Guest THE BASTARD Posted July 21, 2007 Share Posted July 21, 2007 After all the films they made do the stars (Tommy Lung, David Chiang, ETC) Still recieve money from those films? Royalty checks etc.. I felt it timely to ask this Question since the films are making so much money again. I heard when RRS was running the outfit they were DEFINITELY recieving royalties! Im sure Ti Lung made enough to keep his balls wrapped in silk forever! But now whats' up Did the rights all go to Celestial when they bought the LOT. >D Also ONE LAST Question... How much did Shaw Stars make per film. I know it Varied! Dont say eh hey IT Varied. I could have told you that. Any INFO? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest chen lung Posted July 21, 2007 Share Posted July 21, 2007 the films are making so much money again. I wouldn't go that far. Siren's lot were a financial failure. Good question though, but I doubt it. I don't imagine stars like Jimmy Wang Yu are on the 'Loyalty' Cheques list anyway:lol . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest venomchamber Posted July 21, 2007 Share Posted July 21, 2007 I heard when RRS was running the outfit they were DEFINITELY recieving royalties! Im sure Ti Lung made enough to keep his balls wrapped in silk forever! Hahahahaha! :rollin You should watch the Elegent Trails Ti Lung interview found in the bonus features of many of his DVDs for the answer to that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Markgway Posted July 21, 2007 Share Posted July 21, 2007 I don't believe that the actors were paid well by Shaws and things like royalty cheques and percentage points didn't exist back then. Not like Hollywood where a star can make a couple of movies and retire. Ti Lung probably earnt most of his savings in Taiwan and from latter day HK pictures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Feng Gang Posted July 21, 2007 Share Posted July 21, 2007 I think one of those documentaries said they made like 300 a film with possible bonuses. Would be nice if they did get royalties. I think they deserve it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kungfusamurai Posted July 22, 2007 Share Posted July 22, 2007 I wonder if Shaws paid them per film, and per role (i.e. lower thug paid less than star). Nobody got film percentages back then, not even Hollywood actors. In the old Hollywood system, when actors were employees of studios, I think they were on a payroll system, so I wouldn't be surprised if Shaws was like that. I would also guess that most of the actors had spent all of their earnings from those films by the mid 80s, if they had stopped working for the studio up until a few years earlier. KFS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest GwaiLoMoFo Posted July 22, 2007 Share Posted July 22, 2007 Most interviews Ive heard/read usually say that the Shaws didnt pay them very well while they were making the films. I highly doubt they would be kicking anything back to them now. And I dont think they had a HK SAG or FAG (see "Team America" :lol ) actors union. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest stormybman Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 The avaerage Shaw player made around 75US, per week and were chained to seven year contracts. Bonuses came after box office reciepts, and usually consisted of a clothing allowance, and, an out of town trip to an area of Shaws choice. "Bigger" stars made a few dollars more, but not much. If you consider $2/300US, a lot, consider the bigger the star, the more they limited your films for the year: A David Chiang, or Ti Lung may get 4/5 roles in a year, and a Liu Kar Yung might star in 20 features annually. Don't forget, everyone lived in cement prisons, er.. i mean block housing on the premises, and not allowed to go anywhere too often. Ahhh... the life of a STAR... No wonder the "suicide" rate was so high then. If you broke your contract, you'd either retire, or could not work in Hong Kong again. Where do I sign up?? :rollin I have come for the revenge of my master, this doesn't concern you, so I'll allow you to leave... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest oldeschool17 Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 Hmm, are you sure on those rates? I could have sworn I read somewhere that when Bruce Lee approached Shaw Bros, he was asking for $10,000 a film+creative control+royalties. Shaw only offered him $2,000 & 7 films(no royalties). Didnt he go to Golden Harvest with $7,500+creative control+royalties? Lets just say he picked Shaw, wouldnt that have pissed off alumni like David Chiang, Ti Lung, Fu Sheng, etc who according to your estimates were paid ALOT less than the max amount Bruce Lee would have been offered had he joined? