John Cusack Rails Against the Studios Amid the SAG-AFTRA Strike

By Dustin Rowles | TV | July 14, 2023 |

About a decade ago, I compiled a list of movies that raked in hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office, but the studios claimed actually lost money. The list includes some surprising titles: Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and even Return of the Jedi, which garnered $475 million on a $32 million budget but never showed a profit. In the same vein, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, hailed as one of the most successful indie films of all time, earning $350 million on a $6 million budget, was reported to have somehow lost $20 million.

This is classic Hollywood accounting, a practice that continues today as writers and actors demand higher pay. Studios dole out tens of millions of dollars to their CEOs, invest $300 million for a mere six episodes of an ill-received Amazon spy series, or $100 million for five episodes of The Idol. However, when a writer requests a small percentage of the profits, these studios plead poverty. It’s akin to the tactic employed by Donald Trump, who inflates the value of his properties when applying for a loan, but minimizes their worth when paying taxes.

John Cusack recently chimed in on the actors’ decision to strike, inspired by Fran Drescher’s impassioned speech. He shared his own experience with the classic Cameron Crowe romance Say Anything. According to Cusack, he managed to negotiate a deal that granted him a percentage of the profits. Regrettably, there were no profits from Say Anything from which he could take.

“Never expected to see any money — but the film became quite famous — so about 10 years ago — I examined the financial statements they were obligated to report — and to my astonishment, they claimed to have LOST $44 million on the film,” Cusack wrote. “I thought, wow, I almost bankrupted Fox! (not really). The film cost roughly $13 million to make, and the budget for release was relatively low at the time. Still, 30 years in, the film appears to lose millions every year! A neat accounting trick, don’t you think?”

As long as the film never turns a profit, John Cusack will never receive a residual. This is the kind of skewed math the studios use to cheat the WGA and SAG out of residuals, all while boasting that they’ve offered a generous 5 percent increase to the minimum salaries for actors … despite inflation rising 13 percent over the last three years.

“The greed is almost a legendary comic trope,” Cusack rightly noted. And indeed, these studio executives do bear an uncanny resemblance to comic-book villains.