News

Robert Redford built a remarkable career as an actor and a director, but most industry folk would agree his greatest achievement was creating the Sundance Institute. That’s the organization he co-founded in 1981 which runs the annual Sundance Film Festival. It’s no hyperbole to say that Sundance transformed the American independent film landscape, bringing attention and prestige to films (and filmmakers) that might otherwise go unnoticed.

But while the festival is the public face of Sundance, I believe the less-seen work of the Sundance screenwriter and director labs is an equally important legacy. Under the direction of Michelle Satter and her team, the labs bring together seasoned advisors with emerging filmmakers to work on their next films. I’ve had the privilege of serving as a Sundance advisor since 2000.

Pre-pandemic, the labs happened on-site at Redford’s gorgeous Sundance Resort in Utah. If Redford wasn’t off shooting something, he’d come to morning meetings, listening and offering suggestions. That’s where I met him. Given our handful of interactions, I can’t say I have any particular insight about him, but I greatly admired how he was able to build an organization that operated so well without his direct supervision. He chose great people and let them do great work. It’s a lesson more founders could learn.

I was sad to hear of Redford’s passing today, but I have no worries about its impact on the remarkable institution he envisioned. That’s a legacy to admire — not just what you accomplish in your life, but the good work that can continue long after you’re gone. May he rest in peace.

Over the weekend, a Reddit question showed up as a notification:

What’s the estimated amount a writer could make from a blockbuster movie?
Even residuals too, like how much can the average writer ask for when it comes to a major franchise film or a film expected to do big numbers?

Several redditors helpfully chimed in, but I actually know this answer. Here’s what I posted.

tl;dr Between the low hundred thousands and low millions.

I’ve written seven WGA-covered features. The two that are most relevant for answering your question are Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Aladdin (2019).

Charlie made $475 million worldwide at the box office. Aladdin made $1 billion.

Screenwriters earn money in two ways. The first is upfront. The second is backend.

Your upfront pay is a function of how much the studio thinks you’re worth at the time that you’re hired. It’s entirely based on your track record. At the time I was hired to write Charlie, I had already written two Charlie’s Angels films. My initial compensation was probably a few hundred thousand dollars. For Aladdin, it was more than a million.

Again: your upfront pay is a factor of how much the studio believes you can deliver a movie they want to make (and how much that’s worth to them). The floor is WGA scale (roughly $100K in 2025).

For backend, every writer has a net profit definition established in their contract. It’s worthless. The way film revenues are accounted, movies never become technically profitable. (Neither Charlie nor Aladdin are profitable per the statements I’m sent.) But writers often get some money beyond initial compensation for their drafts.

Depending on your contract, you might get a production bonus (say, $100K) on the day the movie goes into production.

You might also have box office bonuses tied to crossing certain thresholds in domestic or worldwide box office. For these two movies, I can’t specifically remember any specific box office bonuses, but they’re relatively common, and wonderfully transparent. They’re a way of rewarding the writer for a movie’s box office success.

Finally, there are residuals, which are collected by the WGA and sent out to the writer each quarter. Residuals are based on the money a film earns AFTER its theatrical run (basically home video in all its forms). Residuals are split between the credited writers for a film.

For Charlie, residuals to date total $3.2M. For Aladdin, it’s $4.2M.

Worth pointing out again that these are giant movies, the exceptions to the rule. My first movie, Go, has earned $389K in residuals, while my indie The Nines has earned $22K.

I wrote more about residuals and the relative mix of sources in an earlier post on my blog. It’s from 2020, but the basic trajectory hasn’t changed.