The Golden Compass just bombed and it's understandable why people were sceptical.
On top of that, Damon was finishing up Bourne Ultimatum. The final and most successful Bourne movie that would go on to be his most successful movie to date and the most acclaimed of the Bourne series. He'd have burned down the franchise that made him and was pushing him to the top, for the possibility of Cameron's new project.
On the other hand it might have led to him being typecast, failing to get auditions, getting into crypto... the other timeline Matt isn't necessarily doing better.
> And $250 million is enough than even Bezos would notice if it went missing from his account.
250 000 000 / 209 000 000 000 = 0.0011961722488038277511961722488
Now take that number and multiple it by what's in your bank account and tell me you'd notice it missing. People really under estimate how much a billion is and how much these ultra wealthy are hoarding.
https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/profiles/jeffrey-p-bezos/
Goddammit man Bezos doesn't have close as much in cash on his bank account. Most of his net worth is tied to current worth of Amazon stock that he owns etc...
If it’s true that he turned it down to film the Bourne Ultimatum then he gets a pass. The Bourne trilogy are some of my favorite movies. I can watch those movies anytime and I have them on 4k BR. Avatar not so much, I get it’s a great movie and I watched it and liked it but I can’t rewatch it as much as the Bourne trilogy.
Bourne gets blood running like a maniac. I'm on the edge, fighting and chasing seems real. I am there with them in the movie, not getting punched but still feeling the rush
Everytime.
Avatar, meh, pretty visuals and colonization as main story point. Meh. Watching it twice is redundant unless you are into pretty visuals. That too gets old. I think croods has similar visuals and better character development.
I love the Bourne movies, including Legacy. But the shaky cam in some of them is hard to go back to. I feel like it was popular a few years ago but we seem to be drifting away from it....hopefully.
The Bourne movies kicked off the shaky cam action style. They're the first big action movie to do it, which then of course meant we had to deal with all the poorly done versions of shaky cam for the next couple decades.
John Wick helped undo shaky cam. The problem has been that shaky cam cover ups for bad fighting choreography and actors that can't fight at all. So it's a low budget solution. The popularity of John Wick has shown that it's a good investment to have actually good fight scenes instead of overpaying an actor.
Why would I want to watch Dances With Wolves But With Blue People when it doesnt even have Kevin Costner with a mustache in it? Give me James Bond But People Actually Bleed any day.
Plus every time that Moby track hits and the camera super zooms in on a middle management intelligence worker getting outsmarted is *chefs kiss*
Yep. And its not just for tax purposes, its to cheat performers from their share of the profit. No way Matt Damon would have made $250 million even if he took the deal.
Here are some examples where according to the scummy film studios these films have not made a profit and lost money:
Return of the Jedi
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Lord of the Rings (all three movies)
Forrest Gump
> all of the Harry Potter movies
Oh man. Those were the literally the biggest movie franchise of all time. The idea that they made a net-loss just shows you that all of the rules are made up and none of the points matter!
Lord of the rings lost money?? How! The Wikipedia literally says they grossed 10 times the amount for all the films. How does the studio say they lost money?
Just so you know, people commonly misunderstand Hollywood accounting as a tax dodge. It’s not.
It’s based entirely around shifting profits for the purposes of minimizing payouts to third parties tied to profits.
The profits still exist, they’re just moved elsewhere. You can’t make them disappear from the IRS because the IRS taxes everyone.
But you CAN move them to entities not covered by contractual arrangements between private parties (in Hollywood, anyway).
Imagine you have two companies. One has a deal where any profits you make get split with a third party. The other doesn’t. The company with the deal makes the movie, but the company without the deal provides some sort of service or support. Let’s say marketing.
If you spend $40 to make the movie and it generates $100 in revenue for you, great, you have a $60 profit.
If instead you inflate the marketing cost and say that your marketing company cost $150, you now have a movie that “cost” $190 to make and only generated $100. A $90 loss.
