Courtesy of Mish.
A move is underway in France to cut aid to movies if the salaries of the stars is too high a percentage of the cost of production.
The Wall Street Journal reports In France, Popular Actors May Pay for Change in Funding for Films.
Effective Jan. 1, the Centre National du Cinéma, the government agency that funds film production, will shun films in which the pay to the star actors exceeds a certain percentage of production costs. The limit varies depending on the budget; it is set at 5% for films costing between €8 million and €10 million.
“Public money isn’t meant to pay salaries exceeding that sort of amount,” CNC spokeswoman Françoise Pamps said.
In recent years, rising pay for top French actors such as Mr. Dujardin, who won an Oscar in 2012 for his performance in “The Artist,” has claimed a bigger portion of movie budgets in France, forcing producers to rein in other spending. The trend has sparked controversy in France, where, excluding state financial support, the industry loses money, according to data from the CNC.
The attempt to cap the pay for the likes of Mr. Dujardin, Gérard Depardieu, and Marion Cotillard points up how the government’s system to protect France’s film industry from world competition is becoming less sustainable as the domestic economy stagnates.
The cherished French model insulates the country’s film producers from market pressure through a complicated cross-subsidy managed by the CNC. The aid is generated by a levy on each movie ticket sold in the country, as well as payments imposed on TV channels and DVD sales.
In trade negotiations, the film subsidy has been targeted by the U.S. and other countries as an unfair market intervention, but France has stuck to its guns. During recent talks for a free-trade agreement between the U.S. and the European Union, the French government insisted, successfully, on keeping culture off the table.
According to an annual ranking compiled by Le Figaro newspaper, the best-paid French actors—mainly popular local comics little known abroad like Dany Boon —charged in excess of €1.5 million ($1.85 million) per movie in 2013. Mr. Boon’s agent didn’t answer emails seeking comments.
Preposterous Film Setup
The entire process is preposterous from start to finish. France should get out of the movie-making business altogether. Instead it pays subsidies to films that the free market would never create, then to pay for that boondoggle it charges a tax on every ticket, every DVD, and every TV station.
With all that graft, it's no wonder some actors are overpaid.
Yet, it's highly likely that some are actually underpaid. The problem is government would have absolutely no way of knowing. With all the subsidies and taxes, it's impossible to know who is overpaid and who isn't.
…
