# Actor payment for movie merchandise? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 24, 2019, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actor-payment-for-movie-merchandise/834466 "2019-05-24T17:32:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2019, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actor-payment-for-movie-merchandise/834466/1 "2019-05-24T17:32:58Z")
How much do actors make for the toys, shirts, etc. with their image on them ? For example the Star Wars actors or Marvel actors . I assume it’s a flat fee and also maybe a small royalty for each item sold. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2019, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actor-payment-for-movie-merchandise/834466/2 "2019-05-24T17:40:08Z")
I have an acquaintance who is an actor. He was in a quite popular TV show in the 1980s. There was merchandise connected with the show and there was in fact even an action figure of himself. He said that due to the typical studio accounting shenanigans, he never got a penny from the merchandise. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2019, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actor-payment-for-movie-merchandise/834466/3 "2019-05-24T17:49:23Z")
I would think(hope?) a big name actor would be able to get money up front to avoid the accounting tricks. For example Robert Downey Jr. as Iron man. Of course he also gets a big salary up front too. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2019, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actor-payment-for-movie-merchandise/834466/4 "2019-05-24T18:33:28Z")
In addition to whatever royalties his agent negotiated, Mark Hamill gets one of every single Star Wars toy made anywhere. He has large storage units full of the stuff, in addition to all the toys he gave to his kids to play with. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2019, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actor-payment-for-movie-merchandise/834466/5 "2019-05-24T19:04:49Z")
Back in 2012, cast members from _Happy Days_ won a lawsuit for money not paid for merchandise. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but the [article](https://www.cnn.com/2012/07/06/showbiz/happy-days-lawsuit-settled/index.html) I read did say this: > [@](#): > > Under their contracts, the actors were supposed to receive 5% of net proceeds, or 2.5% if their images were used in a group, the lawsuit states. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2019, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actor-payment-for-movie-merchandise/834466/6 "2019-05-24T20:24:08Z")
To save costs, some toy licenses don’t include the rights of the actors’ likenesses, which is why sometimes you get an action figure that looks like a generic take on a particular character, not just lazy sculpting on whoever made the figure. In those cases, no the actors would not get anything from it. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2019, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actor-payment-for-movie-merchandise/834466/7 "2019-05-24T20:49:38Z")
The story I heard was Fox gave George Lucas toy rights because they did not think they were worth anything. Maybe the actors got rights too. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2019, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actor-payment-for-movie-merchandise/834466/8 "2019-05-24T21:33:04Z")
Tom Selleck on Letterman once came out with a coffee cup in his likeness so he had to explain the deal. In the early days of _Magnum, P.I._ people would send him demo items with his likeness and offer a deal for a percentage or whatever. He would generally turn these down. Once it became known he wasn’t interested, people stopped sending him stuff … but still sold the items without paying him. The cup was one of the demo products. If you keep your image licensing rights, it is really, really hard to crack down on all the bootleg stuff and get a fair share. ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2019, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actor-payment-for-movie-merchandise/834466/9 "2019-05-24T23:16:21Z")
As an example of the above, Bill Watterson has never licensed Calvin or Hobbes. How many C&H t-shirts, car decals, posters, etc., have you seen? Tons. The answer to the OP is: It depends on what their agents were able to negotiate. And **xizor** ’s post is the answer to **silenus** ’s — a percentage of the gross is great, but everyone in Hollywood knows that a percentage of the net is useless. I’ve hear the phrase a dozen times at least: There is no net. Ever. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2019, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actor-payment-for-movie-merchandise/834466/10 "2019-05-25T00:15:12Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > The story I heard was Fox gave George Lucas toy rights because they did not think they were worth anything. Maybe the actors got rights too. In one of her interviews, Carrie Fisher said the deal they signed was so bad every time she looked in a mirror she had to send George a quarter. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2019, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actor-payment-for-movie-merchandise/834466/11 "2019-05-26T02:42:46Z")
I thought of Jack Nicholson’s deal for **Batman** , and this article cites other deals as well. [Actor deals](https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0912/actors-who-got-a-share-of-film-profits.aspx) George Lucas got nothing in terms of merch for “Star Wars”. He successfully negotiated a better financial deal- and ALL of the merchandising for the subsequent films. THOSE tens of millions bought [Skywalker Ranch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skywalker_Ranch). And other nifty things… Fair to say that LOTS of actors have lost a ton of income due to poor deals and sketchy studio accounting… ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2019, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actor-payment-for-movie-merchandise/834466/12 "2019-05-26T03:28:23Z")
In music, the Beatles got ripped off on the rights to toys using their images. It was all Brian Epstein’s fault: he came into a meeting and the first thing he said was that he would accept nothing less than 20% of profits. Contracts for those rights normally granted a far higher percentage, plus the second rule of negotiating is to avoid setting a number (The first rule is to do your research, which he clearly broke there). Though the Beatles made millions, they could have made millions more. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2019, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actor-payment-for-movie-merchandise/834466/13 "2019-05-26T04:35:15Z")
Alec Guiness famously got a percentage of either profits or merchandising rights for his role in Star Wars. I dont know if any of the others did for that film or the sequels.