I’m talking about the studio production executives – those well-coiffed factotums who fill the studio offices writing endless useless script notes and taking pointless meetings for which they are paid salaries commensurate to the former Shah of Iran.
I think those executives are earning their money by, among other things, getting scripts at cut rate prices. Remember, the job of corporate executive is to maximize the return of the owners/investors, not to insure that various vendors make a lot of money.
Since all the studios seem to follow the same model, it would seem that there is no competitive disadvantage in low balling the pay of the vast majority of creative talent that wants to make movies.
I suspect that screenwriting follows the “rock and roll” economic model wherein a vast number of people want to be rock stars but only a very small number ever make a good living at it. Its a running joke that everyone in LA has a screenplay. Supply and demand dictates that prices won’t be good. Studios also put up all the money for movies. Without that money, nothing gets done so they have tremendous leverage when negotiating.
