Well, contract players have historically always gotten the shaft on profit participation; only very powerful stars are (or were) able to command a true percentage of profits. Rank and file actors are "ten a penny" (to quote
Shakespeare in Love) and unfortunately as a profession don't wield a lot of bargaining power. You might be surprised to learn that the current SAG contract does not provide for royalties from DVD sales. The producers have a death grip on that revenue stream and it doesn't seem likely that actors will be able to win any of that money in the current negotiations unless they're willing to strike for it.
On the other hand, it's fairly typical, even historically, for film rights deals with authors to include profit participation in addition to a lump sum. Like I said, who knows without seeing the contracts? But besides Forbes reporting for the past three years that the Estate gets a slice of the profits, there's an article in
The Guardian which also claims that Tolkien cut a reasonably fair deal:
Quote:
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Far from the £10,000 of lore, he got $250,000 (then worth about £102,500) and a percentage of the royalties, which could eventually be a massive fillip to his estate, already fat from the sale of 100m books around the globe. The estate's solicitors confirmed yesterday that it would get more royalties if the film took two and a half times its costs.
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