For Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s upcoming Netflix movie The Rip, the filmmakers pushed the streamer to strike a deal that would reward their crew with bonuses if the film performs well.
The agreement was made through Affleck and Damon’s production company, Artists Equity, and is a departure to how Netflix structures compensation. Unlike traditional studios, which often combine upfront salaries with back-end participation to some players if a film or series succeeds, Netflix typically pays cast and crew an upfront fee determined in advance.
“We wanted to institute fairness and address some of the real issues that are present and urgent for our business,” Affleck told The New York Times. “This deal is fundamental, philosophically, to the ideas we had in starting this company.”
Under the deal for The Rip — a movie that follows a pair of Miami cops that find hidden money — all 1,200 people involved in the nearly $100 million production will be eligible for a one-time bonus if the film meets performance expectations. The movie will be evaluated over its first 90 days on Netflix and measured against other titles on the platform, with the idea that there’s a potential for an additional payout to the crew, according to The New York Times.
“Everybody who’s in this movie, from top to bottom, or worked on the crew, will be bonused according to metrics which we’ve already defined and they’ve shared with us,” Affleck said, though he did not specify what those metrics were.
Affleck and Damon launched Artists Equity in late 2022, with the company sharing profits with all who work on their movies.
On The Rip, Affleck credited Netflix co-chief executive Ted Sarandos for supporting Artists Equity’s approach. “I thought this is clearly somebody who cares about this business, wants it to work, is doing very well and understands the value of filmmakers and performers and artists,” he said.
One intriguing sidenote to the deal is the financial backing behind Artists Equity. The company is financed by Gerry Cardinale and his RedBird Capital Partners, which has committed more than $100 million to the production venture.
But Cardinale and RedBird are also engaged in a fierce battle with Netflix over another prize: Warner Bros. Discovery.
Netflix has a signed deal to acquire Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion, with the ambition of bringing the fabled studio into its fold. But the deal with Netflix came after WBD spurned David Ellison’s Paramount, which had been pursuing a merger since the late summer.
RedBird is a strategic investor and partner to Paramount and Ellison, with a number of RedBird operating executives joining Paramount after Ellison’s deal closed to help run the company, including president Jeff Shell. Cardinale also sits on the Paramount board.
Of course, any business relationship needs to be handled at arm’s length, so the cutthroat battle for WBD and the more partner-oriented dealmaking for Artists Equity are not necessarily at odds when it comes to RedBird’s approach to the business.
