How Much Does a Top Composer Like Williams, Shore, Zimmer Make Per Score?

[Mr. Gitz 85]

So I’ve always been curious how much composers for the big blockbuster movies make. I mean... imagine being John Williams in his heyday? Almost every film you score becomes a monster hit, and the score albums themselves sell like hot cakes? So if Williams weren’t semi retired right now & I wanted him to score my film, what kind of fee are we talking about? Let’s be honest here, Star Wars without John Williams doesn’t become the major phenomenon it becomes. Same with Jaws. What’s that potential worth? 
 

Then we have guys who are always in demand like Hans Zimmer. Zimmer & his composer factory. What do you think he’s pulling down? 
 

Howard Shore is a composer I think about often. Where did he go? He only does these small indie films. All these crazy superhero movies getting made & not one person has thought “Hey, let’s get the guy who did the music for Lord of the Rings”. Who else would love a Shore superhero theme? 
 

So does anyone have any idea what these guys make for the big budget tentpole style scores? How much is a John Williams score worth to a producer? 

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

I dunno. A couple a bob.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

HanZ probably has to pay in order to be allowed to score.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

9 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

HanZ probably has to pay in order to be allowed to score.

 

 

[crumbs 14,305]

1 hour ago, Þekþiþm said:

 

 

 

Yikes!

[bollemanneke 3,338]

What makes you think any studios would want a Shore superhero score? Themes are not desirable anymore.

And Jurassic Shark, that comment about Zimmer made me snort in a way I never have before.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

1 minute ago, bollemanneke said:

What makes you think any studios would want a Shore superhero score? Themes are not desirable anymore.

And Jurassic Shark, that comment about Zimmer made me snort in a way I never have before.

 

I swear, I didn't see the double meaning until now!

[bollemanneke 3,338]

What double meaning?

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

Upwards of ten dollars

[ddddeeee 245]

I remember reading that Elfman got 2 million for Spider-Man 2.

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

$2-4 million USD + negotiated royalties

 

And that’s for Zimmer and Williams. Zimmer makes more these days, though John Williams makes a crap ton from a back-log library of insane royalties.

 

The drop off is pretty steep from the top. The next biggest will probably make less than half that. Shore and Giacchino are probably in the sub $1m per picture. Easily. 

 

Down at the new known composers like Daniel Pemberton/Joseph Trapanese you’re probably looking at $25-100k per picture, depending on the picture. 

 

Down at the wannabes and newbies you’re looking at $50 or $1,000 or $2,500 per project. 

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

10 minutes ago, ddddeeee said:

I remember reading that Elfman got 2 million for Spider-Man 2.

 

Dollars?

[Naïve Old Fart 9,507]

On the commentary for THE OMEN, Donner said that they had "no money", for the score. I'd be interested to hear how much JG was actually paid, for that score.

I think that it fluctuates. JW probably clears a cool 2 mil plus royalties, but if it's a project that interests him, but there's little cash, I'm sure he'd lower his fee. It's better to score a film that has a personal attraction, for you, for a lower price, than to say "no" through sheer greed.

[TheUlyssesian 2,473]

JJ to Kathy and Iger: "Here's the JW score for Rise of Skywalker. Now let's shred it to pieces and tear it apart - we only paid 2 million dollars for it."

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

56 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

On the commentary for THE OMEN, Donner said that they had "no money", for the score. I'd be interested to hear how much JG was actually paid, for that score.

I think that it fluctuates. JW probably clears a cool 2 mil plus royalties, but if it's a project that interests him, but there's little cash, I'm sure he'd lower his fee. It's better to score a film that has a personal attraction, for you, for a lower price, than to say "no" through sheer greed.

 

Yeah, but he's got to keep the money flowing, to pay for his expenses. High quality pencils, rubbers, premium sheet music, turtlenecks, and so on. And Bill Ross isn't exactly cheap.

[Fabulin 3,510]

.

[Edmilson 7,398]

1 hour ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

I think that it fluctuates. JW probably clears a cool 2 mil plus royalties, but if it's a project that interests him, but there's little cash, I'm sure he'd lower his fee. It's better to score a film that has a personal attraction, for you, for a lower price, than to say "no" through sheer greed.

