Comments (22)

• Wow. My residual check is chump change. Shortly after I got my first check, he asked me how much it was. It was a piddly amount, and the DVDs had only been out for a couple months.

  Needless to say, his making $80 million compared to my chump change sounds about right. He had producer’s credit. He directed it. He can negotiate his points. No-name actors really have zero leverage, but that’s just the way the business is, I suppose.

  Comment by BK — June 16, 2009 @ 9:09 am  Reply to this post

• Bay haters crack me up. Seriously. Go make a movie that makes more money than him. This business is… a business. And honestly he does it better than most.

  As for the Korea thing… that’s unfortunate but you can’t just blame Bay for that. Who knows what Fox and LeBouf were doing too.

  Basically guys… get the hell over your hatred for Bay. He’s not going away anytime soon and he’s certainly much better than most of you, especially when it comes to action flicks. Unless James Cameron happens to post on this blog.

  Comment by Bay is better than 90% of you at directing — June 16, 2009 @ 9:13 am  Reply to this post

• Living proof that money cannot buy class or friends.

  Comment by Above and Below — June 16, 2009 @ 9:14 am  Reply to this post

• Those publicity screw-ups sometimes happen. If S. Korea was not on his schedule as he says, give him the benefit of the doubt. As far as the comment about his deal, etc., good for him. Usually the studios take it all anyway.

  He is a stand-up guy, as I remember his take on Blu-ray disc, where he told Paramount that no sequel for Transformers if they don’t release his film on Blu-ray disc (a far superior format BTW). A gutsy thing to do when Paramount had that huge 150 Mil. payment to only release on HD-DVD (talk about greed!). Of course he backtracked, when cool heads prevailed.

  Comment by Jack — June 16, 2009 @ 9:59 am  Reply to this post

• 80 Million, was this not the same Bay who let out a rant on his website which he promptly then took down about one of the main producers behind this film.

  Ok found it… http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/michael-bay-wants-to-get-facts-straight/

  “Ian and Lorenzo did, and the two others (that came attached to the project) Tom Desanto and Don Murphy did not. That was my introduction to them – they did not want any part of their fee going to make a better movie. Things like that don’t usually sit well with me.”

  You know why they decided to pass on the paycut, because after keeping the fanboy dream of a Transformers movie alive for so long they ended up with Michael Fucking Bay as the guy to bring there vision to the screen.

  Who promptly took them out of the equation or as Mr Bay puts it “I was not going to talk creative with him.”

  Very easy to throw the I’ll take a paycut about when your going to end up with 80 odd million in the bank, wonder what those guys actually ended up with?

  Comment by hornygoat — June 16, 2009 @ 10:00 am  Reply to this post

• He’s NOT better than anyone directing action. His action is aimless, quick cutting and has really no suspense cause he doesn’t care about letting people know where they are in a space. It’s spectacle, not action. It’s still commercials. There’s not one action set piece in any Bay film that is memorable. Not one that can compare with anything by Spielberg or Cameron or even a Jon Mostow…to say he is better is absurd. He makes trailers.

  Comment by David Lean — June 16, 2009 @ 10:06 am  Reply to this post

• the best part about michael bay is that he is 100% social inept… super shy and self conscious… i have personally witnessed him hiding at his own production company’s christmas party. and he has a weird, high pitch voice. classic hollywood insecurity…amusing.

  Comment by ha — June 16, 2009 @ 10:12 am  Reply to this post

• Critics wrote off Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Cecil B. DeMille, and John Ford when they were in their prime, just as they write off Michael Bay now. I’m just saying…(and also retching).

  Comment by Buddy Bing — June 16, 2009 @ 10:30 am  Reply to this post

• Yeah the Bayhaters are getting old. He negotiated his deal and got what he wanted, so what. He’s a good businessman. The dude’s pretty much the star of this franchise anyway.

  Comment by Alboone — June 16, 2009 @ 10:57 am  Reply to this post

• Michael Bay is my hero.

  Comment by Anonymous — June 16, 2009 @ 11:24 am  Reply to this post

• I love Bay. He’s a throwback to an era when directors weren’t politically correct namby-pambies who spent most of their time massaging the feelings of spoiled-brat movie stars. He drives garish sports cars, dates supermodels, and mounts productions of staggering scope where lots of stuff gets blown up. He’s the male id personified. His foremost trait, though, is his ability to get under the skin of internet film snobs who view him as the antichrist of the medium.

  Comment by Bay Rules — June 16, 2009 @ 11:58 am  Reply to this post

• Some years ago, I worked on a project that he directed. I then turned down every subsequent job he was involved with. I have never seen anything he has worked on.

