It Can Set You Reeling

Cockroaches rent for $25 a day. Blowing up a car costs $500 to $1,000 just for explosives. A top cinematographer earns $25,000 a week. An A-list movie star goes for $20 million a picture.

Toss in $5,000 a week for the star’s meals, $4,500 a week for his hairstylist, $3,000 for his masseuse and $40,000 every time he hops aboard a private Gulfstream jet to take a break from filming and you get some idea of why the cost of studio-made movies is spiraling out of control in Hollywood.

Some comparisons: Back in 1971 the film “McCabe & Mrs. Miller” cost only $7 million and change, yet featured two of Hollywood’s hottest stars, Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, and a top-ranked director, Robert Altman. A year later, director Sam Peckinpah made a $3.3-million action film called “The Getaway” starring Steve McQueen, then one of the world’s biggest male stars, and Ali MacGraw, who was coming off the smash hit “Love Story.”

David Foster, a producer on both of those films, estimated that at today’s prices, “McCabe & Mrs. Miller” would cost $60 million to $70 million. As for “The Getaway,” he said, McQueen would make $20 million--the going rate for top stars like Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford and Arnold Schwarzenegger; MacGraw might get $15 million, a figure now commanded by Julia Roberts and Jodie Foster; and Peckinpah would pocket $5 million plus a percentage of the box office.

Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, says that it cost an average of $53.4 million in 1997 to make a studio movie--that’s a 34% increase over the previous year. (By comparison, the U.S. Consumer Price Index in 1997 stood at only 1.7%, the lowest inflation rate in 11 years.) When marketing costs are tossed in, the total average price of a movie climbed to a staggering $75.6 million.

According to MPAA figures, negative costs--that is, the total cost of making a film--have soared 296% in the past decade.

“The mystery is why this is happening” said David Kirkpatrick, who once headed production at Paramount Pictures. “OK, so you’ve now got 10 guys who are $20-million players, but why have the negative costs gone up 300% in the last 10 years?”

Which leads to the larger question: Why do so many movies cost so much?

There are, after all, frugal ways to make hit films. “The Full Monty” cost only $3.5 million and went on to gross more than $250 million worldwide. To be sure, it didn’t have big stars or eye-popping special effects.

But from the moment a studio green-lights a film with big-name talent, costs start shooting up. Whether it’s renting a Benedict Canyon mansion for $8,000 a day or hiring a Bell Jetranger helicopter for $600 an hour (pilot not included), nothing seems to come cheap anymore.

From top to bottom, a random survey of typical film costs reveals a staggering array of “above-scale” fees, star “perk packages,” equipment rentals, crew overtime and vendor outlays that, when added up, begin to explain why movie-making has taken on all the appearances of a Pentagon operation.

Let’s start at the top.

Pretend for a moment that you’re a producer who has a hot script that you’ve been peddling all over town to such stars as Cruise, Gibson, Ford and Schwarzenegger.

The screenplay, you tell everyone ad nauseam, has summer blockbuster written all over it: shootouts, karate fights, car explosions, ninja-clad commandos dropping out of the sky from helicopters. In the opening scene, a hurricane roars onshore. In another, the hero catches the eye of a slinky heiress while attending a lavish party at a sprawling estate. Then there’s the grand finale: a madman (Dennis Hopper, if you can get him) unleashes robot-controlled killer beasts and poisonous insects on an unsuspecting populous.

As you’re about to stick a fork into the crab cakes at the Ivy, you receive a call on your cell phone from the studio chief, who says he has decided to green-light your picture after all because Harrison and Julia are mesmerized by the script.

Leaping for joy, so ecstatic that you don’t even notice knocking San Pellegrino all over the intern seated at your table, dollar signs begin dancing in your head from the box office the film will surely generate. But before one frame of your movie has been shot, before one negative has been spliced, the cost already stands at $35 million. Add a top-flight director and you’re staring at $40 million minimum. And that’s only three salaries.

The era of the $20-million actor has fueled salary explosions all down the line, film executives say.

Kurt Russell, for example, made $15 million starring in the futuristic action film “Soldier” this fall. (The film was a disaster at the box office, taking in only about $14.6 million in North America.) And, hot, younger actors like Adam Sandler, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Matthew McConaughey today command between $8 million and $12 million per picture.

“The escalations in the actor world have been followed in other worlds as well,” said entertainment attorney Tom Hansen. “Directors are paid extremely well--$5 million cash and up for a really top director. A top producer makes $2.5 million to $3 million. A DP [director of photography] makes a ridiculous amount of money a week. Everybody is expensive who is in demand.”

Gary Levinsohn, a partner of Mutual Film Co., which has produced or co-financed such films as “Saving Private Ryan” and “A Simple Plan,” said the stakes are so high for studios these days that they’re willing to pay more to talent “on the off-chance that there is some magic there and they may hit the jackpot. As the stakes get higher, then the propensity to gamble increases.”