 

Indeed. JW probably received way less for The Book Thief, Memoirs of a Geisha or even some smaller Spielberg movies (The Post, The Terminal, etc) than he received for any of the Star Wars sequels or KOTCS.

 

On the case of The Book Thief, I've read that he campaign for him to score it because he loved the book, so I guess he probably accepted taking a smaller fee.

[gkgyver 1,645]

1 hour ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

Yeah, but he's got to keep the money flowing, to pay for his expenses. High quality pencils, rubbers, premium sheet music, turtlenecks, and so on. And Bill Ross isn't exactly cheap.

 

Only high quality rubbers for John scoring Daisy Ridley. 

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

Are you implying there's more rubbing than usual when he scores Daisy?

[Richard Penna 3,676]

I would speculate (in an uninformed manner) that the fee will also depend on the length of the score and the size of the ensemble, as it affects how much time it will take the composer.

 

According to the budget for The Village, JNH was paid $1.3 million, separately from all other music related costs.

 

(The budget also specifies $300,000 for the rights to a song... not sure what song that's referring to)

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

2 hours ago, Edmilson said:

 

Indeed. JW probably received way less for The Book Thief, Memoirs of a Geisha or even some smaller Spielberg movies (The Post, The Terminal, etc) than he received for any of the Star Wars sequels or KOTCS.

 

On the case of The Book Thief, I've read that he campaign for him to score it because he loved the book, so I guess he probably accepted taking a smaller fee.

 

Makes sense. Of course the vulgar bussines of money is handled by his agents.

[ddddeeee 245]

Elfman is among the highest-paid composers, getting roughly $1.5 million per film, plus box office bonuses.

 

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-jun-24-et-gold24-story.html

 

On the other hand, Elfman got paid $1 (literally) for Freeway, Standard Operating Procedure, The Unknown Known, The End of the Tour....

[crumbs 14,305]

6 hours ago, TheUlyssesian said:

JJ to Kathy and Iger: "Here's the JW score for Rise of Skywalker. Now let's shred it to pieces and tear it apart - we only paid 2 million dollars for it."

 

And that's only JW's composing fee, which was likely far higher for each of the news Star Wars films due to the prolonged writing schedule (nearly a year on each sequel). No doubt he receives a healthy percentage of the soundtrack profits as well.

 

Then consider the cost of the music department, the musicians, the 100 piece choir, the copyists (formerly orchestrators), additional conductors, fees for booking the recording stage (for 11 days on TROS, longer on TFA), and so on. Easily another couple of million there.

 

It stands to reason JW's fee would vary considerably per film (compare the time spent on Star Wars to The Post, where he wrote barely an hour of music in a few weeks). Presumably the exact fees are established after the first screening/spotting session of the film, so JW can work out how much score is required, how complex it will be, how long it will take to write, how large the orchestra needs to be, and how many days it will take to record the score. Then his agency calculates the costs from there.

[mrbellamy 6,272]

12 hours ago, Mr. Gitz said:

Howard Shore is a composer I think about often. Where did he go? He only does these small indie films. All these crazy superhero movies getting made & not one person has thought “Hey, let’s get the guy who did the music for Lord of the Rings”. Who else would love a Shore superhero theme? 

 

I’m sure he’s been asked. He probably says no to most of it. He did the third Twilight for whatever reason. 

[Arpy 4,145]

I'm pretty sure Shore is more selective these days on who he works with. It would be interesting to know whether or not the studios are after him, or how many projects he's turned down. Everyone has a price eventually...

[crumbs 14,305]

I think after the Hobbit situation, he's probably content being out of the studio system.

[gkgyver 1,645]

6 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Are you implying there's more rubbing than usual when he scores Daisy?

 

Depends on how sharp he keeps his pencil. 

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Most big name composers will pull in a million or more. 

[pete 906]

14 hours ago, Mr. Gitz said:

 

Howard Shore is a composer I think about often. Where did he go? He only does these small indie films.

 

He's also been working on concert pieces. A guitar concerto premiered last May.

 

Regarding Williams, I read somewhere that he made enough money to retire from Jaws. 

 

Does anyone know how much he usually gets for concerts he conducts? 

