Ben Affleck & Matt Damon Start Own Production Company, Promise Profits

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are beginning their very own manufacturing firm that guarantees to place creatives first — each when it comes to much less company pink tape … and extra money long-term.

The two Hollywood titans — who’ve three Oscars between the each of them, and who’ve starred in, written and directed numerous hit movies through the years — introduced Sunday they have been launching one thing known as Artists’ Equity … which speaks precisely to their purpose right here.

The thought behind this new enterprise is to host and cater to premier peeps within the movie and TV trade — however as an alternative of paying ’em financial institution up entrance, the best way a giant studio/streamer would possibly lately on talent-for-hire, BA and MD are taking it old-school … with a minimize of the earnings.

Back within the day, pre-streaming, that was the playbook in showbiz. Actors and administrators and people hooked up to a flick would typically be contractually entitled to money after the actual fact based mostly on how effectively one thing did on the field workplace. If a film crushed over time, it might imply extra moolah than a one-time payout — excessive as it could appear at first — which is SOP now.

Ben and Matt wanna deliver that again, with BA explaining to the NYT … “As streamers have proliferated, they’ve actually ended back-end participation, and so that is partly an effort to attempt to recapture a few of that worth and share it in a approach that’s extra equitable.” He went on so as to add, “Not simply writers and administrators and stars. But additionally cinematographers, editors, costume designers and different essential artists who, for my part, are very underpaid.”

Artists’ Equity additionally goals to do what large studios cannot … getting out of the best way, and letting creatives have precise possession/management of their imaginative and prescient with out all of the politics that are inclined to hinder manufacturing, generally for the worst. At AE, Ben and Matt are adopting laissez-faire.

It’s a neat thought … and it is not only a pipe dream both. Matt and Ben have secured at the least $100 million in preliminary financing from RedBird Capital Partners — plus an undisclosed quantity of dough from their very own pockets. Ben says he’ll lend his providers solely to Artists’ Equity going ahead. Matt’s dedicated to a handful of movies as effectively.