By Ryan Parsons | Image property of Paramount, LA Times
Transformers
With Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen due to hit theaters in the next couple of weeks, people have begun to speculate on just how much Michael Bay and the cast might be getting for the sequel. The biggest shocker, however, is not how much they'll be getting this time around, but how much they got for the first Transformers.
Michael Bay Income for Transformers
When you hear that Shia LaBeouf was paid $500,000 for Transformers you'd think that Michael Bay must be somewhere under $10 million for directing. I get it, LaBeouf wasn't a star just yet and he got purchased for practically wholesale. What blows me away is Michael Bay. Taking a note from George Lucas, the director declined any upfront payment for Transformers and instead agreed to take a percentage of the film's total revenues.
According to LA Times, the gamble worked. After all the money was counted, Michael Bay received a check for $75 million for Transformers. Holy crap!
Bay is going to try the same thing for Transformers 2 and, though the film cost about $50 million more to produce, early tracking has the film scoring big and making more than that back in the first five days. After that, Paramount knows that the odds are good that the film will become the top-grossing worldwide hit of summer. The only competition in their way should be Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
Add to Heffee!
