May 28, 2008GTA IV star only made $100,000 - Wants Millions!
Posted by The Ori
Niko Bellic wants his money.
Forget liberty - give us residuals or give us death. It’s a sentiment shared by countless actors, and one most poignantly offered by Michael Hollick, better known as the voice of GTA IV’s immigrant star, Niko Bellic.
In a New York Times article, Hollick revealed that he earned about $100,000 for 15 months of work recording dialogue for his role as GTA IV’s protagonist. The game, however, has gone on to rake in over $600 million in a mere two weeks.
And Hollick won’t see a dime of it.
“It’s tough, when you see Grand Theft Auto IV out there as the biggest thing going right now, when they’re making hundreds of millions of dollars, and we don’t see any of it,” Hollick told the Times. “I don’t blame Rockstar. I blame our union for not having the agreements in place to protect the creative people who drive the sales of these games.”
The pay discrepancy stems from the fact that Hollywood has yet to make provisions for electronic media, including video games or the Internet. Instead, actors get paid standard Screen Actor’s Guild day wages for their work (roughly $730), leaving them out of the lucrative residual loop should a property become financially successful. When it becomes as successful as GTA IV, an actor could be out literally millions.
Hollick is also peeved that he received no additional compensation for lending his voice to the game’s massive marketing blitz.
“The first GTA 4 trailer generated something like 40 million hits online, and that’s my voice all over it, and I get nothing. If that were a radio spot, I would have. Same thing for the TV ads. I recorded those lines for the game, but now they’re all over television.”
Further muddling matters is the fact that numerous artists, programmers and engineers contribute to the creation of a virtual character like Niko Bellic. Where, execs claim, do you draw the residual line?
We suspect they’re about to find out. The issue bears a distinct resemblance to last year’s writer’s strike, leading many to speculate a similar battle between the Actor’s Guild and Hollywood this summer. After spending a few weeks playing GTA IV, I wouldn’t bet against the Niko. Have you seen what that guy would do for money?
shocking! they should get a percentage of total profits,royalties etc
why should he get percentage??? i don’t get it. it’s a simple job not more not less. and R* took the whole “risk” if it still exist when creating a title like GTA X. just look at actors, they get millions without any risk. people should work for their money and not get it because they got luck being chosen for a job or having known somebody. if such people get percentage we should all got percentage from the gross national product of our nation? and then i want percantage from the whole world and so on. furthermore kids should get percentage from their parents income. ridiculous, sorry.
sorry i forgot: intel/amd should get money for every windows/*nix running on it… :]
WHAT A GREEDY BASTARD!!!!!!
what the hell is his problem?? he got paid pretty good for just going to SIT in a sound-proof both and just TALKING into a mic, he probably was eating his breakfast right there. I dont think he even worked eight straight hours in those whole 15 months. In a real job, you dont even make $20,000 in a year.
What makes him different from all the people on the “antique” consoles and media that was made since the psx when you had “stars” of video games for instance the whole Resident Evil characters. It is not the problem nor responsibility for the creators that a “media” goes either flop or gold. Deal with it
Did he not sign a contract or what have you before doing this?
He would have known what he was getting one way or another.
Although, if he was the start, he probably should have got more, but thats his fault for not realizing this before.
Think of the opportunities he will get no, he will make loads of money anyway.
well nearly everybody could have done his job. imho he was well enough paid. it wasn’t he who created something he was just a simple wheel not more…
people just can’t get enough. said world…
this guy is greedy. now he’s maoning about the money. rot in hell.
Professional voice actor here. Just to be clear, voice acting involves far more than just “talking into a mic”, and most directors frown upon an actor eating his breakfast during a session. There are specific skills and talents required to be a voice actor, many of which escape even experienced film and TV actors.
$100,000 may be a lot of money in and of itself, but not in the context of GTA’s multi-million-dollar sales figures.
A poster above stated that “actors…get millions without any risk”. It certainly looks that way, unless you understand how SAG contracts actually operate. Sales-based residuals aren’t “bonuses” or “extra money”, as many people out there seem to think; they’re deferred payments against the lifetime value of the work. In other words, when residuals are part of a negotiated contract — something that’s not currently part of SAG and AFTRA’s “new media” agreements, including videogames — the studio is essentially saying to the actor “your work is worth X, but that’s too large an amount for us to pay up front because of the production costs we’re already incurring. Therefore, we’ll pay you a smaller percentage up front, and if the game/movie/etc. is a success, then we’ll pay you the remainder of that value over time.” Film actors get weekly checks for their movie roles not because their performances are stellar, but because their client (the studio) is on an installment plan. (This is one reason why the studios, long ago, agreed to the royalties system proposed by SAG; it places a risk on the part of the actor — he stands to lose, say, 80% of the value of his work — alongside the financial risk incurred by the studio on that project.)
This also renders moot another argument: that gamers don’t buy titles based on the quality of the actor’s performance. It may be true, but it misses the point. (It’s also ironic, given the speed with which gamers will flock to message boards to complain when the voice acting is below par.) Again, the ability — or inability — to act one’s way out of a paper bag has no bearing on whether residuals are paid. Right now, somewhere, Larry the Cable Guy is getting a check for that “Health Inspector” movie.
I’m an actor (Stage like a real acting job) and I can do a pretty good Russian imitation pay me 100,000 dollars and I’d be happy to tell the world I am a “modern mother’s” voice of Satan himself.
I am a dragon. And all I know is that Nico Bellic’s voice makes me insane.
I understand hollicks point, but make sure to read the fine print…. I think he did a great job at voice acting in the game.. no doubt! I SIMPLY LOVED GTA 4. Anybody else who dissagree’s just doesnt see the effort and determination in it, not to mention sucking in 3 person action-RPG
and plus i read articles before the release date of GTA 4 (29 April)that take 2 was going bankrupt . And GTA 4 was like they’re trump card to bring in money for the chairman to keep them fat and happy get my drift.
Its a darn shame that Hollick never got the $ he felt he deserved.
Maybe next time ;)