JamesG, Do Actors Make Good Money Doing Straight To Video Movies? - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

isiahthomas · 03-22-2011, 08:49 PM

So many people diss straight to video movies saying that they suck but i disagree. Yes there's a lot of wack straight to video movies but there's also a lot of good ones. I was wondering do actors make good money doing straight to video movies because i'm sure if the money wasn't good, they wouldn't be doing them. Actors like Cuba Gooding Jr, Steven Seagal, Jean Claude Van Damme, Wesley Snipes, Val Kilmer, Sharon Stone, Michelle Pfeiffer, Vivica Fox, Ving Rhames, Larry Fishburne and several other well known actors have been doing straight to video movies. There's also unknown actors who do straight to video movies and so does rappers and those movies suck just by looking at the cover of the dvd hahahahahahahahahahaha.

JamesG · 03-22-2011, 09:26 PM

Like everything else out there, if it makes a profit (makes more than what it costs to make) then they make money.

The budget on most straight-to-video flicks are much lower than films released theatrically, so if you were to lose money you wouldn't lose as much compared to the theatrical ones

Steven Seagal, for example, produces and controls most of his own productions. If it flops or sells it doesn't matter to him because he hasn't really lost anything making it.

Most of the actors are hired cheap and there isn't much money on special effects and so forth...

Majority of people who do straight-to-video flicks are either starting out and need the exposure and experience, or they are has-beens who may have been bigger back in the day (Val Kilmer).

So any money that they get sounds good for them. They either want the exposure in something or just really need the work.

Also, not all straight-to-video flicks are "bad". Sometimes the studio has it distributed straight-to-video because they think it will reach a bigger audience that way or the film had a bad test screening.

Morgan Freeman and Antonio Banderas did a film last year, The Code, that went straight-to-video and it topped the video charts.

comedyfreak · 03-24-2011, 05:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JamesG

Morgan Freeman and Antonio Banderas did a film last year, The Code, that went straight-to-video and it topped the video charts.

I really liked that movie, couldn't understand why it wasn't released in theatres.

JamesG · 03-24-2011, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by comedyfreak

I really liked that movie, couldn't understand why it wasn't released in theatres.

For some reason that's what they decided.

It came out in the U.K. first and went straight to video (under the original title Thick as Thieves) and when it came to the U.S. shortly after it was released the same way.

isiahthomas · 03-26-2011, 02:48 PM

I saw The Code with Morgan Freeman and Antonio Banderas. That was good. JamesG, do you know if Steven Seagal gets any money when his straight to video movies get shown on USA network and Sleuth network? Thanks for the information about straight to video movies. I don't know why people think a lot of straight to video movies suck. There's some bad ones and some good ones just like movies that come to theatres. Dolph Lundgren also does a lot of straight to video movies and i've only seen one of them. I'd like to check out his other ones. Sylvester Stallone has done a few straight to video movies like Eye See You, Avenging Angelo, Shade. Shade is very good. Have you seen that JamesG? Wild Things sequels 2 and 4 are pretty good. First Wild Things was with Neve Campbell, Denise Richards, Matt Dillon, Kevin Bacon. JamesG, have you seen Universal Soldier 2 with Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren? I saw the first one but i haven't seen the second one. Rapper Ice T has done a lot of straight to video movies and i'm glad he stopped doing them because most of them suck hahahahahahahaha. Rapper DMX has done a few straight to video movies. I guess he needs the money to support his drug habit since he isn't making albums anymore LOL.

JamesG · 03-26-2011, 05:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by isiahthomas

JamesG, do you know if Steven Seagal gets any money when his straight to video movies get shown on USA network and Sleuth network?

Yes, you get money whenever your film airs on a network.
The cast/crew involved gets residual checks whenever their work re-airs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by isiahthomas

Dolph Lundgren also does a lot of straight to video movies and i've only seen one of them. I'd like to check out his other ones.

Some of his movies are good, but some others are crap.

I really liked this one he did called Sweepers.

He did another one I liked called Jill the Ripper where he tracks down a dominatrix serial killer who kills her clients.

Fairly recently he did this amusing one called Missionary Man where he plays an ass-kicking priest that comes to a small town.

One that was really awful is The Last Patrol.

Quote:

Originally Posted by isiahthomas

Sylvester Stallone has done a few straight to video movies like Eye See You, Avenging Angelo, Shade. Shade is very good. Have you seen that JamesG?

I've seen them but those films weren't straight-to-video.

Eye See You and Shade had limited runs, and Avenging Angelo was released theatrically but it flopped.

Quote:

Originally Posted by isiahthomas

Wild Things sequels 2 and 4 are pretty good. First Wild Things was with Neve Campbell, Denise Richards, Matt Dillon, Kevin Bacon.