[TheUlyssesian 2,473]

16 hours ago, Mr. Gitz said:

Howard Shore is a composer I think about often. Where did he go? He only does these small indie films. All these crazy superhero movies getting made & not one person has thought “Hey, let’s get the guy who did the music for Lord of the Rings”. Who else would love a Shore superhero theme? 

 

Great fucking question. They even got Horner to do a superhero film. But honestly he's too good for superhero trash.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

Perhaps he chooses projects where his music is less likely to be ruined in editing.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Someone with his qualifications, would have no trouble finding a topflight job in either the food service or housekeeping industries. Are you gonna answer that?

[publicist 4,643]

14 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

On the commentary for THE OMEN, Donner said that they had "no money", for the score. I'd be interested to hear how much JG was actually paid, for that score.

 

25k

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

And a gold plated figurine later on....

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

I said "this is a horror picture, nobody goes to see these..."

[crumbs 14,305]

Good on Shore for not lowering himself to most of the crap Hollywood is churning out nowadays (okay, yeah, I have no idea why he did the third Twilight film either).

 

But there's no reason he couldn't score some small indie dramas? Frankly I hope Williams goes the same way. Both composers are immensely talented.

[Oomoog the Ecstatic 314]

Wish Williams would choose better projects too. I don't get his film choices in the past 10 years. There are much better movies out there and I thought by now he'd be doing more his own thing. Less $ more reward. #UnpopularOpinion

[crumbs 14,305]

He definitely doesn't need the money. Maybe his fear of younger directors expecting the type of turnaround that younger composers can provide (with digital composing) is holding him back? But apart from that, he only seems to care about Spielberg, Star Wars or book adaptations he enjoyed reading once. A shame all Spielberg has on the horizon is yet another Indiana Jones (that will almost assuredly be shit, judging by the desperation of bringing Koepp back into the fold).

[publicist 4,643]

The last thing on Williams mind after ca. 2000 was getting more or better movies. 

[Mr. Gitz 85]

On 1/4/2020 at 12:46 AM, The Big Man said:

Someone with his qualifications, would have no trouble finding a topflight job in either the food service or housekeeping industries. Are you gonna answer that?

He also collects spores moulds & fungus

[bruce marshall 1,315]

Many composers are paid to produce a score.

Meaning, they are responsible for all

costs .

They keep what's left over.

 

Bernard Herrmann had it in his contract to get paid what Max Steiner got.

PSYCHO , I think he got a measly $15,000.

 

Btw Lucas gave JW a percentage bonus for SW.

UNHEARD OF!

[karelm 2,903]

On 1/3/2020 at 6:29 PM, pete said:

 

He's also been working on concert pieces. A guitar concerto premiered last May.

 

Regarding Williams, I read somewhere that he made enough money to retire from Jaws. 

 

Does anyone know how much he usually gets for concerts he conducts? 

 

He donated his fee when he conducted in each state a few years ago.  I think it was 2016-17 but otherwise probably gets around 50 to 100k per concert when he guests.  That's on par with a world class soloist like Joshua Bell, Yo-yo Ma, or Yuja Wang.  If he's on salary (like Boston Pops) it could still be substantial but by 1980's terms.  I believe Gustavo Dudamel's salary is 2 million a year for the LA Phil and keep in mind he's a conductor of other orchestras too. 

 

Remember for most composers, the salary is on scale with the budget.  Williams probably makes 1.5 to 2 million per film.  Same with Zimmer but if they do something smaller like a Gus van Sant film, they might do it for peanuts.  I think Richard Kraft said Danny Elfman did Good Will Hunting for 50k which is like free for him in the 90's.  I recall James Newton Howard made 1.5 million for Signs so you can assume that's his going rate for big budget.  Something like King Kong would probably be more, maybe twice that but require twice as much music and headache.  Also, these composers make royalties on international broadcasts, tv, etc., and that can be substantial.  I once deposited someone's quarterly royalty check and it was 500k.  So imagine they make 2 million just from past projects.  You could imagine someone like JW who always has something on TV somewhere gets twice that.

