Follow the money without inventing a star contract
Which receipts fund a payout, and which costs does this simplified waterfall omit?
Compare four authored compensation structures: fixed milestone bonuses, a share of global ticket gross, points above a gross hurdle, and a share of positive pre-participation theatrical surplus. The arithmetic is interactive, but the salaries, percentages, budgets and milestones are hypothetical inputs. This page supplies no verified contract for Tom Holland, Tom Cruise or Robert Downey Jr.
The output is an undiscounted theatrical-only scenario, not an actual studio profit, audited participation statement or contract interpretation. No distribution fee, financing, tax, residual, other participant, streaming, home-entertainment or merchandise calculation is included. The production-budget input must exclude the separately deducted upfront salary to avoid counting that salary twice.
Try a worked example
Reset gives $2B ticket gross. A 52% rental assumption leaves $1.04B for the modeled studio and $960M for exhibitors. All four bonuses clear: $10M + $15M + $25M + $35M = $85M; with $20M upfront, talent pay is $105M, or 5.25% of gross. Subtract $150M marketing, $220M production and $105M talent from $1.04B to obtain $565M modeled surplus. These are fixture results, not observed earnings.
Separate ticket gross, distributor receipts and producer receipts
Global box office is the ticket-sales starting point; multiplying it by the rental percentage creates the assumed studio receipts. DreamWorks Animation’s historical 2013 filing describes territory-dependent settlements and separate distributor fees and recoupment. It illustrates why one blended rental assumption cannot establish a present-day deal; the page does not implement that filing’s arrangements. DreamWorks Animation: 2013 Form 10-K
Read each participation base before comparing rates
The 10% first-dollar fixture applies to global box office, not rentals. The adjusted-gross fixture pays 8% only on gross above $500M. The net-points fixture pays 15% of positive rentals minus marketing, production and upfront salary, before subtracting those points. At $2B, their respective talent totals are $213M, $140M and $134M after their preset upfront fees. A familiar contract label does not verify that its real-world definition matches these rules.
The milestone fixture adds whole fixed bonuses when gross reaches each threshold. It does not interpolate bonuses, apply the stored tier rate fields, or add a percentage to the flat bonuses. Set $1.95B, then $2B: the last $35M bonus turns on at the threshold, so modeled surplus can fall even as gross rises.
Interpret the pre-participation hurdle carefully
The memo divides production plus marketing plus upfront by the rental fraction. It excludes backend payments, so the label is a pre-participation cost hurdle. In the first-dollar preset that is $333M / 0.52 ≈ $640.38M. Under its own 10%-of-gross rule, a zero modeled surplus instead requires $333M / (0.52 − 0.10) ≈ $792.86M. This comparison is algebra for this toy model, not legal or investment advice.
Keep assumptions attached to an exported memo
Export Deal Memo downloads JSON parameters, numeric results and the memo text; it is not a signed contract or a live financial statement. Preset changes retain the current box-office target; Reset restores $2B and the milestone fixture. The net-points preset internally uses a $75M production budget even though the $10M-step range displays a rounded handle position; the printed amount and export reflect the internal value until you move that control.
Sources and further reading