A look inside Hollywood and the movies : Spielberg’s Cut: We’re Talking <i> Major</i> Money

Universal Pictures ain’t the only one who stands to get rich off of the runaway hit “Jurassic Park.” In fact, some industry pundits believe the film’s producer-director Steven Spielberg could personally make at least $100 million over the lifetime of the picture--which would mean the highest fee ever paid to a filmmaker.

“He could earn in the hundreds of millions,” estimates one source who has worked with Spielberg before but is not privy to his “Jurassic Park” deal, which includes a piece of the merchandising.

“Let’s just say it will be well into nine figures,” said another business-savvy non-Universal source.

Since his Amblin Entertainment produced the movie, Spielberg will split the net profits with Universal. While he and Universal are the majority participants on the movie, writer Michael Crichton, whose book spawned the movie, and producer Kathleen Kennedy will also participate in the profits.

Creative Artists Agency, which represents Spielberg, Crichton and Kennedy, reportedly made Spielberg a unique deal, which at some point during the film’s life can actually put the producer-director into a partnership position with Universal.

Spielberg is said to have received no upfront cash in exchange for a bigger piece of the film’s profits. Just a handful of top Hollywood directors are guaranteed this type of deal, under which they can make 10-15% of a film’s gross from the first dollar. At the record rate it’s going and by the time its global run is through, “Jurassic Park” could beat out Spielberg’s earlier epic “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial”--the biggest grosser of all time with approximately $645 million in worldwide theatrical revenues, according to Universal’s figures.

Sources say that while “Jurassic Park” could make even more money overseas than it does in North America (where there are 285 million people compared to 5 1/2 billion around the world), it is unlikely, however, that it will surpass “E.T.’s” domestic gross of $359 million. That’s primarily due to the fact that parents are not allowing their very young children to see the dinosaur movie because of its violence, whereas that wasn’t the case with “E.T.” The under 8-year-old group is a sizable chunk of the audience to miss out on.

According to Universal’s own exit poll last weekend, only 2% of the “Jurassic Park” audience is 8 or under, the same as it was two weeks earlier when the film opened.

Also in its latest exit poll (which samples people at various theaters all over the country), Universal found that 82% of its audience was over 18, a shift of about 4% from the opening weekend’s findings where 86% was in that age category. That means there was a small expansion of the 9- to 18-year-olds.