No Anchorman 2 :(

I'm running late again tonight, and I fell asleep watching the Red Sox play lose horribly to the Yankees last night, so this one is just a quickie about a horrible thing - There will be no Anchorman 2. (Note: Baggage write-ups will return Wednesday.)

The movie officially isn't being greenlit, according to sources, because of how huge all the stars' salary is now. At first, I thought this was silly. Even if it's bad, Anchorman 2 probably makes at least $100 million, and probably more in the $150 million to $400 million range, after you factor in international distribution and what not. It's an easy, obvious cash cow.

But then, I thought about it more. Will Ferrell would probably command $20 million, Carrell around $10 million to $15 million, and maybe $10 million for Paul Rudd. Applegate is probably around $5 million. The other minor cast (sorry David Koechner) and cameos, you figure in $10 million. We're already up to $55 million to $60 million. On top of that, Ferrell and Carrell are big enough stars that they would probably both get percentage points of the revenues, further cutting into the profits. This is also overlooking that Adam McKay is no longer somewhat unknown as a director and writer, and he would have to be paid for both, along with possibly a writing credit (and thus more grosses) for Ferrell.

So yeah, all of that adds up. Still, it's disappointing to realize the movie won't get made. I'll revisit this a bit in the future though, when I share my review of a great book about the rise and fall of DreamWorks.

The awesome wallpaper is from here.