Who stands to profit the most from The Hunger Games: Jennifer Lawrence, Taylor Swift, the director, or someone else?
—Scout115, via the inbox
The biggest winners of (District 11 seeded) bread will be the people who financed the film's reported $90 million budget: the producers, the studio. But fret not for Jennifer Lawrence. Neither she nor Taylor Swift, who contributed songs to the movie's soundtrack, will walk away hungry...
First, let's talk about the cast. Lawrence is a fine actress, having garnered an Oscar nomination on her first major outing.
But she's no A-lister. She's not the real star of the movie; the novel is. People will see The Hunger Games to watch Katniss Everdeen dodge flying knives and killer bees and forlorn looks from Gale. Ergo, producers reportedly paid Lawrence a modest $500,000 for the first entry in the Hunger Games trilogy. She also, however, gets unspecified "escalators"—bonuses if the movie hits certain box-office milestones, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
That may not sound like a lot, but it's roughly how much Kristen Stewart reportedly was offered when she first started out as Twilight's Bella Swan.
Now, let's talk about how much author Suzanne Collins might get: according to reports, hundreds of thousands of dollars. If the movie makes a big profit, her pay will reportedly go into the six figures. (Yep: She might earn more than Lawrence.)
The director, Gary Ross, reportedly got a paycheck between $3 million and $4 million; it's unclear whether he'll get any additional bonuses.
Taylor Swift's pay may be the toughest to parse. Generally, it costs about $1 million to make a hit single, including writing, promotion, producers, vocal coaches, the whole nine. Don't be shocked if that's what Hunger Games producers had to pay for the rights to Swift's song, "Eyes Open." (She also has a second song on the soundtrack, a collaboration with the Civil Wars called "Safe and Sound.")
And now for those producers: If the movie makes a bundle (and it will), you can bet that they will come out in Capitol couture. Just how much? Think somewhere in mid-seven figures; A producer for the first Spider-Man film is said to have raked in—not a typo—$30 million.