Should Hollywood actors be paid to promote their movies on social media? If so, what should they charge? Why?
Honestly I feel they shouldn’t. Why would you even ask for money to promote a movie you were in? Did you not get paid enough? I would agree to ask for money if the movie didn’t do so well and would want some extra cash to promote. However, even still I feel like you should be proud enough of your movie to not ask for money to promote your work. You should want to show people what you’ve accomplished and/or how well you are at acting.
Moving forward, I found an example of an actor who is clearly proud of what he has accomplished and has posted it to his social media account. Here is Jordan Peele from Key & Peele and also the director of Get Out which got perfect rating when the movie was first released. Here are also some examples of the promotions he did for his movie.
Although I have not seen the movie myself I heard it was amazing. This racial-themed thriller really is grabbing peoples attention and even without the promotion on his Instagram account, he still managed to make $100 million in the debut of the movie. So what to take from this. Even though Jordan Peele promoted his movie, he most definitely was not paid for this.
This next example is someone who may or may not have been paid for this. However, I have a feeling that he was. The movie Logan was released a couple weeks ago and was another popular movie that people wanted to see. Again, I have been slacking on heading to the movies but I heard it was good as well. Anyways, looking through Hugh Jackman’s Instagram account I was able to see some photos of the movie either being filmed or the movie poster. Going through each of them, he seems to always @20thcenturyfox and @wponx with any post relating to the film. So I have this feeling that he is being paid to promote his work and as well as promoting 20th Century Fox and Wponx.
My last example is about how social media is the new platform to showcase yourself for a career. Having more promotion of your work and identity on social media can have an impact on your future. Such as a new acting job! Therefore, if you are promoting your work on social media, doing it in a strategic way and having a good outcome, you will have a better chance at getting that leading role in a movie. Tying back to Jordan Peele, the movie Get Out is going to open an endless amount of career opportunities for him.
To conclude, I do disagree with actors charging to promote a movie they were on their own social media, it doesn’t feel right to do that. However, if they were to charge I would say it depends on how well the movie did. If the movie did absolutely terrible in the ratings than charge a higher price to attract people with the most followers and when a movie did a decent job the person should be paid at a reasonable price. Meaning, just enough to show this person is involved with this movie, maybe give the movie a try.
