Overage money in contracts

I'm aware that in SETA tours one of the contractual provisions is the presence of extra money that can be earned weekly if the production does well box office gross-wise. I've heard that the overage bonus can be very large, sometimes even doubling the person's weekly salary in a well-sold city.

Does anybody know if overages exist also in the more standard Broadway production contracts, or is that strictly only a flat salary? I would think that with tour production contracts there would have to be some kind of overage provision for the Tier C and Tier D contracts, which are supposed to be the lowest scale, not including the SETA tours.

there is no revenue or profit sharing in the collectively bargained contract, but what happens beyond that is determined by the parties' negotiations. As is almost always the case, there are no rules.Anyone can seek whatever they want upfront or at renewal, and depending on how much they are wanted/needed, they just may get it. But it is correct that generally sharing is limited to big names.

Can someone like Lin Manuel get more money out of the box office?

I don't know what LMM makes for acting in the show: I'm sure it's considerable.

But Dramatist's Guild minimums for writers are 2% for book writer, 2% for composer, 2% for lyricist; so that's 6% of the GROSS right there. (Writers are often asked to take royalty cuts to keeps a marginal show open; but that can't be the case with HAMILTON.)

Again, we're talking minimums. It wouldn't surprise me if, taken all together, LMM is making at least 10% of the weekly gross (about $150,000/week). And that's assuming he has no share in the producer's royalties (as Michael Bennett's Plum Productions did for A CHORUS LINE).

Updated On: 11/25/15 at 06:48 PM

@AEA "I can not imagine any producer agreeing to that for anyone but the biggest stars" It happens. Not (as I say) often but it does. Mostly in the context of renewal/renegotiation, and only when the person has become such an important part of the puzzle that it is hard to imagine them being replaced.

@Gaveston "Dramatist's Guild minimums for writers" There is no such thing. The DG is not a union and does not negotiate. There is a sample contract, but the percentages are not subject to a minimum. Also, I am extremely sure LMM is not getting 10%. Remember that his contract was negotiated before the Public production.

@adam.peterson Chernow is not credited as a book writer. He would get a royalty for the exploitation of his source material, standardly from an original contract with the bookwriter, but often assumed by the producer. The % can vary wildly, and the higher end would generally be populated by high profile best seller type authors. (The highest I know of I the 9% Doctorow demanded and got from Drabinsky for Ragtime. I would expect that Chernow got a relatively small deal-again remembering that at the time it was negotiated no one knew what we all know now.)

it is super difficult to say without knowing when the deal was made. There are certainly deals under 1%. Aside from the relative stature of the person and property involved (gaining access to a "title" alone can have significant value in some cases) whereas in some cases you are basically just fending off a theoretical lawsuit but where the extent of what is being lifted is minimal. (This is, as can be imagined, frequently a question potential investors or producers will raise.)

HogansHero said: " Also, I am extremely sure LMM is not getting 10%. Remember that his contract was negotiated before the Public production."

Why would his BWAY contract be negotiated even before they knew (with certainty) that the show was indeed GOING to b'way?

The man is making some serious bank....as he should be.

HH, I know what the Dramatists Guild is; I've been a member for over 30 years.

You are correct that the Guild is not a union and doesn't enforce a "minimum" in the way AEA does. But throughout my membership it has set "recommended minimums" for different levels of theater (as well as other recommendations in sample contracts). The custom (and the last time I checked, the Guild recommendation) was 6% for the various authors of a Broadway musical. As I mentioned, such authors are often asked to take cuts, so "minimum" to an author is different in several ways from "minimum" to an actor.

Adam's question regarding rights to source material is a good one and I don't know the answer. My guess is it depends on the clout of the writers of the MUSICAL as to whether source rights are paid out of the show writers' royalties or not. (Obviously they didn't pay Doctorow 9% of gross out of Ahrens/Flaherty/McNally's 6% (not even if the 6% were a little higher due to McNally's track record)).

I don't know how option agreements are generally worded at The Public, much less what specific arrangements were negotiated by Miranda. But the only NY option I ever signed covered Broadway rights and the producer's participation in post-Broadway subsidiary rights; it said nothing about an off-Broadway production. That was obviously the opposite of HAMILTON's situation, but merely saying "That's what option agreements do" hardly answers anybody's question.

The name producers of HAMILTON (i.e., those other than The Public) were all producers of IN THE HEIGHTS. It is not impossible that Miranda shares the participation of one or more of them. (As I wrote above, Michael Bennett did for A CHORUS LINE.)

Since Miranda already had a Broadway hit under his belt, I don't think 10% for writing book/music/lyrics and arrangements and starring in a show is beyond the realm of possibility. If you are "extremely sure" otherwise, HH, I'm willing to concede the point, but I'd like to know how you know. (In general, I mean; I'm not demanding personal information from you.)