First-dollar gross

First-dollar gross is a practice in filmmaking in which a participant receives a percentage of the gross box-office revenue, starting from a film's first day of release.[1][2] The participant begins sharing in the revenue from the first ticket sale, not waiting until the film studio turns a profit.[3] It is a film finance and distribution term used primarily in the United States film industry.[4] In France, as of September 2003, one condition for filmmakers to get government support is that money must be reimbursed on the first-dollar gross basis.[5] First-dollar gross has become a rare arrangement,[6][7] and compensation has increasingly shifted away from first-dollar gross to back-end compensation.[8] Some contracts define "first dollar" as a net figure after certain expense deductions rather than a true distributor's gross.[9]

  1. ^ Kelly, Kate; Marr, Merissa (13 January 2006). "Sweetheart Star Deals Go Sour". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  2. ^ Weinstein, Mark I. (13 August 1998). "Guide to Deal Structures" (PDF). University of Southern California. p. 4. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  3. ^ Cieply, Michael (3 March 2010). "For Movie Stars, the Big Money Is Now Deferred". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  4. ^ "first dollar / first dollar gross - Lexikon der Filmbegriffe". University of Kiel (in German). 2 August 2011. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  5. ^ "House of Commons - Culture, Media and Sport - Sixth Report". Parliament of the United Kingdom. 18 September 2003. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  6. ^ Cones, John W. (1997). The Feature Film Distribution Deal: A Critical Analysis of the Single Most Important Film Industry Agreement. Southern Illinois University Press. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-8093-2081-3.
  7. ^ Goldstein, Patrick; Rainey, James (3 August 2009). "Hollywood gets tough on talent: $20-million movie salaries go down the tubes". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  8. ^ Vogel, Harold L. (2011). Entertainment Industry Economics: A Guide for Financial Analysis. Cambridge University Press. p. 228. ISBN 978-1-107-00309-5.
  9. ^ Kroon, Richard W. (2010). A/V A to Z: An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Media, Entertainment and Other Audiovisual Terms. McFarland & Company. p. 280. ISBN 978-0-7864-4405-2.