***** Los Angeles Times March 12, 1998, Thursday, Home Edition SECTION: Business; Part D; Page 1; Financial Desk HEADLINE: THE PERSUADERS / A LOOK AT CREATIVE PEOPLE MAKING A DIFFERENCE; MORE FILM DIRECTORS FINDING A SPOT IN TV ADS BYLINE: MARLA MATZER, SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
...Commercial production is a huge business, especially in Southern California. According to Los Angeles' Entertainment Industry Development Corp., commercial production accounts for nearly one-third of all location filming in the Los Angeles County area -- a $22.7-billion business overall in terms of direct revenue to Los Angeles in 1997. During the last two years, commercial production in L.A. has grown faster than anywhere else in the country.
Top advertisers regularly spend tens of millions of dollars on a single ad campaign. Daily paychecks for name directors can range from $10,000 to $20,000. Six figures for a week or two of work is hard for anyone to turn down....
...Top advertisers such as General Motors and McDonald's spend tens of millions of dollars each year to produce television commercials. Below is a rough comparison of commercial budgets versus budgets for feature films. Although not a perfect comparison (for example, on a longer feature film, the cost of equipment rentals is less), these figures give some idea of the relatively large budgets for television commercials.
* Average production cost of 30-second commercial (73% of all commercials are 30 seconds) in 1996: $278,000
* Average production cost of a studio feature in 1996: $39.8 million
* Average cost per 30 seconds of on-screen film, based on an average movie length of 100 minutes: $199,000 [#]
[#] Approximately 30% lower than for an average commercial
Sources: American Assn. of Advertising Agencies, Motion Picture Assn. of America ***** -- Yoshie
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