

Ask HN: Went to the movies today, how the heck can they pay so many people? - andrewstuart

Went and saw &quot;The Penguins of Madagascar&quot; (funny movie). There must have been hundreds of people in the credits. How is it possible to pay so many people - surely many of them receive at least tens of thousands of not hundreds of thousands of dollars for their work?<p>How does the economics of movie making make sense?
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greenyoda
I found this article that describes the economics of the movie industry:

[http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/movie-
cost.htm](http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/movie-cost.htm)

In a way, making movies is a bit like VCs funding tech companies: a lot of
movies lose money, but the ones that turn out to be big blockbusters make up
for it. The highest grossing movie of 2014 made over $300 million.[1]

And successful movies can continue to earn money for years when they're re-
distributed on Netflix, TV, DVD, etc.

[1] [http://www.the-numbers.com/market/2014/top-grossing-
movies](http://www.the-numbers.com/market/2014/top-grossing-movies)

~~~
nekopa
Do you know how they got to that number of $300 million? Is it just US
figures, because the wiki page for 2014 in film shows that the top worldwide
grossing film clocked over $1 billion...

~~~
jimminy
It's US only. If you click on any of the titles in the table from the provided
link, it shows the full breakdown. For Transformers: Age of Extinction, you
get a summary that shows it was primarily international sales[1].

[1]: [http://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Transformers-Age-of-
Extinct...](http://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Transformers-Age-of-
Extinction#tab=summary)

------
brc
The budgets for films like that are extensive. The wiki says it was $132
million. It also says it has grossed over $230 million.

If you put that in company terms - if you took a startup company and funded it
with $132 million, and put out an extensive product, then made a list of
everyone involved - including subcontractors and admin staff - it would be a
surprisingly long list as well.

Remember, for an animated film it's more like an software project than a
traditional movie - there are no sets and filming, but a lot of design and
testing.

While we are on the topic...the movie theatre you went to make every little or
no money on the ticket. All their margin is from selling you overpriced junk
food - including the highest margin product of them all - popcorn. In some
cases, the cardboard container the popcorn comes in costs more than the corn
itself.

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yatsyk
The Hollywood Economist 2.0: The Hidden Financial Reality Behind the Movies by
Edward Jay Epstein [1] just about that

[1]
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004ZZP5QA/ref=as_li_tl?ie=...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004ZZP5QA/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004ZZP5QA&linkCode=as2&tag=mashupsliveco-20&linkId=LAI7XBUSO2IIYO5K)

------
threeseed
Not all of those people are employed full time for that movie. They are likely
to be subcontractors (either via companies or themselves) that may work on a
fraction of the movie. So those salary costs are spread across multiple
movies.

You don't need a costume designer or editor for the entire length of the
movie, right ?

