Is an actor worth $50 million? If you would listen to the Occupy meat heads, they will tell you that no corporate executive is worth that much. In fact, most of these never-do-well-living-on-daddy's-paycheck types will say that no executive is worth $2 million per year, but actors are a different matter. They are artists and their art must be rewarded otherwise this would be a very dull world painted only in black, white and shades of grey.
Hey, these actors have to work a full six months, sometimes, to earn their money and the rest of the time is taken spending what they earned on new houses, cars, contributions to Democratic candidates and, yes don't forget, their drugs. Downey is an expert in that scene. But doesn't his dealer also need to make a living and doesn't he contribute to the economy? Of course, we cannot forget those little people, his hangers-on who need their piece of the pie.
You see an actor really is a small business, with his staff, his drivers, his caterers, his hairstylist, his lawyers and accountants. He is a small business and shouldn't they also be able to make a living? Shoot, if we cut him down to $500,000 per film, he would have to let go most of these people which would only increase the unemployment!
Would a film be less successful if we only paid him 1% of his current take? We doubt it! Yet, we hear no one on the left side of the political spectrum espousing the greed of the movie stars, because they know that is where their money comes from. For the most part, it does not come from the corporate executive who worked his or her way up to the top giving up family, friends and relationships to crawl their way to the upper echelons. Regardless of the company's successes, the CEO is told that he or she is greedy and only wants for themselves and not for the "little people." Such hypocrisy!
Our point is that most of us will never earn 3% of what Downey does in a short stint on a movie stage. He makes nothing and is only part of the machine that produces a movie. He does not write, direct or edit the movie, he pretends to be someone who is not real. And for this he gets paid outrageous amounts of money. Yet, the CEO who manages millions of employees and trillions of dollars of assets is slammed for getting a salary less than Downey. This is ridiculous.
This is not to mean that Downey is not deserving of the money that he gets. He obviously is a box office attraction who can make a movie successful. Bravo to him. However, we should also reward those men and women who make it to the top and lead their companies to better and better performance. They should be richly rewarded, also.
The US has always rewarded hard work and rising to the top. We will no longer be a world leader if we eliminate the opportunity to grasp of the "gold ring" in ANY field or venture.
Conservative Tom
Robert Downey Jr.'s 'Avengers' Pay To Reportedly Hit $50 Million
The Huffington Post | By Kia Makarechi Posted: 05/15/2012 7:33 pm Updated: 05/15/2012 11:06 pm
Robert Downey Jr. made a lot of money off "The Avengers."
Robert Downey Jr. is prone to making mathematical gestures on the red carpet, but he's going to need more than ten fingers to sift through his payout from "Marvel's The Avengers." According to The Hollywood Reporter, the 47-year-old actor stands to make about $50 million from the film.
Downey's "Avengers" co-stars stand to make a fraction of his earnings, in part because of a savvy deal the "Iron Man" lead reportedly renegotiated, under which he would receive a portion of Marvel's revenue from any future film in which he plays Tony Stark. He allegedly rejiggered the deal when the first "Iron Man" film dialed up $585 million in 2008.
Though Downey's deal is not unheard of for the rarefied circle of Hollywood's biggest names, it's a great deal more than any of his "Avengers" cohorts. Sources say Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner and Mark Ruffalo will each ultimately make $2 million to $3 million from the film.
Marvel has a history of cutting sharp deals. Terrence Howard, who starred with Downey Jr. in the first "Iron Man" film, was reportedly faced with a 50 to 80 percent pay cut for the sequel after the studio learned director Jon Favreau planned to limit his role. Howard's agents smarted, and though it's unknown if he walked out or if Marvel decided to go a different direction, Don Cheadle replaced Howard for the sequel.
"The Avengers" continues to smash through box office records and recently surpassed the $1 billion mark in global earnings, so the $50 million payout is unlikely to put a big dent in Marvel's balance sheet. The film is currently making "Avatar"-type money, a big relief to Disney, which bought Marvel and desperately needed a hit after the crippling loss it suffered on "John Carter."
