Hollywood strike underlines bleak outlook for movie business

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/11/business/strike.php

The report, by the research company Global Media Intelligence in association with its partner Merrill Lynch, concludes that much of the income - past and future - that studios and writers have been fighting about has already gone to the biggest stars, directors and producers in the form of ballooning participation deals. A participation is a share in the gross revenue, not the profit, of a movie.

Through the twists and turns of contemporary deal-making, major studios in theory give away as much as 25 percent of a film's receipts under such arrangements.

The actual take is lower, because of certain adjustments. (This is Hollywood, after all.) But a Hanks, Cruise or Carrey whose movie brings $600 million back to the studio from all sources might easily wind up with a $20 million salary, and an additional $50 million on the back end, while an A-list director and producer could take in tens of millions more.

Industry-wide, the tab piled up to $3 billion or more last year, by the research company's reckoning, helping push the business of making films, which was somewhat profitable a few years ago, into a loss.

it cannot be resolved. Writers create the underlying theme of the series, period and the end. What is not evident about that? I am so much in the writers' side I would like to picket with them!