Ben Affleck and Matt Damon know that a collaborative on-set environment is key to motivating all those involved, which is why they brought back an old-school back-end bonus model for the 1,200 crew members working on their new movie, The Rip.
Directed by Joe Carnahan, the crime thriller, out Friday on Netflix, will see the famous duo reunite on screen as Miami cops who become distrustful of those around them after discovering a stash of millions in cash. The longtime friends and collaborators also produced the movie through their production company Artists Equity.
During a recent joint appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Affleck, 53, and Damon, 55, explained how they implemented their company’s main objective of profit-sharing to pay the movie’s crew members.
“Netflix is obviously a streaming platform, business is obviously changing, there’s been a lot going on,” Affleck said, referring to the film industry’s controversial shift to streaming, “and what we’re kind of trying to do is, in the old days, you knew how a movie did and you could get bonuses based on the box office performance.”
He continued: “And what we wanted to do was try to adapt that model to what’s happening on streaming. For a bunch of reasons, but basically one of the things that was important to us is we really believe that it’s not just the cast and the writers and director, but that the environment, every single person involved, that if they’re committed to making the movie good, it’s very likely to be better. It’s really a collaborative art form.”
Noting that “the more people that watch [the movie] the more levels it will hit,” Affleck said that what was most important to them was that the monetary success be shared with the “1,200 crew members, every standby painter, greensman, camera [operator].”
His remarks were met with uproarious applause, as Damon chimed in with a joke, adding: “The more you guys watch this movie…”
“Not that we could suggest that you just leave it on, unless you’re a good person,” Affleck laughingly echoed with host Fallon joining in. “You would never say to turn on the movie and put it on loop,” he teased. “But if you happened to do that, crew members would make a lot of money.”
Affleck and Damon have starred in numerous movies together throughout their careers, including their Oscar-winning romance drama Good Will Hunting (1997), comedy fantasy Dogma (1999), and sports drama Air (2023).
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In 2022, the pair co-founded and launched Artists Equity, an artist-led studio, focused on sharing a movie’s profits with all involved. It replaced their now-defunct production studio, Pearl Street Films, which they operated from 2012 to 2022.
The Rip will be available to stream on Netflix beginning Friday.