  Is he good at what he does? If money is the barometer, then yes, he is. Will I go to his movies? No, I won’t.

  I don’t hate the man, but I won’t put any of my hard-earned dollars in his pocket, either.

  Comment by Anonymous — June 16, 2009 @ 12:19 pm  Reply to this post

• Money cannot, apparently, buy directing talent, either.

  And to “Bay is better than 90% of you at directing”:

  *Only* 90% of us? Bay is only better at directing than 90% of “us”, who read these comments? Even if I think you’re way over-estimating, isn’t that a cause for, like, holy fuck?

  Still, I understand what you’re saying. But regardless, no tallying of Armageddon’s grosses will ever make it anything other than an abysmal piece of shit, you know? Making stupid movies that stupid people gobble up along with tubs of popcorn, just — come on, why continue to be part of the problem?

  You think Bay wouldn’t love to make a movie that people didn’t critically deride, no matter how much money it makes? Of course he would: just look up a few of his quotes from back around the release of Pearl Harbor, back when he thought that’s exactly what he’d done.

  Think he’s capable of it?

  Of course not.

  But he makes lots and lots of money while continuing to lower the taste of America (and the world) for anything more interesting.

  But he makes lots and lots of money. So everything’s cool, right?

  Comment by S — June 16, 2009 @ 1:18 pm  Reply to this post

• Has it ever been determined if John Frankenheimer was Bay’s father?

  And Bay making $80 million on the first Transformers? Unbelievable….other than Speilberg and Lucas, I’ve never heard of a director making that much.

  Comment by writer — June 16, 2009 @ 2:23 pm  Reply to this post

• I’ve not met Bay, but his reputation in the human being category is Not Good. That said, he’s hardly alone in this town. Strictly for entertainment value, I’ve found his movies soulless and boring, and I’m an action flick fan. Only one I enjoyed was “The Rock.” What the difference is between him and, say, Renny Harlin, escapes me.

  Comment by Longtime Observer, Now Removed — June 16, 2009 @ 2:37 pm  Reply to this post

• Anyone comparing Bay to Hitchcock should definitely retch.

  Comment by neller — June 16, 2009 @ 3:10 pm  Reply to this post

• @Bay Rules

  Hi, Mike…..

  Comment by How lame — June 16, 2009 @ 3:14 pm  Reply to this post

• I’m one of those who happens to think that Michael Bay was genetically engineered on this planet just to direct Transformers.

  Comment by sharonfranz — June 16, 2009 @ 4:29 pm  Reply to this post

• “And Bay making $80 million on the first Transformers? Unbelievable….other than Speilberg and Lucas, I’ve never heard of a director making that much.”

  Well, it seems that Bay has made it into the small group of directors who command 30% of the final gross (Spielberg, Lucas and Peter Jackson) as well as a huge upfront payment.

  Although James Cameron did get paid close to $90 million for “Titanic” (and I imagine Christopher Nolan received a similar amount for “The Dark Knight”). Those two soundly beat Bay, not just earnings-wise but also movie-making wise.

  Comment by Matt C — June 16, 2009 @ 4:44 pm  Reply to this post

• Say what you will be he makes escapist entertainment. The kind that quite a few ‘commercial’ filmmakers should think about doing. He’s hilarious and frankly that Verizon FIOS ad makes up for a lot. Hey, I love Micheal Mann’s movies but have you met THAT GUY? Sure he makes amazing movies but Mr. Bay is simply interested in making money, making entertainment and if Transformers is any indication he’s not too shabby at it…if he could just get rid of that little stupid ghetto blaster transformer that is. Fuck it. I WISH I could make a tenth of what he has in this business.

  Comment by All Hat No Cattle — June 16, 2009 @ 9:50 pm  Reply to this post

• Honestly, money doesn’t mean anything if Bay is so terrible at what he does. He doesn’t know shit about comedic timing, getting decent performances from his actors or cutting an action sequence properly (the attack in “Pearl Harbor” is the lone exception).

  Bay can keep his gazillion dollar house for all I care. I’d rather give money to directors who know a thing or two about making decent action movies. Now if “Transformers 2″ is actually something worth seeing, I’ll gladly eat my words.

  Comment by Matt C — June 17, 2009 @ 9:12 am  Reply to this post

• Doesn’t he get something like 8% of what the toys sell for? If that’s the case I can definitely see how he made $80 million dollars

  Comment by sinker — June 17, 2009 @ 1:58 pm  Reply to this post