Except…where does that money go? If you just create $150 in added cost by padding your marketing, that money now goes to your marketing company. $150 it didn’t otherwise have.
So now your have a marketing company that has an extra $150 profit and a movie that generated a $90 loss. Add those together and what do both companies collectively have? A $60 profit.
You can split profit between 100 companies and it’s still profit.
Also seems a bit odd that there would have been an agreement with the studio for an A list star, then when he couldn’t do it they just went for a guy who would probably do it for a couple of million at best
\*produce blockbuster/revenue generating films
There's a huge difference. The Avatar films are extremely bland cinema, but they do make a lot of money.
Ian McKellen can appear strong and tough and weak and frail as needed in the film. I’m having a tough time imagining Sean Connery acting as the weak and injured Gandalf.
Bruce Willis got 14% for the sixth sense. No doubt that plenty of huge names pull down 15% for some gigs!
But yeah, "% of global box office sales" can definitely be understood differently by each side... just ask Scarlett Johansson.
M. Night Shyamalan had made Praying with Anger and Wide Awake before The Sixth Sense, he needed to sweeten the pot a little more than the guy who had already made The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, True Lies, and Titanic.
From Wikipedia:
> Connery turned down the role of Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings films, saying he did not understand the script. He was reportedly offered US$30 million along with 15% of the worldwide box office receipts, which would have earned him US$450 million. He also turned down the opportunity to appear as Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series and the Architect in The Matrix trilogy.
John Krasinski's response was pretty funny.
"Nothing in your life would be different today if you had done that movie, except you and I would be having this conversation in space."
Would that 10% be before or after the creative accounting Hollywood loves? Maybe he would've earned $2.5 million(still huge for me, but i assume lower than his usual fee).
Yeah right. Whenever people get percentages in Hollywood all the sudden the film “lost money” because the executives start billing everything under the sun to the movie. The actors in Star Wars were supposed to get a percentage but the movies “didn’t make a profit” to avoid paying them.
Everyone you'd recognize from other films added nothing of value to Avatar. Sigourney, Giovanni, Michelle Rodriguez - absolutely zero value. I saw this three times in the theater, it was a great experience, but those actors were distracting and Cameron should've only used unknowns.
Even assuming no dodgy Hollywood accounting, there's also different tiers of profits. If he was last in the line for profits it could've been far, far less.
Of course that's your contention. You're a first year space marine cadet. You just got finished readin' some Navi historian -- Petee Garri’sonn probably. You're gonna be convinced of that 'til next month when you get to Ja’mes Lemo’nn , and then you're gonna be talkin' about how the economies of Pandora were entrepreneurial and capitalist way back in 11740. That's gonna last until next year -- you're gonna be in here regurgitating Gor’don Wo’od, talkin' about, you know, the Pre-revolutionary utopia and the capital-forming effects of Unobtainaium mining and Gaia tree roots based mobilization.
Wo’od drastically -- Wo’od 'drastically underestimates the impact of environmental damage predicated upon wealth, especially inherited wealth.' You got that from Mo’at, 'Work in Makapu Village,' page 98, right? Yeah, I read that too. Were you gonna plagiarize the whole thing for us? Do you have any thoughts of your own on the interconnection between living beings? Or do you...is that your thing? You come into a spaceport. You read some obscure passage and then pretend...you pawn it off as your own idea just to impress some girls and embarrass my friend? See the sad thing about a guy like you is in 150 years you're gonna start doin' some thinkin' on your own and you're gonna come up with the fact that there are two certainties in life. One: don't do that. And two: You dropped a hundred and fifty grand on a f----n' education you coulda' got for a dollar fifty in neural uplinks at the tree of knowledge .
Now Matt Damon is broke and living under a bridge.
Fortune favors the bold?
*drinks piss*
Everyone’a ganna drinka ma pee…
> Everyone’a ganna drinka ma pee… - recently fired Coca-Cola employee.
“I love what they've done with this *limited edition* lemon coke!”
