this.

http://www.people.com/people/article...504689,00.html

Article about Tobey Macguire being sued by some dbag for poker winnings - anyway claims the game was a $100k buy in NLHE cash game twice a week. Imagine that is one of the bigger games.

I sometimes get invited by someone I know to $5k buy-in tournaments or $10k buy-in cash games (that I can not afford to play in). I imagine they are juicy. Usually I'm told like B to C list celebrities are at these - e.g. Mekhi Pfifer was at the game once and may be a regular.

if you're a low-mid level agent you have a client that you found and have total faith in.

he blows up. i mean turns into a huge deal. does your client go to a senior agent?

do you get promoted to a senior agent?

Did you see a lot of Reality TV stars trying to jump to the next level? - What was the general attitude towards them? - Thinking of a couple that had like, one role in a movie as the hot chick and then vanished -

it's hilarious how many people seem to do that stuff (esp. the Bachelor/shot at love kind of shows) just to get their break to move up to the next level - I'm sure they all have to have agents somewhere

RB

This is exactly how you go from 'solid' to 'top-tier' agent. You don't sign people who are already A-list unless you represent A-listers to begin with, and the only way to start repping A-listers is to rep lower level people who pop.

Everyone on the scripted side thinks reality is a joke, but there is no denying how lucrative that side of the business can be.

Is it safe to say then that there is a lot of luck in becoming a top tier agent? Obv guys like Ari are extremely talented, but I imagine a lot of agents just happened to sign a nobody who blew up and then they blew up with them.

Also, no big deal but you missed one of my questions earlier. Can you give a rough estimate of how many people make it from mail room to successful agent (w/e that entails, top tier? mid level?)? I have no idea if the number is like 1 in 1000 or 1 in 10.

Well, there are two answers. Of everyone that goes through the mailroom, one in hundreds. Of people who start out thinking they want to be agents, no better than one in fifty make agent, and at best 1/10 of people promoted make it to making 7 figures as an agent.

If your goal is to make as much money as possible in the entertainment industry, I don't think setting out to be an agent is the way to go. Top producers and executives make much more. Like, Ari is at the pinnacle and is obviously very wealthy, but my totally unsubstantiated and in no way based on actual knowledge guess is that top TV producers and studio heads make significantly more money. Like I'm pretty sure Aaron Spelling approached being a billionaire.

Absolutely, but part of getting those mid-level guys is kicking ass for the people you have on your list. Clients talk to each other and managers know who is good.

That's kind of an interesting question - what's your best bet for the money in the entertainment industry.

Definitely not what I do - I'm just on a corporate track on the business side at a large media company - so whatever people at big companies make is the track I'm on for the most part (without the explosive stock of being an employee at Google or Facebook after it goes public or something). Sure, if I rose to become CEO or very senior management at a huge media company, I could make a ton, but that's very unlikely. (And by ton if the CEO of a major media company stayed long enough, he or she could accumulate a net worth approaching $100 million'ish range, at best).

And studio heads are usually at big corporations where they're held captive to Board of Directors and committee reviews and what not - so studio head probably doesn't make as much as you'd think. (Relative to say Ari Emmanuel.) And as I mentioned above the film business is foundering, which doesn't help a studio head's argument when negotiating his or her contract with a corporate board.

Basically all the significant monies in entertainment are, for the most part, on the producer/creator side - owning a product and having participation if it's a hit. (Let's say shooting for sick networth >$100 mil.) Really, that's probably the best bet to make a lot of money in Hollywood - some career on the financing side where you get a piece of the actual action, or of course actually being a creator/talent and owning the asset that way.

I would actually put trying to become a successful talent agent near the top of professions to choose for the money in entertainment, just cause all the other options don't have enough upside to become super wealthy. Being your own boss/being a partner/having equity are one of the few ways to become wealthy in any business generally, and that's the foundation to the agency structure.

Studio Heads get stock options and get sick benefits like huge funded retirement, use of the corporate jet, functionally unlimited expense account, golden parachute, etc. Ron Meyer was a co-founder of CAA and he's done pretty freaking well running Universal. And it has to be nice being the buyer as opposed to constantly selling.

Oh, I'm not saying Studio Heads don't get paid well - they run a major business unit of large media companies. But do you think they get paid more than the CEO?

For example, Ron Meyer runs Universal studios, a business unit of Comcast. He is subject to all the ordinary business reviews and contract negotiations you'd expect being an employee of Comcast.

