Hard Floor
From ForcaWiki, the simple encyclopedia
| In one sentence | A guaranteed minimum share of profits for a producer, below which the distributor, not the producer, absorbs any further participations owed to talent. |
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| Category | Film and Television |
| Related | Soft Floor, Participation, Net Profits |
Imagine you and your little sister are supposed to split the money from a lemonade stand, but you agree that no matter how many other helpers you end up needing to pay, you personally will always keep at least 2 dollars out of every 10 the stand earns. That guaranteed minimum for you is a hard floor.
A hard floor works the same way for a movie producer. A producer's own Participation in Net Profits is often reduced whenever other participations get paid out to talent. A hard floor is a contractually agreed point below which the producer's share stops shrinking, no matter how many other people also have a participation. Past that point, the distributor, not the producer, absorbs the cost of any further participations.
Fun facts
- A typical example might promise a producer 50 percent of net profits, reduced by other participations, but never dropping below a hard floor of 10 percent.
- A hard floor protects the producer from having their own share wiped out completely by generous deals given to a movie's stars.
- The opposite arrangement, where the producer keeps absorbing some of that cost even below the floor, is called a Soft Floor.