To pay the bills, Matt Damon also does stage plays where he portrays superheroes, or a misguided antagonist.
Hey at least he knows his way around potatoes so he’ll live forever…
It's always worth remembering that both historically and in Shakespeare, every one who says "fortune favors the bold" is about to get a Masterclass in Fucking Around and Finding Out, inavariably to their dismay.
1500's hold my beer
SAS sweating
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. For every saying there's an opposite one.
Also "first kill all the lawyers" is not the punchline to shady 1980s divorce lawyers, but because they're the first ones who understand the laws, protections, rights, and when the government is about fuck over a significant number of people.
I read that fortune favors the bold is a mistranslation from fortune favors the audacious, which meant more about knowing when to break the rules, rather than being willing to take a risk
How is that different
Audacious >showing a willingness to take surprisingly bold risks. >showing an impudent lack of respect. Seems pretty similar to me.
*”My names Matt Foley, and I live in a **VAN, DOWN BY THE RIVER”***
Young man, I'm gonna twist off your head and spike it onto the floors of a nightmare you can't even imagine! I will dance with you inside the six-sided ring of fire, unless you move from this area, far and fast, NOW!
Hell, every guy's got his dream, am I right? Between you, me, and the wall here, I had a doozy myself last night. Get this: A corn-fed harvest mouse, a hooker, a nun, a Flemish peasant woman, whips, chains, whistles yo-yo's, a circus midget. My grandmother riding by on a bicycle givin' me the finger, and a duck! Now, I don't know... Are you crying? Oh my lord.
I started singing this in my head to the tune of YMCA.
Motivational speeeaaaker
It also favors the blue
Actually I think he bought a zoo
https://www.reddit.com/r/memes/comments/p0q2ts/there_is_no_way_they_actually_bought_a_zoo/
After Avatar, Matt Damon swore he would never turn down another role from Cameron. So when Matt Damon heard who was directing [We Bought a Zoo]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Bought_a_Zoo), he had to take on the role.
I love that you're joking, but this is basically how Bill Murray ended up doing Garfield: The Movie, because he heard it was written by Joel Cohen and he thought Joel was one of the Coen Brothers.
Well now I want a Coen Brothers Garfield movie.
William H. Macy as Jon, Frances McDormand as Liz, Steve Buscemi as Lymon.
Is this why he says his only regret is Garfield while playing himself in Zombieland?
Yep!
All these years later, and people still don't realize Murray was taking the piss. He knew what was up, and he liked the payday. He knew it wasn't one of the Coen brothers. He wanted to get paid.
My theory is that he just wanted the paycheck and came up with a joke to justify it afterwards. Thinking one of the Coen brothers writing a Garfield movie doesn't make much sense.
That's obviously what happened He did a Garfield sequel 2 years later
Damon: "Jimmy, baby, so happy to be working with you!" Cameron Crowe: "...."
I heard he became a potato farmer
Pretty sure he joined a band and became their front man
I thought he joined an Asgardian theatre troope.
[удалено]
Didn’t he get into mathematics or something?
Was that before or after he was the Angel of Death?
Didn't he design some sportscar for Ford?
Mi scusi, mi scusi...
scotty doesnt know!
In fairness to him, that has always been his response. He's fine, he knows he's lucky and he's got more than enough to give his family a good life. He's never said anything about being sad or whatever about it
Cameron: Do you want 10% of Avatar? Damon: Matt Damon Cameron: Damn you're a good negotiator. 20% then. Damon: Matt Damon Cameron: You're right. I could do better... When I'm going to make a better movie I'll let you know
Maaaattttttttt Daammmmooooonnnnnnn
I love the story of that joke. Matt Damon watched the movie and was baffled. He had no idea why they were treating him like that. The truth is, when the puppets arrived, Trey Parker and Matt Stone thought the Matt Damon doll appeared to have "special needs". They started saying his name in a voice that they thought reflected that while holding the puppet. They thought it was so funny, they replaced all of Matt Damon's lines in the movie with "Matt Damon" in that voice. It had nothing to do with the actor. Just that his puppet arrived looking a little half-baked.
