EXCLUSIVE: Before Oscar ballots were due yesterday, The Brutalist director/writer/producer Brady Corbet sent a loud and clear message on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast just how indie his 10x Oscar nominated movie The Brutalist was, declaring that he made “zero dollars” on the three-hour with intermission epic.
And not just “zero dollars” on The Brutalist, but his 2018 Natalie Portman tortured pop star drama Vox Lux as well, which NEON acquired U.S. on and grossed only $727K domestic, $1.4M worldwide.
As brutal as Corbet’s payday sounds, we figured some clarity was needed as the filmmaker’s comments about his paycheck on the under $10M Hungarian/UK co-production tax credit shoot created some WTF of them own among sources.
“I’ve never ever known a director not to have his salary be a line item in any kind of production budget,” says one razor sharp filmmaker rep.
Here’s what we sussed: To his point, Corbet wasn’t paid a Ridley Scott $12M+ salary, but he was paid somethin’. The Brutalist was a non-DGA signatory production, shot in Europe with non-DGA crews over 33 days in Hungary during Covid. Corbet was living at Norway at the time. On an indie feature, the bare minimum pay is typically around scale plus 10% which equates to about $250K sources say. To get his VistaVision shot epic on the big screen, Corbet deferred his fees. This was a similar practice, I’m told he did on Vox Lux, whereby Bold Films supposedly made the filmmaker reinvest his entire fee to make the film. Deferring fees and betting on oneself is the indie way, and as Corbet has emphasized in his press tour for The Brutalist, every dollar was stretched in telling the story of a Hungarian WWII refugee architect (Adrien Brody) who comes to America where his brilliance is realized by an acerbic real estate tycoon (Guy Pearce).
Focus Features took overseas on The Brutalist every early on before production, making it a reality and helping the shoot get insured. A24 snapped up domestic rights after The Brutalist‘s world premiere in Venice, sources say for around $10M-$15M. I’m told that Corbet definitely has a back-end deal, and is benefitting from the terms of such film festival acquisition deals which are primed for awards season, read as he notches keys noms, he gets a bonus. While Corbet has been tied up in a months long awards press tour for the movie, one which isn’t paid to do, A24/Focus natch have taken care of his travel accommodations, food, etc during that time.
Currently The Brutalist stands at $14.5M at the domestic box office, $31.3M WW.
“This is a nicely profitable piece of business” claims one film finance source in the know. The pic literally landed on PVOD yesterday after a lengthy 61-day theatrical window, ranking as No. 2 on iTunes. A24’s solid pay-one deal is through HBO Max. The stateside theatrical release and awards campaign, I’m told, is in the single digit millions. Essentially, the rule of thumb when assessing profitability on a movie is that whenever it makes 2x its budget at the box office, it’s in the black. Sources tell me that ultimately The Brutalist could clear some $10M-$20M in profit “and has some upside beyond that.”
Further complicating Corbet’s pay are 27 executive producers who are in the film which he co-wrote with his partner Mona Fastvold, who is also an EP on the movie. She did not land as one of the designated producers in Oscar’s Best Picture category for the film.
As far as Corbet goes, who has been supplanting his income with directing gigs on Portuguese commercials, the success coming away from The Brutalist should set him up for feature opportunities with greener pastures. The filmmaker’s point in the Maron interview per sources, was simply to emphasize how challenging and cash-strapped it is to pull off indies films in a world where streamers and motion picture studios throw around $100M to top-shelf fare.
A24 and reps for Corbet didn’t return request for comment on this story.