Yet, Hal Lieberman, a former production president at Universal and now a producer on the lot, said that there are no villains in all of this. “Quite frankly, it’s just basic human nature and manifest destiny to grow and get bigger,” he said.

For starters, you would think a $20-million paycheck would be enough for a star to buy his own meals and hire his own trainer for back rubs while making a film--but you’d be wrong. Instead, megastars today receive “perk packages” that range between $1 million and $2 million per film, if not higher.

In recent years, the press has reported on some of the more curious perks accorded the stars: Jim Carrey demanding two personal chefs on “Ace Ventura”--one for himself and another for his pet iguana; Wesley Snipes traveling with at least six bodyguards; John Travolta leading an entourage of 15 to 17 people, including assistants who fetch him cold drinks.

But “perk packages” encompass a wide range of payments that all add to the cost of making movies.

To start, the studio gives each star a per diem of $3,000 to $5,000 a week. This petty cash is for the star to purchase food that his personal chef will then whip up at a cost to the studio of about $22 an hour (the more famous a chef, the bigger the fee).

Then there’s the star’s personal hairstylist at $4,500 a week, makeup artist at $4,000 a week, masseuse at $3,000 a week and bodyguards at $1,000 to $2,000 a week per bodyguard.

To make the stars as comfortable as possible while off-camera, studios rent them luxurious, 40-foot-long “fifth wheel” trailers that come equipped with pop-out bedrooms, showers, rear living rooms and entertainment centers hooked to satellite dishes. The going rate: $1,400 to $1,500 a week (programming not included).

“If you have two actors that are of similar stature, you would have two fifth-wheel trailers,” one producer explained. “Some directors get trailers just as big.” While not everyone gets a big trailer, it’s not unusual for studios to rent half a dozen or more trailers for a production.

Planes constitute another expensive item in a star’s perk package.

Since actors like Cruise, Ford, Travolta and Kevin Costner all enjoy flying their own private aircraft, the studios spend tens of thousands of dollars per flight just so the actors can wing to and from location shoots.

The cost of flying a Gulfstream round-trip from Los Angeles to the East Coast can run as high as $40,000 a flight, production sources say, while a round-trip European flight with a flight crew, food and drinks can run $140,000.

The studios also dole out free airline tickets to above-the-line personnel so they can fly home to be with their families, or invite the wife and kids to visit them on the set (sometimes wives demand it).

Larry Meistrich, founder and chairman of a New York-based “micro-studio” called the Shooting Gallery, said that it’s no wonder everyone on a major studio film charges top dollar when they see the stars wallowing in such expensive perks.

Meistrich, who was executive producer on “Sling Blade,” which garnered three Oscar nominations and cost only $1.2 million, said if an actress demands a pop-out trailer instead of a regular trailer, that sends a message to organized labor and vendors that you have more money to spend.

Directors play a key role in keeping budget costs in line. Some carefully plot out each’s day shooting schedule so costs don’t balloon. When Rob Reiner made “The American President,” one crew member recalled, the production never went over 12 hours a day. “Someone like that saves hundreds of thousands of dollars in overtime,” the crew member said.

Certain production costs, of course, are beyond even a director’s control.

Simon West, who is directing “The General’s Daughter,” a military-themed detective thriller starring Travolta that Paramount will release next summer, said that something as insignificant as a broken screwdriver can bring a $20,000-an-hour production to a frustrating halt.

“If your Makita breaks and there are 100 people standing around watching you trying to mend the Makita--which is like a $30 electric screwdriver--and you’re counting off the money as they’re trying to recharge the battery or something, it’s bizarre,” West said. “You think, ‘Why don’t you have 100 Makitas here because it would be cheaper to have 100 Makitas than to lose an hour of shooting.’ But if you had 100 Makitas, they’d say, ‘What a waste! These film people have 100 Makitas lined up!’ ”

Top directors today make between $5 million and $8 million, although a few like Mike Nichols have crept into the $10-million range, according to studio executives.

Once a studio commits to a director, that director usually wants his “team” to work with him.

“You know what happens?” one producer said. “Certain cinematographers, certain editors, whatever, know that a director wants them. If a director says, ‘I want so-and-so,’ they got you. . . .”

As a result, some cinematographers command $25,000 a week, while top production designers make $10,000 a week, and costume designers and editors earn $8,000 a week.

Writers are another big cost factor when determining a movie’s budget. Top screenwriters are paid $1 million per script.

Ian Bryce, who has worked as a line producer on such films as “Twister,” “Speed” and “Saving Private Ryan,” said where movies usually get into budgetary trouble is when filming begins without a completed script.

“I think everybody should try to agree on the content of a script as early as possible before you start hiring people to make the movie,” Bryce said. “Sometimes that can’t be done because you are backing into a release date.”