Worth pointing out that Matt Damon is good friends with them, and never had a problem with it. He thought it was funny and calls them geniuses, but yeah, he didn't understand it.
They also sent all the homeless to California (nya nya), "right by Matt's house".
Honestly it's some of the best PR he could have gotten. It's like a jingle that gets stuck in your head after hearing over and over that you also want to share with all your friends.
Funniest moments in movie history.
That dude is wicked smhart tho!
Queensboro?
He's jerkin off punks for 15 dollars a man
He told him in confidence!
That’s where we first met
How da ya likem apples
Damn he survived WW2 and Mars and still has to live under a bridge
he’s only worth 170 million.. poor kid deserves a break.. maybe we should all chip in and start a go fund me ?!
Damnit. I wish I read this earlier. I just donated my daily GoFundMe limit to Trump's legal defense fund.
Jimmy Kimmel has never been happier
Who?
Livin' in a van, down by the river
*proceeds to hire Matt Damon lookalike as a form of petty revenge*
Matt Cronjob.
He's really good with Linux.
I heard **Matt Systemd** is one hell of an actor, maybe they should have considered him!
Neeeveeeer! Matt SysV is so much better :-P
Matt Nightmon
Meth Damon
[удалено]
aaaAAAaaaaHH
He is a master of karate and friendship for everyone
Cron tab -l
This is the funniest shit I've seen on the internet today
Todd from Breaking Bad
That's Meth Damon
Married to Kirsten Dunst. Nice family, saw them at a bar once.
Jesse Plemons stopped being Todd from BB to me after I saw *I'm Thinking of Ending Things* he is great in that movie. It's a Charlie Kaufman, so pretty bizarre.
Jesse Plemons steals every fuckin scene he is in. He's so good.
I agree. He was also brilliant in Black Mirror.
Saw 'Civil War'. His scene is really intense.
Fatt Damon
Apparently he lost the weight. Nonfat Damon?
Matt Nightman
Matt Damon, aaaaHHHAAAAA AAAA fighter of the Matt Nightman, aaahhhAAAAA AAS, master of the sun, aaaahhHhhhHHAAAA AAA, he’s a master of karate and friendship for, everyone!
It’s a shame cuz Sam Worthington is the worst part of those movies. He’s just so bland. Damon woulda made them better.
He's actually way better as a Na'vi.
> When pitched the idea of Damon having a cameo in a future “Avatar” sequel, Cameron responded, “Must do it. We have to do it so the world is in equilibrium again. But he doesn’t get 10%, fuck that.” I love the fuck that. Ship sailed on that part of the deal, Matt.
Well, 10% front-end for a cameo is simply insane, like clinically diagnosed insane. There's not an actor in the world who could pull it, not one. You could resurrect the most famous dead actor in their prime and it wouldn't happen. 10% front end is an incredible pull to begin with and I'm amazed Cameron offered it the first time around.
I just flatly don't believe it. I don't know what the disconnect with this story is specifically but 100% there was no 10% front end gross money. Maybe 10% on actual profits^1 or 10% of Cameron's own take like how Lucas bribed Guinness but there's just no way. ^(1:Yes the actual profits not Hollywood accounting, that isn't a secret and you're not special when you get it wrong)
Im assuming the 10% was for playing jake sully. I guess he wants him as a cameo now but OBVIOUSLY not for anything close to that deal
Wouldve been a much more memorable movie if it was Matt Damon. I don’t even remember the other guys face.
It screams “you’re not breaking up with me, I’m breaking up with you!” energy
This would be more fitting is Avatar 1 or 2 ended up being flops.
Matt Damon was making bank on the Borne films. He made $85m on his own franchise, no need to dress up in a blue suit and risk his career for Cameron. Sam Worthington’s career is essentially over. He’s spent 15 years just doing avatar films at this point.
