Saturday, January 28, 2012

Jeff Goldblum's salary

My brother has been working  in the internet industry a long time, since before graphical interfaces became standard.  For example,  I remember him predicting 15 or 20 years ago that the newspaper industry was going to be  in trouble due to the internet, and while it took a fairly long time, he has been proven correct.  He was also an early cheerleader for the concept that the internet could be an encyclopedia that can tell you almost everything. It's certainly true today that you can get a answer to most queries  by searching the internet , though sometimes you have to take a little time searching for your answer, or you will find that what have you learned is inaccurate or not well sourced.

My little test for my brother back in the late 1990's was whether or not could you find Jeff Goldblum's salary for his various movies on the internet. Back then the internet  had very limited answers for this question.  How much can the internet tell you about something that is not public knowledge?  While it is often public knowledge what top drawing actors  are being paid for their movies, we usually not told what less publicized actors make (Movie and TV producers don't want their actors comparing salaries). A recent cursory check on the internet indicated that Jeff Goldblum got paid 1,000,000 dollars for his appearance in Independence Day, 500,000 per  episode for Law and Order, but got paid 100,000 per pop  for the 2007 show called Raines. There is still  not a movie by movie comparison of his salaries. So the internet is getting closer  to knowing everything, but it still can't tell you everything . That's probably a good thing.

I am not sure I care about Jeff Goldblum's salary, but I do find it fascinating to know how much actors get paid for their voice work on computer animated movies. For example, some of the principles in the Shrek movies are said to have received  as much as 10 million dollars per film which is an obscene amount of   money for a few days of voice work, and a  week or two of promotion or rehearsal.