April
15
Sahara $160 million Budget Revealed
I love getting a gander at a real movie budget. The numbers are surreal. How does a studio get into a situation where a movie like Sahara, which is obviously a grade-B action adventure, winds up costing $160 million? Paramount acquired some distribution rights to Sahara from Philip Anschutz's Bristol Bay Productions. The LAT's Glenn Bunting, who is not one of the Calendar section's Hollywood beat reporters, reminds us yet again that perhaps the folks who cover the town regularly aren't SHOCKED enough by what goes on. Bunting is plenty breathless about the shenanigans on this movie. But part of the problem here --and one reason the project wound up in court --is that it was made outside the system, and outside the rules.
But these astronomical numbers do show how inflated these budgets can get:
• "Sahara," an action-adventure based on the bestselling novel by Clive Cussler, has lost about $105 million to date, according to a finance executive assigned to the movie. But records show the film losing $78.3 million based on Hollywood accounting methods that count projected revenue ($202.9 million in this case) over a 10-year period.• About 1,000 cast and crew members worked on "Sahara." The highest-paid was McConaughey, who received an $8-million fee, or $615,385 for each week of filming, not including bonuses and other compensation. Cruz earned $1.6 million. Rainn Wilson, who since has raised his profile through roles in "Six Feet Under" and "The Office," was paid $45,000 for 10 weeks of work.
• "Courtesy payments," "gratuities" and "local bribes" totaling $237,386 were passed out on locations in Morocco to expedite filming. A $40,688 payment to stop a river improvement project and $23,250 for "Political/Mayoral support" may have run afoul of U.S. law, experts say.
• Ten screenwriters were paid $3.8 million in fees and bonuses — highlighting the increasingly common practice of hiring and firing numerous writers on big-budget features. David S. Ward, who won an Academy Award for "The Sting," received $500,000.
• The production firm owned by Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz got $20.4 million in government incentives to film and edit parts of "Sahara" in Europe.
Unlike most financial failures, "Sahara" performed reasonably well, ranking No. 1 after its opening weekend and generating $122 million in gross box-office sales. But the movie was saddled with exorbitant costs, including a $160-million production and $81.1 million in distribution expenses.
The financial documents obtained by The Times were submitted as "confidential" exhibits in an ongoing Los Angeles jury trial.
Cussler initially sued, claiming that Anschutz's producers reneged on his $10-million contract by failing to honor his right to approve the script. Anschutz countersued, alleging that Cussler exaggerated sales of "Sahara" and other Dirk Pitt adventure books and that he refused to promote the film, hurting attendance. Both sides seek millions of dollars in damages.
"I'm floored that these documents could have been provided by someone, despite the fact that there is a clear agreement within the litigation ensuring that they are confidential," said Marvin Putnam, an Anschutz attorney. "They have been provided in clear breach of that agreement."
The records consist of a 151-page final budget, a profit-and-loss statement, a distribution agreement with Paramount Pictures and a six-year analysis of financial transactions.
Check out McConaughey's MTV set diary.
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I'm not exacted SHOCKED by this budget. I've seen other secret typical, bloated totally wasteful Hollywood budgets. But it's this kind of nonsense that's going to choke the life out of the industry
Posted by: Sergio | April 16, 2007 at 02:27 PM
What can I say? When "It's a Wonderful Life" came out, it was considered a grand flop, as well! It took 30+ years - by sheer fluke of luck - for that beautiful film to be recognized as the incredible gem we all now know and love... and I do LOVE this movie!! Sahara has great humor and chemistry and it just works. Still, timing is everything, and it simply wasn't this movie's time, unfortunately, because I would have loved to have seen McConaughey, Zahn, Macy, and Rainn Wilson work together again on this fantastic franchise.
Posted by: DMA | January 31, 2009 at 11:58 AM