[Fabulin 3,510]

12 minutes ago, karelm said:

 

He donated his fee when he conducted in each state a few years ago.  I think it was 2016-17 but otherwise probably gets around 50 to 100k per concert when he guests.  That's on par with a world class soloist like Joshua Bell, Yo-yo Ma, or Yuja Wang.  If he's on salary (like Boston Pops) it could still be substantial but by 1980's terms.  I believe Gustavo Dudamel's salary is 2 million a year for the LA Phil and keep in mind he's a conductor of other orchestras too. 

 

Remember for most composers, the salary is on scale with the budget.  Williams probably makes 1.5 to 2 million per film.  Same with Zimmer but if they do something smaller like a Gus van Sant film, they might do it for peanuts.  I think Richard Kraft said Danny Elfman did Good Will Hunting for 50k which is like free for him in the 90's.  I recall James Newton Howard made 1.5 million for Signs so you can assume that's his going rate for big budget.  Something like King Kong would probably be more, maybe twice that but require twice as much music and headache.  Also, these composers make royalties on international broadcasts, tv, etc., and that can be substantial.  I once deposited someone's quarterly royalty check and it was 500k.  So imagine they make 2 million just from past projects.  You could imagine someone like JW who always has something on TV somewhere gets twice that.

Things certainly have escalated... In 1931, Toscanini at the New York Philharmonic was paid 110k per year, which at the time the highest salary of a musician in the world. At the 17,3x conversion rate to today's dollars, that's... 1,9 million a year. And that was exclusive Toscanini, not shared Dudamel!

 

Korngold at Warner Brothers received about a half of that a year, just under a million in today's money.

[Tom Guernsey 2,281]

I still find it slightly surprising there isn't at least one top film composer (Michael Giacchino, for example) who professes to love film music who has come forward as an angel investor for re-recordings. If I'd pulled in several million dollars in film scoring fees, I'd happily stump up for a long list of Tadlow recordings... relative to that kind of money, those re-recordings are cheap, plus you'd make at least some (if not all) of the money back eventually. Would make a fine contribution to helping preserve the art of film music.

 

Back more squarely to the topic, I'm sure I read that JW did some negotiating for Jurassic Park which changed the game when it came to the fees composers were paid, although I can't quite remember how or what it was.

 

Also surprised nobody has mentioned James Horner and Titanic which probably made him more money than everything else he ever wrote (maybe).

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

8 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

Back more squarely to the topic, I'm sure I read that JW did some negotiating for Jurassic Park which changed the game when it came to the fees composers were paid, although I can't quite remember how or what it was.

 

I believe his angle to negotiation at the time was that a better composer was needed.

 

8 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

Also surprised nobody has mentioned James Horner and Titanic which probably made him more money than everything else he ever wrote (maybe).

 

Was that because of the enormous CD sales? 

[Tom Guernsey 2,281]

9 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

I believe his angle to negotiation at the time was that a better composer was needed.

 

 

Was that because of the enormous CD sales? 

I assume your first comment rather relates to Schindler's List (although I would, probably wrongly, argue that it's actually technically harder to write something like Jurassic Park than Schindler's List - at least from a technical point of view).

 

And yes, Titanic CD sales indeed... plus all the royalties from the song.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

11 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

I assume your first comment rather relates to Schindler's List (although I would, probably wrongly, argue that it's actually technically harder to write something like Jurassic Park than Schindler's List - at least from a technical point of view).

 

Nah, he did it for all his scoring jobs at the time.

 

JW: You need a better composer.

Producer: I know, but they're all dead. You're the best that's left.

JW: That's right, schmuck, so you better pay well!

[Naïve Old Fart 9,507]

30 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

I believe his angle to negotiation at the time was that a better composer was needed.

They should have gone with Jerry Goldsmith, then.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

Or Roy Budd, since he was working at his magnum opus at the time.

 

Just now, Tom Guernsey said:

plus all the royalties from the song.

 

I wonder how much that amounts to, excluding the royalties that was part of the CD sales.

[Edmilson 7,398]

Horner got so rich with Titanic he pratically stopped doing blockbusters for a while. This probably explains why he spent his time between Titanic and Avatar doing small budget movies like House of Sand and Fog, Boy in the Stripped Pajamas, etc.