Royalties
occy
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How much do Actors and Actress receive for repeats of films like James Bond ( Say Roger Moore) ITV are showing currently on a Sunday or Open All Hours Starring late Ronnie Baker who BBC2 are on a Sunday?
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I suspect for some the contract only allows repeat fees for the first couple of showings or there is no repeat fee at all, judging by the number of times and the frequency some shows are repeated while others are only ever seen once.
I know that Dave Allen (comedian deceased) had it in his contract that there would be no repeats of his shows at all, but a short while ago they did a tribute compilation and got round it for that one repeat of some of his material.
I rememberJohn Inman saying he got a cheque from the BBC when they showed six repeats of Are you Being Served.
The cheque came to £16.
I think it varies from contract to contract and to what extent the actor is the 'star' of the programme.
In some cases it seems that actors can completely block repeats; two specific instances are David Jason blocking repeats of 'The Top Secret Life of Edgar Briggs' and James Bolem, for a while, blocking 'Likely Lad's' repeats.
In these cases it is not unknown for other, less active (or retired), actors to bemoan the fact that they are being denied residuals because a sucessful, working, actor is blocking transmissions of their work.
I believe Martin Shaw blocked repeats of 'The Professions' for a while, he only relented after Gordon Jackson's Widow was having financial trouble.
IIRC he was widely criticised for being a "luvvie", but I read an interview where he said that ITV was still getting huge ratings for Professionals repeats. But the actor's contracts meant they got virtually nothing, so he blocked the repeats in the hope that there would be a re-negotiation.
Slightly O/T but I saw a programme on SKY Arts about Jerry Lewis, and he said he made many millions from the movie "The Bellboy" which was rushed out to fill a Summer slot in the movie release calendar.
Lewis, wrote directed, starred in and financed the movie himself by shooting at the hotel where he was performing, and offered to do extra shows to pay for his use of the hotel.
When the Studio saw the movie they hated it, and refused to pay his production costs - so he "owned" the movie negatives and prints, so he got all the revenue the movie made, and the Studio just got a distributor's fee - this is normally the other way around.
As it was a largely silent movie it did huge business in every country round the World.
Jerry Lewis claimed he made over £300 million over the years, from that one movie
Lead Actors who got "points" (% of profits) might get something, as the film rights being sold regularly would generate income form the film, so Alec Guinness etc who took points for Star Wars would get something every time the TV deal is renewed.
Again this would depend on whether they got "gross points" or net points - net profit points. A lot of TV shows and Movies surprisingly make a huge loss so the studios can avoid paying actors, writers and production companies the fees they are owed.
See "Will and Grace" where the creators sued NBC http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2003-12-12-will-grace_x.htm
http://www.sagaftra.org/content/residuals-faq
Thinks have changed considerably in the 1990's onwards. Whilst actors receive better protection and minimum fees, the balance is now in the production companies favour. Unless you are a "known" actor with the power to sell a product.
These days most well-known TV actors get paid a one-off fee which (supposedly) "compensates" for future royalties. Or they'll get an agreed fee for another repeat or so. The industry is well aware that new media platforms cause long-winded negotiation's with artists, so they try to pay them off with an initial deal.
Actors (especially from the 60/70/80's) are very moany about royalties, but they signed fair contracts, with perhaps crap agents. Many actors accepted one-off payments and cashed in their royalty rights, and often complain they lost out.
As regards to Martin Shaw, his beef was he felt the programme was not artistically good enough for him, and blocked it on that basis, until Gordon Jacksons widow contacted him