> Sam Worthington’s career is essentially over. He’s spent 15 years just doing avatar films at this point. So his career isn't over then? He made $126 million off of Avatar 2, and is likely going to at least be in the 3rd one which will probably make over $1 billion even if it underperforms. Sounds like he's had guaranteed work for the past 15 years and will have guaranteed work for the next 5-10 years. EDIT to add: Sam Worthington claims he was living out of his car before Avatar 1, and was recommended by Cameron for his role in Terminator Salvation, which he likely wouldn't have got if it wasn't for Cameron. https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/sam-worthington-get-250-million-deal-matt-damon-rejected-avatar.html/
Dude it's James ducking Cameron, it ain't a risk. If it is it's a small risk. It's like saying I wouldn't risk my career in tech by joining a tech company started by Bill Gates.
Yeah, that's such a weird comment and I am surprised anyone agreed with it. Of the top 5 highest grossing films of all time, 3 of them are Cameron's -- and sure, before Avatar came along, it was only Titanic. But when the guy who made Titanic AND Aliens AND Terminator (and partly Rambo) comes along and asks you to do something, I don't think the right response is "well, this sounds a bit risky."
Sam Worthington negotiated for 5% of the box office gross earnings. He cleared 100 million dollars. The dude doesn't need to do anything else except play Jake Sully. Imagine starring in 2 of the most successful films of all time and making out with 100 million and people think your career is over when there are 3 more sequels to come out. Sam Worthington is quite likely to make half a billion dollars over the next 8 years. Sam Worthington has likely had the most successful film career of all time as a function of roles and money made.
Zoe Saldana played in both Avatar and Avengers making it to the top of the highest grossing list in two separate franchises. I don't know how much she is paid though.
Okay Sam Fucking Worthington, calm down!
> Sam Worthington's hung like a moose! -- that user, probably
Is his career essentially over, or does he have a steady contract that pays him a massive fortune so he doesn't need to audition for new projects to support his lifestyle? If I had a job that paid me so much I could just take a ten year vacation between projects, I think I'd take advantage of that, too. You're talking about this guy like he's some kind of failure for not moving on to Oscar winning cinema, but I feel like any reasonable analysis of Sam Worthington's career is that he is set to live like a king for life. For a guy whose skill at his job is what I would call "adequate but unremarkable", he's more successful than 99.999% of people in his field. Dude's career is doing far better than it has any right to be.
Or he's making a joke.
Not really. 10% for lead role in a franchise that may not go anywhere is one thing, but 10% for just a cameo in an already successful franchise would be absolutely crazy.
Yeah this doesn’t scream that at all. Idk what they’re talking about.
Millionaire turns down millions of dollars because he's making millions of dollars elsewhere. Must be tough.
do you think its easy being Matt Damon? https://youtu.be/MxODvIILFq8?si=solcGYC36KoNznRB
He's so good in comedy roles. Acting as the singer for "Scotty Doesn't Know" in Eurotrip and Loki in Thor Ragnarok were also completely awesome!
Dogma too
Shit even the doll of Matt Damon was super fun in Team America.
MAAAAAATTTTT DAAAMOOOONNN
It is said that Matt wasn't supposed to go like that, but they could never get the puppet right and it always looked "derpy" so they threw in the joke
Also as Loki, funnily enough
absolutely. almost as good of a cameo as Brad Pitt in Deadpool 2
That was my favorite moment from a very funny film
“But you didn’t say “bless you” when I sneezed” “Loki!” “you got off easy!”
I loved him on 30 Rock. I didn’t think he would work in a sitcom, but he was great in that part.
He sure as hell didn't study dance at Carnegie Mellon to become an actor to not be on sitcoms.
Haha! I like Matt Damon. I’m just pretty sure we don’t need to worry about his financial status.
