Anne Thompson analyzes the economics of filmmaking in Hung Up on Tentpoles, Studios Think Too Big:
In Hollywood, there’s a studio price and an indie price. There’s a two-tiered system in place. On the studio side, the top movie stars cost $20 million against a share of the gross, and the top directors command $10 million (unless you’re Peter Jackson coming off ‘The Lord of the Rings’).Movie stars know the rules today: Sucker the studios into paying your price and go to the indies for the quality parts that will sustain your career. If you’re George Clooney, you recognize the value of putting yourself in quality work that will stand the test of time.
No studio is going to admit the obvious: They can’t afford to make all their movies at top-tier prices. And if they only make a few tentpoles a year, what are they going to do with the rest of their slate? None of the studios is willing to slash the fat from their motion picture divisions.