If the cameras are rolling and the script still isn’t working, studios turn to rewrite specialists called “script doctors” who command up to $125,000 a week for their services.

Now we get to the nuts and bolts of actually making the movie.

For our fictional script--which requires shootouts, explosions, helicopters, a hurricane, a lavish party at a posh estate and robot-controlled animals and poisonous bugs--the costs are dizzying to contemplate.

In Hollywood, virtually everything used to make a movie is rented.

First, there’s the sound stage, which typically rents for $2,000 a day to prep a film and then $3,500 to $4,000 a day to shoot the film. Then there are the cameras, which rent for about $17,500 a week. And, the sound equipment, which goes for about $1,800 a week.

Remember those ninja-clad commandos dropping from helicopters? Larry Kirsch, director of operations at Briles Helicopters in Van Nuys, said that he rents Bell Jetrangers for $550 to $600 an hour (pilot not included).

Need ammo? Syd Stembridge, president of Stembridge Gun Rentals in Glendale, supplies theatrical blanks at $65 per 100 rounds (300,000 rounds is typical for a film). Blanks used in 50-caliber machine guns, however, cost $3 apiece.

Gabe Videla, president of Special Effects Unlimited in Hollywood, said that if a director wants to blow up a car, he’ll provide steel mortars and black powder at $500 to $1,000 each.

Need breakaway tables and chairs to film those fight scenes? They go for $2,500 to $10,000 per scene. “Usually, when you build breakaway props,” Videla said, “you build two or three extra.”

To simulate a hurricane, Videla’s company will rent a turbine-powered jet engine for $10,000 a day.

“We recently worked on ‘Message in a Bottle’ [an upcoming film starring Kevin Costner] and there was a simulated storm in the ocean,” Videla said. “We had a great turbine-powered jet engine that blew winds of 600 mph.”

For the posh party at the estate, Michael Hoback of Cars on Camera in Panorama City, can provide a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud for $650 to $850 a day or a Ferrari Daytona for about $1,000 a day. For “Batman & Robin,” he rented a red Mercedes 600 Pullman driven by Uma Thurman’s character Poison Ivy for $950 a day.

“That car only worked three or four days but the studio wanted no other movie company to want that car,” Hoback said. The studio rented the car for six weeks, “but it was actually sitting in my warehouse.”

Hoback will also rent the estate. A Benedict Canyon mansion goes for $5,000 to $8,000 a day.

Costumes are another budget item to consider. In “Batman Forever,” for instance, Batman’s customized outfits cost $25,000 each.

Since the grand finale involves swarms of insects and plenty of mammals, how much will they cost your production?

Boone Narr of Animals for Hollywood said that a movie-trained dog or cat rents for $200 to $300 a day. A single cockroach can rent for $25 a day.

Narr recalled that in the 1996 teen horror picture “The Craft,” he had to use 30,000 cockroaches. “We charged $1,500 a day for all of them,” he said.

Shelly Davis, a trainer at Sled Reynold’s Gentle Jungle, said alligators go for $500 to $1,000 a day.

“We used them on ‘Eraser,’ ” she said. “It was a big scene. They went into the New York Zoo and the bad guys and Arnold Schwarzenegger had a little bit of a shootout and the alligators all got loose. They ate a bunch of bad guys.”

Once your movie is underway, crews have to be fed. Catering for 100 or more crew members costs about $13 to $15 per person per day, production sources estimate. Plus you have to add the cost of the catering staff. While on location, crew members also receive a daily per diem from $35 to $75, depending on the city.

Minimum pay scales in Hollywood are set by contracts negotiated between the various guilds and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers. Over the past decade, “below-the-line” minimum scale has increased only about 3% to 4% per year. As independent contractors, however, many of these skilled workers negotiate higher fees on their own.

For example, a grip, who handles the nonelectrical lighting on a set, earns a minimum of $24.72 an hour, yet it is not uncommon for the studio to rent the tools that a grip brings with him, giving him up to $1,500 a week extra.

Kent Jorgenson, safety and training representative of the Motion Picture and Television Studio Grips, Local 80, said that overtime can add significant costs to a production if a director isn’t careful.

“If you schedule a movie for 12 hours a day and you’re constantly doing 14 hours a day, the cost of your labor has gone up a third immediately because you’re actually being paid for four hours of work because of double time,” he said.

Of course, grips aren’t the only crew costs. There are gaffers, foley artists, sound mixers, set dressers, boom operators, dialect coaches, drivers, carpenters, and the list goes on and on.

Once the movie is in the can, it’s time for post-production to commence, when the music and special effects are added.

Top composers go for more than $1 million these days. And, that doesn’t include the orchestra. As for computerized special effects, those costs are can run into the millions depending on the number and quality of the effects desired.

Now, our film is ready to be marketed.

But that’s another story.