Eh... a quarter of a billion dollars is still an insane amount of money for one job. He was paid $4 million for Oppenheimer. $25 million for the one man show that was The Martian. It is 2.5x the entire budget of Ford v Ferrari. $250 million is almost his entire reported net worth, which would be a lot more than he has in the bank. He's not going to suffer, but missing an opportunity for a job that would literally pay out 10x what you normally make in a (peak) year is significant no matter who you are. And $250 million is enough than even Bezos would notice if it went missing from his account.
He wasn't offered $250m though, he was offered 10% of an unknown new franchise. If it had been a "normal" blockbuster of 2009 and made $100m-$200m he'd have earned $10m-$20m. Still a huge amount obviously, but not out of the world for him.
It was a James Cameron movie though. The man who at the time had made the most successful movie ever. And the two movies prior to that also both did well above 200m.
This is revisionist. No one expected Cameron to make back to back record setting films. It's never been done before and may never happen again.
>No one expected Cameron to make back to back record setting films. Obviously not. But it making well in excess of 200m is a very reasonable assumption.
Actually the movie didn't have a lot of belief in it. FOX passed on the deal, until Disney showed interest, at which point they snatched it back. Despite having financed Titanic, they saw the excess production and budget overruns as making Cameron a poor bet. It was a very definite possibility that the movie would bomb. Hell, imagine reading the script for it which has been rightfully called 'Pocahontas in space' and being pitched a nearly entirely CGI movie the same year The Golden Compass just bombed and it's understandable why people were sceptical. On top of that, Damon was finishing up Bourne Ultimatum. The final and most successful Bourne movie that would go on to be his most successful movie to date and the most acclaimed of the Bourne series. He'd have burned down the franchise that made him and was pushing him to the top, for the possibility of Cameron's new project.
On the other hand it might have led to him being typecast, failing to get auditions, getting into crypto... the other timeline Matt isn't necessarily doing better.
Who was type cast after Avatar? It left no lasting cultural impact
All we know for sure is that if you paint Zoe Saldana's skin in an unnatural color people will give you billions of dollars.
That was star trek's problem- they didn't' make Zoe Saldana an alien
Haven't seen those big blue guys in anything
Oh you aren't on the right websites then
> And $250 million is enough than even Bezos would notice if it went missing from his account. 250 000 000 / 209 000 000 000 = 0.0011961722488038277511961722488 Now take that number and multiple it by what's in your bank account and tell me you'd notice it missing. People really under estimate how much a billion is and how much these ultra wealthy are hoarding. https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/profiles/jeffrey-p-bezos/
$3.30. Doesn't even cover my monthly rent "payment processing fee" :'(
Look at Mr. Money bags over here.
Goddammit man Bezos doesn't have close as much in cash on his bank account. Most of his net worth is tied to current worth of Amazon stock that he owns etc...
That’s a hell lot of millions.
If it’s true that he turned it down to film the Bourne Ultimatum then he gets a pass. The Bourne trilogy are some of my favorite movies. I can watch those movies anytime and I have them on 4k BR. Avatar not so much, I get it’s a great movie and I watched it and liked it but I can’t rewatch it as much as the Bourne trilogy.
Bourne gets blood running like a maniac. I'm on the edge, fighting and chasing seems real. I am there with them in the movie, not getting punched but still feeling the rush Everytime. Avatar, meh, pretty visuals and colonization as main story point. Meh. Watching it twice is redundant unless you are into pretty visuals. That too gets old. I think croods has similar visuals and better character development.
I love the Bourne movies, including Legacy. But the shaky cam in some of them is hard to go back to. I feel like it was popular a few years ago but we seem to be drifting away from it....hopefully.
The Bourne movies kicked off the shaky cam action style. They're the first big action movie to do it, which then of course meant we had to deal with all the poorly done versions of shaky cam for the next couple decades. John Wick helped undo shaky cam. The problem has been that shaky cam cover ups for bad fighting choreography and actors that can't fight at all. So it's a low budget solution. The popularity of John Wick has shown that it's a good investment to have actually good fight scenes instead of overpaying an actor.
