Stars Get Shares Of Film Profits

Timaru Herald, Volume CL, Issue 22043, 16 August 1941, Page 8

Stars Get Shares Of Film Profits

Film stars of the future, Dick Powell is convinced, will share in the profits of their pictures in lieu of straight salaries. And,, when this comes about, he Insists, screen entertainment will show a considerable improvement. Powell has already figured as a partner instead of an employee in two productions—both of them successful from the box office standpoint. Now he plans

to do at least one picture annually on this basis. Staking her talents with those of Powell in two ventures has been his wife, Joan Biondell. Like her husband, she, too, is "sold” on the idea. Their first was Paramount’s “I Want A Divorce,” made in 1940, which has already brought them an income more than their joint salaries would have amounted to. and which is still in circulation in the United States, Canada,

South America and England. Their second profit-sharer was "Model Wife, made for Universal, which promises on the strength of Initial returns, to surpass even “I Want a Divorce.” Though “Model Wife” takes care of the actor’s non-salary undertaking for 1941, he is already scouting for a vehicle for use as his 1942 “gamble.”