Jason Zinoman and Megan Angelo over at The New York Times have a great piece today detailing how much money several different types of comedians make. They talked to a road comic, a UCB solo performer, a podcaster, a Comedy Cellar regular, a cruise ship comic, and Eugene Mirman. Bad news: Everyone except TV star Eugene Mirman makes less money than the cruise ship comic.
After over a decade of mixed reviews and lacking box office returns, Wes Anderson seems poised to have another breakout hit on his hands. Moonrise Kingdom, which is currently at a career-high 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, made $669,486 over Memorial Day Weekend on just four screens. The film ended up averaging $130,752 per theater over the weekend, beating the previous record average held by Dreamgirls. It's hard to guarantee this will mean large box office returns when the film opens wide in June but it sure is heartening. Since The Royal Tenebaums in 2001, Wes Anderson has struggled to build much momentum for his films. The Darjeeling Limited [...]
The ten cast members of Modern Family are re-negotiating their contracts, and they're looking for a seriously gigundo raise before the next season. Just one of the perks of starring in a show that's basically a straight-up Emmy factory.
Charlie Sotelo hasn't gotten much sleep this year, but that's true for him every January and February. Sotelo is the sole staffer handling the comedy division of South by Southwest, the ever-expanding music/tech/hipster Austin, TX hoedown and trade show.
This year his nights have been even more restless, after Duncan Trussell, a comedian who was invited to perform, publicly scolded the festival for not offering to pay his travel and lodging expenses through a series of YouTube videos, including a version of the "Hitler reacts" meme.
SXSW is not a comedy festival. There are no wristbands or badges to buy to see comedy shows; it's all free — [...]
Here's an interesting argument that Louis C.K.'s $5 experiment didn't solve the problem of internet piracy once and for all. It points out that both Google searches for "louis ck torrent" and BitTorrent seeders have shot up after the release of Live at the Beacon Theater, far more than they've done for his previous specials (see the graphs below). Certain parts of this argument may be flawed (Google turns up Youtube results before Amazon results pretty frequently, for example), and the changes in search volume are in pretty small numbers, so it's worth taking with a grain of salt. Still, it's interesting to consider that all the recent [...]
After the Modern Family parents finally made a deal, it was their kids' turn. It's being reported that Rico Rodriguez (Manny), Nolan Gould (Luke aka THE BEST), Sarah Hyland (Haley), and Ariel Winter (Alex) are now going to be making about $70,000 an episode. This is more than tripling their previous salaries. Ugh! Nolan Gould is only 13. What is a 13-year-old going to do with the $1.5 million he's going to earn next season? Buy jax and bubble gum and playing cards? That being said, these kids are super great on a show that makes buckets of money, so all power to them. At least for now we're [...]
"It’s the Kraft Product Placement Comedy Hour. Sponsored by Kraft Singles. Made with Milk. It's the cheese that won World War II (Don't ask how)." That's some pretty sweet, overt product placement action right there and Kraft didn't need to push at all for it. Adage explains that the 30 Rock producers came to Kraft with the idea fully formed and ready to go. Product placement is no longer dreaded, as many showrunners have been able to embrace it. It's just part of the territory now for shows, especially savvy shows like 30 Rock or Community, who aren't doing super well in the ratings and could use the [...]
It's been 11 months, but The Book of Mormon is finally the top-grossing Broadway show of the week. Eat it, Lion King, Wicked, and Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark!
After Louis C.K. Tweeted about donating the profit from his special to charity and we were all "Explain yourself!" he must've put in an emergency call to Jimmy Fallon and been like "dude, I gotta come on tonight and explain myself." Because that is what he did! He also announced that sales of the special have reached $1 million. Then he turned into a butterfly and flew away to a meadow full of rainbows, healing everything his wings flapped past along the way. First part of the interview below.
At the end of last week, Louis C.K. estimated that he'd made over $750,000 in profit from five-dollar sales of his self-released comedy album. And he wasn't even gonna tell us until his mom advised him to! Aw.
Are you sitting down? Try not to skip ahead. Now guess how much Crystal the monkey will get per episode of Animal Practice. Remember she's had quite a successful comedy career, starring in blockbusters like the Night at the Museum movies and The Hangover II. Ready? $12,000. That is 12,000 human American dollars not some silly monkey currency. That is what child actors get or some leads on smaller cable networks. If Animal Practice gets a full season order, we're talking over $250,000. Do you know how many bananas that could buy? You'd have to go directly to the supplier at that point! Where do I go to sign [...]
Isn't it weird to think about the lives of people who spend all day, every day focusing on executing idiotic lawsuits like the one Louis Vuitton has served Warner Brothers with over Zach Galifianakis using Louis Vuitton luggage in The Hangover Part II? I wonder what they dreamed of being as children.
You can buy this Homer Simpson-shaped piece of glue for just £151,100.00 if you act now! Because that is what the value bestowed upon it by the free market, and that is what it is worth. Think of all the Simpsons episodes you could act out with it before getting it stuck to your hand! (By the way, this thing would go for even more if Chelsea Peretti sold it on QVC).
Jesus, Louie. Are you TRYING to aggravate us by being so incredibly perfect? The real charitable thing would be to tone down your amazingness and give the rest of us a chance, Mother Teresa. What, what do we got, frickin' Maimonedes over here? Randy Cohen, The Ethicist? "I'm Louie, I'm sooooo funny and goodhearted, la la la." Puke. (I'm just kidding Louis C.K. is the best forever and we should all try to emulate him in everything we do.)
Update: see below for the charities he's chosen.