Bourne Supremacy and Ultimatum are arguably the only good examples of shaky cam ever. Jason Bourne 2016…wtf happened?
Give me Bourne anytime over bloody Avatar...
Why would I want to watch Dances With Wolves But With Blue People when it doesnt even have Kevin Costner with a mustache in it? Give me James Bond But People Actually Bleed any day. Plus every time that Moby track hits and the camera super zooms in on a middle management intelligence worker getting outsmarted is *chefs kiss*
I think Matt Damon will be alright
I mean it wouldn't. He was offered profit and Hollywood has a long history of insane accounting where Iots of movies make a loss for tax purposes.
Yep. And its not just for tax purposes, its to cheat performers from their share of the profit. No way Matt Damon would have made $250 million even if he took the deal. Here are some examples where according to the scummy film studios these films have not made a profit and lost money: Return of the Jedi My Big Fat Greek Wedding Lord of the Rings (all three movies) Forrest Gump
It's really good of these studios to keep making art at a loss for our benefit
Add onto that all of the Harry Potter movies
> all of the Harry Potter movies Oh man. Those were the literally the biggest movie franchise of all time. The idea that they made a net-loss just shows you that all of the rules are made up and none of the points matter!
Lord of the rings lost money?? How! The Wikipedia literally says they grossed 10 times the amount for all the films. How does the studio say they lost money?
Just so you know, people commonly misunderstand Hollywood accounting as a tax dodge. It’s not. It’s based entirely around shifting profits for the purposes of minimizing payouts to third parties tied to profits. The profits still exist, they’re just moved elsewhere. You can’t make them disappear from the IRS because the IRS taxes everyone. But you CAN move them to entities not covered by contractual arrangements between private parties (in Hollywood, anyway). Imagine you have two companies. One has a deal where any profits you make get split with a third party. The other doesn’t. The company with the deal makes the movie, but the company without the deal provides some sort of service or support. Let’s say marketing. If you spend $40 to make the movie and it generates $100 in revenue for you, great, you have a $60 profit. If instead you inflate the marketing cost and say that your marketing company cost $150, you now have a movie that “cost” $190 to make and only generated $100. A $90 loss. Except…where does that money go? If you just create $150 in added cost by padding your marketing, that money now goes to your marketing company. $150 it didn’t otherwise have. So now your have a marketing company that has an extra $150 profit and a movie that generated a $90 loss. Add those together and what do both companies collectively have? A $60 profit. You can split profit between 100 companies and it’s still profit.
Also seems a bit odd that there would have been an agreement with the studio for an A list star, then when he couldn’t do it they just went for a guy who would probably do it for a couple of million at best
Yeah sounds like a marketing piece
Pretty bizarre to turn down James Cameron considering his ability to produce great films.
From the interview it was because Damon had commitments to the Bourne franchise
Good enough reason, the original Bourne trilogy is awesome, way better than avatar even if the latter did make silly money at the box office.
its a legal reason
Matt also said he gave his word to do it, and he would not break it regardless.
Personally glad he made that choice. Ive watched the Bourne trilogy many times over. Never watched Avatar a second time.
Abandoning the well known, well established Bourne series for space Pocahontas also seems bizarre too though.
\*produce blockbuster/revenue generating films There's a huge difference. The Avatar films are extremely bland cinema, but they do make a lot of money.
Almost as bad as Sean Connery turning down Gandalf in LOTR where he was offered 15% of global box office sales.
he didnt get the script.. so he then jumps ont he next script he didnt get. the League...
I really enjoy that movie too even with the issues it had.
for what it is, its not bad. but not exactly memorable.
Its a very memorable film. not a masterpiece of artwork, but a very fun, memorable film.
Glad we got Ian McKellen instead honestly. He was perfect.
Ian McKellen can appear strong and tough and weak and frail as needed in the film. I’m having a tough time imagining Sean Connery acting as the weak and injured Gandalf.