I liked the original but I never bothered with the straight-to-video sequels.

Quote:

Originally Posted by isiahthomas

JamesG, have you seen Universal Soldier 2 with Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren? I saw the first one but i haven't seen the second one.

You know there are more than two films, right?

The 2 main films are:

Universal Soldier (1992)
Universal Soldier: The Return (1998)

In-between the two theatrical films there were a couple of straight-to-video sequels that are now regarded as being non-canon:

Universal Soldier II: Brothers in Arms (1998)
Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business (1998)

Then in 2010, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren came back for Universal Soldier: Regeneration.

This film ignores the events that took place in Universal Soldier: The Return and is regarded as being "the real sequel" to the original film.

The film was released theatrically in other countries but it was straight-to-video in the U.S.

The original Universal Soldier is one of my favorites, but the other ones don't really cut it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by isiahthomas

Rapper Ice T has done a lot of straight to video movies and i'm glad he stopped doing them because most of them suck hahahahahahahaha. Rapper DMX has done a few straight to video movies. I guess he needs the money to support his drug habit since he isn't making albums anymore LOL.

As far as rappers go, I've seen a lot of 50 Cent's movies. Most of them are alright for what they are.

isiahthomas · 03-28-2011, 11:19 AM

JamesG, what actors were in Universal Soldier:The Return, part 2:Brothers In Arms, part 3:Unfinished Business? I'm gonna check out those Dolph Lundgren movies you said you like. I know you don't wanna see the other Wild Things sequels but you should check out part 2 and part 4 because they're pretty good. Part 4 has a sex scene with a white guy and 3 white girls hahahahaha. Only 50 Cent movies i like is Get Rich Or Die Tryin, Gun, Home Of The Brave. Streets Of Blood was ok but i was expecting more action. I saw some of his Caught In The Crossfire movie and it sucks. He gets killed at the beginning and i don't know why he's on the cover of the dvd because he doesn't have a big part hahahahahahahahahahaha. His Dead Man Running movie was terrible. I just saw at Amazon.com, he has another movie coming straight to video with Val Kilmer called Blood Out. It's coming out April 26th. I'm gonna check that out. 50 Cent is the only rapper movies you've seen? I know you've seen movies with other rappers. You like rap music?

JamesG · 03-28-2011, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by isiahthomas

JamesG, what actors were in Universal Soldier:The Return, part 2:Brothers In Arms, part 3:Unfinished Business?

Jean-Claude Van Damme was the only one who came back for The Return.

In the direct-to-video sequels Matt Battaglia takes over Jean Claude's role and they feature Burt Reynolds and Chandra West; many of the same actors are in both.

Quote:

Originally Posted by isiahthomas

I know you don't wanna see the other Wild Things sequels but you should check out part 2 and part 4 because they're pretty good. Part 4 has a sex scene with a white guy and 3 white girls hahahahaha.

Yeah, the Wild Things sequels are considered as soft-core porn films.

I may check them out sometime but I'm not really in the rush.

Quote:

Originally Posted by isiahthomas

Only 50 Cent movies i like is Get Rich Or Die Tryin,
Gun, Home Of The Brave. Streets Of Blood was ok but i was expecting more action. I saw some of his Caught In The Crossfire movie and it sucks. He gets killed at the beginning and i don't know why he's on the cover of the dvd because he doesn't have a big part hahahahahahahahahahaha. His Dead Man Running movie was terrible.

That's what they do with a lot of direct-to-DVDs. They put whatever "big names" they can get on the cover as a way to attract people to it.

I recently saw this movie Played with Val Kilmer and Gabriel Byrne. They are both on the cover but they are in the film for like 5 minutes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by isiahthomas

50 Cent is the only rapper movies you've seen? I know you've seen movies with other rappers. You like rap music?

I meant that he was the majority that I've seen.

I've seen some with Ice Cube, DMX, Nas, T.I. to name a few...

Not really, I like maybe a couple of songs, but rap is not my favorite genre.

Torgo · 03-28-2011, 04:23 PM

As far as horror movies go, in my opinion I see a lot more creativity in the straight to DVD films than what I see getting released nationwide in the mainstream theaters.

JamesG · 03-28-2011, 08:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Torgo

As far as horror movies go, in my opinion I see a lot more creativity in the straight to DVD films than what I see getting released nationwide in the mainstream theaters.

Studios nowadays, considering the bad economy, don't want to risk investing in a potential flop so anything "different" or "creative" always has to come from the indepedents.

Some are good, but there are also some pretty bad straight-to-video horror flicks.

JamesG · 03-31-2011, 02:16 AM

Also successful in the direct-to-video market were The Olsen Twins.

They had their own production company, DualStar, and produced and starred in their own direct-to-video flicks from the 1990s to the early 2000s.

