Do screenwriters get a chunk of foreign TV money?
Do writers ever get a percentage of the substantial profits from the studios’ licensing their films to international TV networks?
– Marilyn Mallory
via imdb
Writers do get a portion of the revenue, in the form of residuals. These payments are roughly analogous to the royalties songwriters and novelists receive, but with some important distinctions. (For clarity, I’m only going to talk about residuals for movies, because residuals for TV shows work a little differently.)
For starters, you don’t get residuals on theatrical release. Whether your movie makes one dollar or one billion at the box office, you don’t get residuals on that. It’s only when the movie shows up in subsequent markets, like home video or television, that you start getting more money.
The formulas for how much money the writer is supposed to get are complicated and contentious, and are often a big issue in negotiations between the WGA (which collects residuals) and the studios (who pay residuals). Even a fraction of a percentage can translate into thousands of dollars for a screenwriter. For example, I’ve made far more money from the residuals on Go than I did for writing and producing it.
Residuals are paid quarterly, and arrive in big green envelopes. It’s always a guessing game how big the checks are going to be: sometimes just a few dollars, sometimes well into six-figures. But it’s always exciting to get money you weren’t quite expecting.
It’s important to explain what residuals aren’t. They’re not “a piece of the back end” in the way that a big movie star gets gross points. Residuals have nothing to how profitable the movie is: you get paid the same per DVD or run on HBO whether the movie is a giant success or a dismal failure. (Of course, a hit movie should sell more DVDs and play more often on television, so in the long run, you’ll come up ahead.)
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September 30th, 2006 at 10:01 am
It’s always surprising how much more money you can get from foreign residuals rather than domestic…
In your experience, has one outweighed the other?
October 1st, 2006 at 10:07 am
I’d be willing to bet that the participants of OFFICE SPACE made a whole lotta mo’ money of the residuals than anything else - the film was a hugely popular rental, always running on comedy central and, to top it off, a great movie that didn’t make any dough when originally released.
But like Shawshank Redemption, it found its audience. I’d love to have residuals from either film, even though both were considered box office failures.
October 1st, 2006 at 6:14 pm
Mr. August, Surprising that you get nothing from the cinematic release of a film. I recently watched the doco “Overnight” about Troy Duffy who wrote and directed “Boondock Saints”, which is a quite popular rental. He’s mad but whatever, at the end it said he wasn’t a pay paticipant in the dvd sales/rentals. So my question is does he still getting residuals for the movie? They are talking about a “piece of the backend” in that quote right?
October 1st, 2006 at 6:51 pm
As opposed to Canada where they ‘buy us out’ for what essentially amounts to all future sales with a production fee…while the handful of things I’ve written for the WGA - the residual checks keep dribbling in…always a pleasant surprise.
October 2nd, 2006 at 12:13 am
If Duffy worked under a Guild contract (WGA or DGA or both), he would get residuals. It’s a required part of the contract.
October 2nd, 2006 at 11:42 pm
Actually, the residuals rate for the broadcast of features on foreign TV is the same as it is for the broadcast of features on domestic free TV, whether it’s free TV, pay-per-view or basic cable.
The residuals formula for all of the above is 1.2% of the distributor’s gross. In other words, if Sony receives $1,000,000 for the German free TV rights to Charlie’s Angels, the writers receive $12,000 just for that (divided equally between John on the one hand and Ryan and Ed on the other).