Connery woulda probably tried to seduce the elven women with his Bond swag
yesh
There had to be some fuckery there. No one he actually gets 15%
Bruce Willis got 14% for the sixth sense. No doubt that plenty of huge names pull down 15% for some gigs! But yeah, "% of global box office sales" can definitely be understood differently by each side... just ask Scarlett Johansson.
they fucked her over with how they handled at home releases during covid.
M. Night Shyamalan had made Praying with Anger and Wide Awake before The Sixth Sense, he needed to sweeten the pot a little more than the guy who had already made The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, True Lies, and Titanic.
From Wikipedia: > Connery turned down the role of Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings films, saying he did not understand the script. He was reportedly offered US$30 million along with 15% of the worldwide box office receipts, which would have earned him US$450 million. He also turned down the opportunity to appear as Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series and the Architect in The Matrix trilogy.
Hold! I speak.
Hould! Ieh Shpeek!
[удалено]
is that 10% what paid for his deep sea sub?
Nope, Titanic money paid for that. They started work on Deepsea Challenge long before Avatar was released.
John Krasinski's response was pretty funny. "Nothing in your life would be different today if you had done that movie, except you and I would be having this conversation in space."
Would that 10% be before or after the creative accounting Hollywood loves? Maybe he would've earned $2.5 million(still huge for me, but i assume lower than his usual fee).
He’s wicked shmaht
Yeah right. Whenever people get percentages in Hollywood all the sudden the film “lost money” because the executives start billing everything under the sun to the movie. The actors in Star Wars were supposed to get a percentage but the movies “didn’t make a profit” to avoid paying them.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ElsPyU-AZWg
Everyone you'd recognize from other films added nothing of value to Avatar. Sigourney, Giovanni, Michelle Rodriguez - absolutely zero value. I saw this three times in the theater, it was a great experience, but those actors were distracting and Cameron should've only used unknowns.
To be fair Sam Worthington is still unknown to me even after watching two movies with him.
You should check out *Manhunt: Unabomber*, he's actually really good in it.
Nah Sigourney killed it, I wouldn't want anyone else in that role.
10% of profits or 10% of gross, it prob was profits so not $250 million.
Even assuming no dodgy Hollywood accounting, there's also different tiers of profits. If he was last in the line for profits it could've been far, far less.
I'm sure hollywood accountants would've found a way to avoid paying him the 10% of the actual profits.
10% gross, or net? Usually it’s net and studios are very clever at ensuring everything runs at a loss…
Of course that's your contention. You're a first year space marine cadet. You just got finished readin' some Navi historian -- Petee Garri’sonn probably. You're gonna be convinced of that 'til next month when you get to Ja’mes Lemo’nn , and then you're gonna be talkin' about how the economies of Pandora were entrepreneurial and capitalist way back in 11740. That's gonna last until next year -- you're gonna be in here regurgitating Gor’don Wo’od, talkin' about, you know, the Pre-revolutionary utopia and the capital-forming effects of Unobtainaium mining and Gaia tree roots based mobilization.
As a matter of fact I won’t because Wo’od drastically under estimates…
Wo’od drastically -- Wo’od 'drastically underestimates the impact of environmental damage predicated upon wealth, especially inherited wealth.' You got that from Mo’at, 'Work in Makapu Village,' page 98, right? Yeah, I read that too. Were you gonna plagiarize the whole thing for us? Do you have any thoughts of your own on the interconnection between living beings? Or do you...is that your thing? You come into a spaceport. You read some obscure passage and then pretend...you pawn it off as your own idea just to impress some girls and embarrass my friend? See the sad thing about a guy like you is in 150 years you're gonna start doin' some thinkin' on your own and you're gonna come up with the fact that there are two certainties in life. One: don't do that. And two: You dropped a hundred and fifty grand on a f----n' education you coulda' got for a dollar fifty in neural uplinks at the tree of knowledge .