I grew up with a younger sister so I've seen many of these movies and most of them have the same plot.

They go to a foreign country (France, England, Australia...), each twin finds a foreign boy they like, "trouble" comes along the way, and they make up but then happily agree to go their separate ways (aka parents say it's time to go home).

Most of these movies were never critically successful but they appealed to their intended audience and they made a ton of $$$ off of these movies.

BTW, Megan Fox got her acting debut in one of these Olsen Twins' flicks.

isiahthomas · 04-09-2011, 01:58 PM

JamesG, have you seen previews for Ray Liotta's Street Kings 2? I saw the previews and it looks good. It's the sequel to the first one with Keanu Reeves and Forest Whitaker. It comes to video April 19th. Cuba Gooding Jr's The Hit List comes out on video next month.

JamesG · 04-09-2011, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by isiahthomas

JamesG, have you seen previews for Ray Liotta's Street Kings 2? I saw the previews and it looks good. It's the sequel to the first one with Keanu Reeves and Forest Whitaker. It comes to video April 19th. Cuba Gooding Jr's The Hit List comes out on video next month.

I wasn't aware they were making a Street Kings sequel.
I saw the first one at the theater, it was alright.

JamesG · 05-25-2011, 02:43 PM

^ I recently saw the Street Kings direct-to-video sequel.

It's horrendously bad.

isiahthomas · 05-28-2011, 02:58 PM

Street Kings 2 sucks huh? I'm gonna check it out in a couple of weeks. Blockbuster Video stores here don't have it. So i'm gonna have to get it from Redbox vending machine. There's a few new straight to video movies i wanna see such as The Hit List with Cuba Gooding Jr, Sacrifice with Cuba Gooding Jr and Christian Slater, Blood Out with 50 Cent and Val Kilmer, Born To Raise Hell with Steven Seagal, King Of The Avenue with Ving Rhames. I also wanna see The Mechanic with Jason Statham. That came out on video last week. Drive Angry with Nicolas Cage comes out on video next Tuesday and i wanna see that. True Grit with Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon comes out on video June 7th and i wanna see that and Unknown with Liam Neeson comes out on video June 21st and i wanna see that.

03-22-2011, 08:49 PM	#1
isiahthomas Member Forum Fanatic Join Date: Aug 20, 2002 Location: Cleveland, Ohio Posts: 10,704	JamesG, Do Actors Make Good Money Doing Straight To Video Movies? So many people diss straight to video movies saying that they suck but i disagree. Yes there's a lot of wack straight to video movies but there's also a lot of good ones. I was wondering do actors make good money doing straight to video movies because i'm sure if the money wasn't good, they wouldn't be doing them. Actors like Cuba Gooding Jr, Steven Seagal, Jean Claude Van Damme, Wesley Snipes, Val Kilmer, Sharon Stone, Michelle Pfeiffer, Vivica Fox, Ving Rhames, Larry Fishburne and several other well known actors have been doing straight to video movies. There's also unknown actors who do straight to video movies and so does rappers and those movies suck just by looking at the cover of the dvd hahahahahahahahahahaha.

03-28-2011, 04:23 PM	#9
Torgo Omaha & Fritz Forum Star Join Date: Mar 06, 2004 Location: Oregon Posts: 19,034	As far as horror movies go, in my opinion I see a lot more creativity in the straight to DVD films than what I see getting released nationwide in the mainstream theaters.
	__________________ "I'm going to go do something productive. I'm gonna go watch television." - Ray Peterson, The 'burbs "I am the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and Fries." - Stephen King "There's nothing wrong with G-rated movies, as long as there's lots of sex and violence." - Elvira

03-22-2011, 09:26 PM	#2
JamesG Freakshow Moderator Forum Icon Join Date: Feb 01, 2008 Location: Brooklyn, NY Posts: 57,121	Like everything else out there, if it makes a profit (makes more than what it costs to make) then they make money. The budget on most straight-to-video flicks are much lower than films released theatrically, so if you were to lose money you wouldn't lose as much compared to the theatrical ones Steven Seagal, for example, produces and controls most of his own productions. If it flops or sells it doesn't matter to him because he hasn't really lost anything making it. Most of the actors are hired cheap and there isn't much money on special effects and so forth... Majority of people who do straight-to-video flicks are either starting out and need the exposure and experience, or they are has-beens who may have been bigger back in the day (Val Kilmer). So any money that they get sounds good for them. They either want the exposure in something or just really need the work. Also, not all straight-to-video flicks are "bad". Sometimes the studio has it distributed straight-to-video because they think it will reach a bigger audience that way or the film had a bad test screening. Morgan Freeman and Antonio Banderas did a film last year, The Code, that went straight-to-video and it topped the video charts.