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest stormybman Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 Yes, oldeschool, I understand your point. However, it was Shaws' mandate Bruce was out of his mind, and they wouldn't pay ANY star the kind of salary Bruce demanded. He wanted a one and done deal, and that was simply not the way they did things at movietown. Remember, I said their contract players were CHAINED to lengthy, horrible, contracts, up to 7yrs. That was the going rate at the time. Chow, at GH, took a huge gamble on Lee, because he was doing anything he could to fend off Run Run, who monopolised the market at the time. It paid off for Chow, and later, after several failed attempts, Shaw offered Lee a BLANK check, suggesting Lee fill in his own demands, and it was kindly declined. Just goes to show how shrewed and intelligent Chow was as a businessman. He found a bankable commodity to rival the biggest studio in HK, and Shaw persued Lee until he died. I have come for the revenge of my master, this doesn't concern you, so I'll allow you to leave... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest oldeschool17 Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 yeah raymond chow took a big risk on Lee, but as we all see it paid off big time. Couple that with jackie chan and sammo its no suprise Golden Harvest gave Shaw a whooping at the box office in the 80s. In a perfect world, i would have loved to have a combination of shaw's production/sets with Golden Harvest's creativity/choreography . Even more off topic, why didnt Chiang Sheng and Lu Feng try to pursue a spot on the Golden Harvest roster after their Shaw Bros contract expired. Considering they were hurting for jobs, you would have thought they would have had a nice career there. Could you imagine a movie with them and jackie and sammo?!:eek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JustAFan Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 I'm glad Bruce Didn't sign with the Shaws, I don't think he wouldv'e been remembered as he was at any other studio. With the Shaws he wouldv'e been part of but with Chow he became an even bigger star than he already was. The only part that made the contracts worth it was the CREATIVE CONTROL part of the deals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Silent Flute Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 I personally dont care who Mr. Lee made movies with he would have outshone everyone. We dont have enough archival footage of the mans skill. Sure he stood for a lot and went International but his life was cut way off and in a brunt ending. If he made movies with Shaw Brothers or more with Golden Harvest it would have been great. But instead the world will always miss him and wonder. I wish he would have made more movies with Golden Harvest instead of Shaw Brothers, that's what was supposed to happen. Can you Imagine Lee, Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan, Lam Ching, Angela Mao and Carter Wong. Man what a time that would have been. He would have made at Least 10 more movies with Golden Harvest. Now all we can do is imagine and think ''what if'', how sad. Surely this is one of the greatest robberies of all time NOT like on ''the A&E'' channel when they list the greatest robberies of all time. I remember when i was around 5 years old and found a book with all these picutres from the green hornet in it not even knowing who he was and feeling drawn. At least he broke the boundries made the right descion and went International when he signed with producers from the US. He exposed Kung Fu movies like nobody ever would have been able to. It makes me wonder if someone dies are they destined to die or are they serving their purpose NO matter when they die. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Iron Boat Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 I dont think I would of enjoyed seeing Bruce Lee with in any Chor Yuen films, or doing endless parrying like the venoms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest venomchamber Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 I think it is safe to assume that had Bruce signed on with the Shaws upon receiving a blank check, they would have utilized his talents for more that just appearing as a standard "contract player", and his life could have been even more monumental than it was as it may have led him down all kinds of paths like: he could have gone on to direct films at Shaws... he could have assembled a team that would have exceeded Liu Chia-Liang's stable or Chang's gang, beginning with Samo Hung and Yang Sze as they were already there... he could have reignited the Cantonese movie market for Shaws enabling them to dominate both the mainland Mandarin & Cantonese film markets, putting a stronghold on all the competition... Imagine Golden Harvest trying to stay in business at that time with Bruce Lee on the other side... his being under a tighter studio control may have prolonged his life as he would have not been in the wrong place at the wrong time... then again, on the other hand, events could have played out much the same way or he could even have possibly become divorced because Betty Ting Pei was also there... Sadly, we will never know. He did consider it though, as he frequently visited the sets during production of Chu Yuan's The Lizard and Chang Cheh's Blood Brothers to see what the conditions over at the competition were like. Obviously he did not approve of the production methods or business ethics and turned them down time and again. I'm curious...does his estate (Linda & Shannon) receive royalties from the Fortune Star DVD releases? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest killer meteor Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 I don't think Bruce would have worked that well with the Shaw system. I can certainly imagine a distribution or co-production deal but not Bruce being a cog. I can imagine him and Lau Kar-leung going for each other's throats! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest stormybman Posted July 24, 2007 Share Posted July 24, 2007 Venom, I can appreciate your thoughts on " what might have been...", however, Lee could not have thrived at Shaws for the very reason he became a star with GH. Chow. "offered to pay for his services." Shaws controlled their empire with an iron grip, and you couldn't contain BL that way. Creative control was not as big for him as quality and professionalism. Chow confronted him and made him feel he was wanted, whereas, Shaw was like,"you're nobody to me but a former child actor...". The Big Boss is probably his finest work because he didn't know what he was doing from the standpoint of how it was being done in HK films of the early '70's. He went about doing his job, and it paid great dividends. Even though he didn't care for Lo Wei, he still went out and produced: he was trying to "feed his family". With FOF, we saw his realism as far as natural ability, and then ego surfaced quickly. If Bruce could follow a respected, demanding, director, i'm certain he could have reached greater heights. I would have loved to see him work with Ng See Yuen, or Chor Yuen. Ti Lung made great films with Chor, and I feel Lee could have done a similar job. The Shaw way was just not what he wanted for himself, and even after his star rose, the way they came after him then made him more cautious of Run Run... I have come for the revenge of my master, this doesn't concern you, so I'll allow you to leave... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Steve Barr Posted July 24, 2007 Share Posted July 24, 2007 The average Shaw player made around 75US, per week and were chained to seven year contracts.For comparison, in Dead End (1969) IIRC a white collar clerk's wages were stated to be 500HK a month. I would assume the clerk didn't get room and board like Shaw players did. Also IIRC, in the Ti Lung special feature on one of the DVDs, he said he sometimes got bonuses big enough to buy a house. Judging by the contemporary shaw films, the 1970's in HK were tough times for most people, and any job was probably a good job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Karlos Posted July 25, 2007 Share Posted July 25, 2007 I, too, would love to think Bruce's arrival at SB studios would've ushered in an extra golden age for them but to be honest, from what I've heard over the years, he probably would've felt hemmed in by the tight control Mona Fong exerted over the whole empire. His star power at the time might've gotten him some leeway - and I emphasise might - but it would only have been a matter of time before such constraints would see Bruce walk. It would've been a bright but brief reign for Bruce, if you ask me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ching li Posted July 25, 2007 Share Posted July 25, 2007 It seems that bruce lee wasn't the only one to shy away from shaws, i mean look at actors like Meng fei who seemed to be quite popular, did one movie for shaws and left didn't joined them. He did alot of independent films, which probably paid alot more and they had their freedom. Also actors like jackie chan, sammo hung, etc. They used their brains and alot of them if not international, still working in hong kong movies today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest venomchamber Posted July 26, 2007 Share Posted July 26, 2007 Meng Fei's career didn't exactly take off as he is primarily known just for The Prodigal Boxer (aka The Punch Of Death) as well as The Five Shaolin Masters which he participated in because the film was shot in Taiwan by Chang's Film Company and released by SB. Meng Fei never actually signed on with Shaws. Had he joined Shaws or GH instead of indies, he'd still be popular in films today. Too bad as he had lots of potential and should have joined Chang's gang along with Liang Chia-Jen and Chi Kuan-Chun. On the other hand, Samo Hung started out at Shaws in bit parts in films like Swordswomen Three (1970) before moving on to Golden Harvest where he lingered on for a few years in films like When Tae Kwan Do Strikes & The Man From Hong Kong as a contract player before achieving stardom in the late 70s with The Magnificent Butcher. Cheers & Best Regards... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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