How Does PTA Pay The Bills?

Started by modage, December 03, 2009, 09:51:50 PM

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modage

This is something I was thinking about today considering it's been 2 years since Blood and will likely be 2 more until his next is released.  Considering that he goes between 4 and 5 years between movies and doesn't do commercials and videos in between, how much money can he possibly make writing and directing approx 2 films a decade?  How the hell does PTA pay his bills?
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

Stefen

He probably pulls a Girlfriend Experience for some of the dorks here.
Falling in love is the greatest joy in life. Followed closely by sneaking into a gated community late at night and firing a gun into the air.

Kal

He makes a couple of million per film, maybe a bit less. He probably has investments and shit that he's done over the years.

polkablues

Plus, Maya was on SNL for like seven years and gets semi-regular film and TV work.  And it doesn't seem like they're the crazy, free-spending type.  There's no reason whatsoever that one can't live very well off a million dollars or so every few years.
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socketlevel

i've wondered this too, and i don't know first hand, but i do know a lot of film makers like politicians do public seminars/speeches. they usually make a good chunk of coin cuz of the ticket sales or it's funded by a university or whatnot.
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©brad

Quote from: kal on December 03, 2009, 10:01:32 PM
He makes a couple of million per film, maybe a bit less. He probably has investments and shit that he's done over the years.

I'm pretty certain he makes far more than this, after you factor in the percentage he gets of the movie's gross, and dvd sales.

Pas

Is this a real question? ''How does one pay the bills with millions of dollars every couple years?''

He directed, wrote and produced Boogie, Magnolia, PDL and TWBB. Take for exemple PDL, it had a 25 million dollars budget. That money went straight into salaries. Not even considering DVD sales and the money the movie makes, I'm sure he got at least 3-5+ millions for writing, producing and directing it. On the other hand in 1997 maybe he commanded a lower pay but strong continuous DVD sales of Boogie surely compensate a lot.

Now PTA has investment opportunities in films that surely we don't know about, but let's not speculate on that. Surely it is doable for him to invest in some production he believes in and be anonymous about it but how should we know. Let's just say he invests in the stock market.

The average return on investment for the 00s was in the range of 10% per year. That's conservative. Surely we can estimate that in 2003 (after Boogie, Magnolia and PDL) he had at least 5M in investment, so just with that he makes 500k a year. More than enough to pay the bills. (Even with a 15k/month rent and 5k/month car) And he's not even working, doing conferences and stuff.

But let's say you don't believe he had 5M in 2003. Let's say you think by then he had made 1 million dollars. Ok then, let's pretend he bought a house in hollywood in 1999 worth something like 3-5 millions. That takes a 300-500k cash investment. Surely, even by the lowest possible dumbass estimates, he made at least 500k with Boogie and Magnolia. in 2005 he can sell that house 10-15M easy. And that's if he bought one house, the early 00s was all about house flipping for hollywood types.

And that's all oh so very conservative. My gut feeling says he must be worth around 30-50M and making 1-5M yearly just with investments.

socketlevel

he didn't make 5 mill, no way, 1-1.5 tops.  wouldn't be surprised if it was less.
the one last hit that spent you...

modage

This is a real question.  I mean, he's not making Michael Bay money, that's for sure.  Until Blood his films barely returned a profit in theatres, right?  How much back-end participation can he have?  If directors in a similar standing still make videos and commercials (Fincher, Jonze) to make ends meet, how does PTA do it?
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

Kal

I'm pretty sure that what I say its accurate. He doesn't get much back end from his films because they are high risk investments and I believe he exchanges that for having the creative freedom he wants.

He probably gets around half a mil for writing, a bit more for directing and the same for producing. His movies have all gotten to the break even point, but they are not very profitable. He may get some royalties which adds up but its not millions for sure.

Still, like someone said earlier, if someone is making a couple million per film and has investments and a few other things, he can have a very good life without being over the top.

Pas

Quote from: socketlevel on December 04, 2009, 10:41:42 AM
he didn't make 5 mill, no way, 1-1.5 tops.  wouldn't be surprised if it was less.

Less than 1 million for Boogie Nights, Magnolia and PDL all written, directed and produced? The combined budget of the three is 77 million and you think it wouldn't be surprising if he got less than a mil, what, about 1% of the whole budget? For writing, directing and producing? If that is the case, where is that 76 million? Some of it in Tom Cruise's and Adam Sandler's pocket for sure, but there is a ton of money left. It just makes no sense. He has to make at the very least 3 million for the 3 films, and Kal can surely attest that it's a lot easier to turn 3 million into 6 than 100k into 200k

As far as his movies breaking even: not the case. At all. TWBB made 40M in it's american only theater run. On an estimated 25M budget. Add up the international money and DVDs, I think it's pretty safe to double that box office number. It's not record numbers, but if you can turn 80M with a 25M investment, in the course of 1-3 year, that's good money. And the guy's record proves he does it with every movie.

Boogie Nights turned a good profit on it's theater run also... and it's selling a lot of DVDs...

As for Fincher and Jonze doing commercials, I wouldn't say it's to make ends meet but merely to do some money for little work. And then again if it is to make ends meet, it is because they manage their money like shit and blow it all away because it shouldn't happen.

If PTA was known for a lavish lifestyle, yatchs and whatnot than of course we could try to figure out where he made his dough but I don't believe it's the case, correct me if I'm wrong though.

I don't mean to say that people who make millions can't have financial difficulties (see Nic Cage) but these are always circumtstances where the person is to blame for a mistake and we cannot assume PTA made a mistake so theoricaly he shoudln't have anyyyy problem making ends meet.

And really, I can make ends meet on 20k a year so I don't really understand the question at all.

socketlevel

i thought you were saying upwards of 5 for each flick. combined i could see that. our numbers were the same then, about 0.75 mill per flick would be my guess.

for all we know his estate was huge cuz of his dad, and the world was his playground to begin with.  seriously maybe he never needed money in the first place, and it's all icing on the cake.
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Pas

ok ok!

What's important I guess is that it's all about investments when you're at that amount of money. If you got 10k to invest you'll be extremely lucky if you can somewhat-safely turn 8% a year on it. If you have 1M you have different opportunities. If you make good on them, you can make a lot of money and not have to do commercials :)

socketlevel

ya standard of living is a huge thing too. i'm sure certain parts of LA would suck cash faster than others.
the one last hit that spent you...

cine

lets put all number-crunching aside and remind ourselves where he lives.