03-26-2011, 02:48 PM	#5
isiahthomas Member Forum Fanatic Join Date: Aug 20, 2002 Location: Cleveland, Ohio Posts: 10,704	I saw The Code with Morgan Freeman and Antonio Banderas. That was good. JamesG, do you know if Steven Seagal gets any money when his straight to video movies get shown on USA network and Sleuth network? Thanks for the information about straight to video movies. I don't know why people think a lot of straight to video movies suck. There's some bad ones and some good ones just like movies that come to theatres. Dolph Lundgren also does a lot of straight to video movies and i've only seen one of them. I'd like to check out his other ones. Sylvester Stallone has done a few straight to video movies like Eye See You, Avenging Angelo, Shade. Shade is very good. Have you seen that JamesG? Wild Things sequels 2 and 4 are pretty good. First Wild Things was with Neve Campbell, Denise Richards, Matt Dillon, Kevin Bacon. JamesG, have you seen Universal Soldier 2 with Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren? I saw the first one but i haven't seen the second one. Rapper Ice T has done a lot of straight to video movies and i'm glad he stopped doing them because most of them suck hahahahahahahaha. Rapper DMX has done a few straight to video movies. I guess he needs the money to support his drug habit since he isn't making albums anymore LOL.

03-28-2011, 11:19 AM	#7
isiahthomas Member Forum Fanatic Join Date: Aug 20, 2002 Location: Cleveland, Ohio Posts: 10,704	JamesG, what actors were in Universal Soldier:The Return, part 2:Brothers In Arms, part 3:Unfinished Business? I'm gonna check out those Dolph Lundgren movies you said you like. I know you don't wanna see the other Wild Things sequels but you should check out part 2 and part 4 because they're pretty good. Part 4 has a sex scene with a white guy and 3 white girls hahahahaha. Only 50 Cent movies i like is Get Rich Or Die Tryin, Gun, Home Of The Brave. Streets Of Blood was ok but i was expecting more action. I saw some of his Caught In The Crossfire movie and it sucks. He gets killed at the beginning and i don't know why he's on the cover of the dvd because he doesn't have a big part hahahahahahahahahahaha. His Dead Man Running movie was terrible. I just saw at Amazon.com, he has another movie coming straight to video with Val Kilmer called Blood Out. It's coming out April 26th. I'm gonna check that out. 50 Cent is the only rapper movies you've seen? I know you've seen movies with other rappers. You like rap music?

03-31-2011, 02:16 AM	#11
JamesG Freakshow Moderator Forum Icon Join Date: Feb 01, 2008 Location: Brooklyn, NY Posts: 57,121	Also successful in the direct-to-video market were The Olsen Twins. They had their own production company, DualStar, and produced and starred in their own direct-to-video flicks from the 1990s to the early 2000s. I grew up with a younger sister so I've seen many of these movies and most of them have the same plot. They go to a foreign country (France, England, Australia...), each twin finds a foreign boy they like, "trouble" comes along the way, and they make up but then happily agree to go their separate ways (aka parents say it's time to go home). Most of these movies were never critically successful but they appealed to their intended audience and they made a ton of $$$ off of these movies. BTW, Megan Fox got her acting debut in one of these Olsen Twins' flicks.

04-09-2011, 01:58 PM	#12
isiahthomas Member Forum Fanatic Join Date: Aug 20, 2002 Location: Cleveland, Ohio Posts: 10,704	JamesG, have you seen previews for Ray Liotta's Street Kings 2? I saw the previews and it looks good. It's the sequel to the first one with Keanu Reeves and Forest Whitaker. It comes to video April 19th. Cuba Gooding Jr's The Hit List comes out on video next month.

05-25-2011, 02:43 PM	#14
JamesG Freakshow Moderator Forum Icon Join Date: Feb 01, 2008 Location: Brooklyn, NY Posts: 57,121	^ I recently saw the Street Kings direct-to-video sequel. It's horrendously bad.

05-28-2011, 02:58 PM	#15
isiahthomas Member Forum Fanatic Join Date: Aug 20, 2002 Location: Cleveland, Ohio Posts: 10,704	Street Kings 2 sucks huh? I'm gonna check it out in a couple of weeks. Blockbuster Video stores here don't have it. So i'm gonna have to get it from Redbox vending machine. There's a few new straight to video movies i wanna see such as The Hit List with Cuba Gooding Jr, Sacrifice with Cuba Gooding Jr and Christian Slater, Blood Out with 50 Cent and Val Kilmer, Born To Raise Hell with Steven Seagal, King Of The Avenue with Ving Rhames. I also wanna see The Mechanic with Jason Statham. That came out on video last week. Drive Angry with Nicolas Cage comes out on video next Tuesday and i wanna see that. True Grit with Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon comes out on video June 7th and i wanna see that and Unknown with Liam Neeson comes out on video June 21st and i wanna see that.