Let's just say we could look at what Steve Burke (the CEO of Comcast) is making and assume Ron Meyer makes less. And it's not astronomical sums of money, though Ron Meyer (and other studio heads) are doing quite well for themselves I'm sure.

To the non-salaried parts of say Ron Meyer's package: I guess stock options would be great if the stocks of major media companies actually had growth in them (like being an employee of Google) - they do not at all, it's a mature business that doesn't make you 10s of millions of dollars (unless you're the CEO who of course tends to get hte most generous options packages). And I imagine Comcast is disciplined enough a business to not payout some insane golden parachute or funded retirement or crazy expense account - considering there were questions Comcast would even extend Ron Meyer's contract this year, doubt he had the leverage to get stuff like that in his contract.

I think you're sort of referring to a dead era of Hollywood - the fabulous movie studio head mogul jet setting around - the movie business is not profitable enough to justify that kind of stuff anymore - and all the major film studios are owned by large corporations - not very sexy.

Anyway not meaning to split hairs - Ron Meyer reports to the CEO of a major media company - makes a ton - but probably not as much as you think, and likely being a partner at CAA or WME makes more.

I know these questions are potential bridge burners for you personally, but it'd be awesome to get some answers.

Yeah I can't answer those. For one I'd just be guessing for the most part, though I do know a number of huge names who are constantly broke. Since there are so many details about me already in the thread, I can't say more than that. Almost all actors love acting and would jump at any role they found challenging or rewarding.

Aloysius, have you read The Curse of the Mogul? http://www.amazon.com/Curse-Mogul-Wo.../dp/1591842646

I think it's an incredible book, but would be interested what someone that actually works in the industry thinks.

Smiley - nope, but looks cool - will definitely check it out and report back. Thanks for the link.

Might sound kind of nuts - but the book was written in 2009 and my first thought was "hm this book might be kind of dated".

I've been working in media for a while now, but past 2 years have seen a ton of change in general (the media industry at large) and businesses have refocused their imperatives and started to clean up the messes of old business models that were not very profitable - in broadcast TV and in film specifically (forced to after the destruction of billions in DVD sales).

And think of how much digital distribution has impacted the current consumer landscape over just the past 2 years - Netflix was an innovation that was going to disrupt the traditional TV model (as was Hulu) - and now they're both questionably healthy and viable - model changes are happening very quickly and being implemented - almost a "race against the clock" vibe - as I work in TV distribution, the "clock" being impacts of piracy, cord cutting, viewer habits changing rapidly etc.

And as I hear from my counterparts in film distribution - much experimentation happening with regard to early window in-home premium VOD (where you could pay $60 to watch a movie 2 weeks after theatrical release), studios moving BluRay/DVD window up (as we see now movies after theatrical are sold on BluRay format much sooner) - anything they can do to combat piracy and hold on to profits. And I really can't overstate how much the loss of DVD sales have hurt the industry - at some point we will have no physical formats (all digital), and that will put even more pressure on the film business. It's a challenged business for sure.

Ha, good point about being dated!

Aloysius, what is the problem with DVDs? People just renting/streaming shows from Netflix now instead of buying them, and content producers are not getting as much money from Netflix as they did from selling DVDs? And nobody buys DVDs of shows they really like anymore?

Piracy has been a huge issue outside of the US which has crushed international DVD sales. Also redbox has been a terrible deal for the movie studios - factor in Netflix, Hulu, and other platforms where one can watch movies and this adds up to way fewer DVDs being purchased by consumers.

It's pretty gross when one looks at the drop off in DVD revenues for movie studios in the past 5 years and this puts tremendous pressure on the movie business.

Well, studies have shown that piracy actually makes people more likely to buy the product if they like it, kind of a free marketing tool. The movie industry just slept and it's only on them.

If you can download a movie more easily than buying it, there is a problem and they havent addressed it.

Interesting, thought other countries, especially non-wealthy ones, were insane about pirating since forever. Didn't realize it had gotten worse.

You mentioned that you are 28.. is the average age for assistants around this or is it a bit younger? Does anyone younger than 21 work as an assistant? Also, you mentioned earlier that your second boss or whatever had a client that went from a nobody to a huge star.. I was just curious as to who that client was.

bump. also interested in this.

Slow day so I decided to look up figures for Steve Burke:
Last 3 years including Stock and Option Awards as well as other compensation with a base salary of ~$2.25M:
2008: $22.6M ($8.2M in stocks&options)
2009: $34.0M ($14.5M in stock&options)
2010: $34.7M (14.8M in stock&options)

Highly doubt a studio head would ever come close to that (can't find figures for them after quick look on google/bloomberg)