Stars Of The Blair Witch Project Still Fighting For Fair Share Of Its Earnings

Forbes

As the groundbreaking indie horror film celebrates its 25th anniversary, the original cast claims they are owed millions in profits. A cautionary tale of Hollywood babes in the woods.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2024/07/28/why-the-blair-witch-project-made-a-killing-for-the-studio-but-not-its-stars/   Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, why The Blair Witch Project made a killing for the studio, but not its stars.

00:08When he learned this year that The Blair Witch Project was getting a reboot,

00:12Joshua Leonard, one of the original actors in the groundbreaking 1999 indie horror film

00:17that celebrates its 25th anniversary this week, was laid up in bed battling COVID for the first time.

00:24He heard about the project, which horror director and producer Jason Blum is reviving for Lionsgate

00:30at the same time as everyone else, when the news hit the press, which has been the case

00:35for every Blair Witch sequel. Leonard was also, to put it mildly, fed up. The 49-year-old vented

00:42his frustration the way most people do these days, on social media, with a long Instagram post that

00:48concluded, quote, it's 25 years of disrespect from the folks who've pocketed the lion's share,

00:54pun intended, of the profits from our work, and that feels both icky and classless.

01:00Through a spokesperson, Lionsgate declined to comment for the story and has yet to publicly

01:05address the cast's requests or complaints. Given the monumental success of the franchise,

01:11an alternate title for The Blair Witch Project might be the little horror film that could.

01:17Based on the fictional tale of college kids who went missing while shooting a documentary about

01:21a witch hiding in the woods of Burkittsville, Maryland, it was filmed on a $35,000 budget.

01:27With marketing and post-production costs, that number rose to more than $250,000,

01:33but it went on to gross an astonishing $248 million at the global box office.

01:39Analysis by Opus Data shows the total gross revenue, including ancillary sources like video

01:45sales and rental, cable showings, and more, to be $372 million, a figure that appears to never

01:52have been reported. The film's three principal actors,

01:56Leonard, along with Heather Donahue and Michael C. Williams, became overnight stars. They were

02:03only paid $1,000 for the two weeks it took them to shoot Blair Witch with handheld video cameras.

02:09How much additional money the stars made for the film, and how much they could have made,

02:13has never been reported. Forbes conservatively estimates that since the film's premiere,

02:19the actors received $375,000 each, with the majority coming from settlements and,

02:25importantly, not from the film's box office profits.

02:29If the actors had been paid according to their original contract, Forbes estimates they would

02:33have each received approximately $1.3 million, which is closer to $2.5 million when adjusted

02:40for inflation. Why the Blair Witch actors never received those millions is a case of some classic

02:46Hollywood accounting, a practice that studios historically employed to hide financials,

02:51and therefore avoid sharing profits with a movie's cast and crew.

02:55Over the past quarter-century, the trio watched as Blair Witch became a sprawling franchise,

03:01with two sequel films, made for TV movies, books, video games, and even a Las Vegas escape room.

03:08The three stars came together last month in a wide-ranging, variety interview

03:12to call out Lionsgate, the studio that owns Blair Witch, and is rebooting the franchise

03:17with horror master Blumhouse Productions, with a list of requests for the millions of dollars

03:22in back pay they feel they are owed. Among the issues the three are fighting for are residuals,

03:28standard and SAG-AFTRA agreements, workers' rights, and a heads-up before a new Blair Witch

03:33movie is announced, to prepare for seeing their names and faces all over the internet yet again.

03:38But mostly, they say, they want to be finally acknowledged by Lionsgate for their contribution

03:44to the film's success, including the use of their real names as their film characters.

03:49At the heart of their decades-long beef with Lionsgate is the original contract each of

03:53them signed. Like their film characters, the contract is missing, or at best AWOL.

04:00When the then-twenty-something actors were hired to do Blair Witch,

04:03a non-union production, they signed a page-and-a-half deal memo,

04:07without thinking much of it. Leonard says,

04:19The key part of the deal memo was a single line guaranteeing the actors to 1% of net profits

04:25if the movie grossed over $1 million. Net profits are infamously a part of opaque

04:31Hollywood accounting, and almost as old as the movie business itself.

04:35Bottom line? There is no guarantee anyone contractually-owed net profits will ever see a dime.

04:42For full coverage, check out Lisette Voigt-Gobest's piece on Forbes.com.

04:49This is Ciaran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.

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