[pronlover723]

Looking at the long list of credits of most recent effects heavy movies I don't think it's quite true that special effects are cheap. Sure, I get that anyone with enough motivation and Blender can making something cool. But at least at the moment, looking at any 3D movie or animated movie, it's 1000s of people for 1-3 years of work to make them. That's way way WAY UP from what it was 10-20-30 years ago.

[thayne]

Still, those movies are often profitable within a year or two, how much does society gain by the copyright lasting decades?

[_gabe_]

> Looking at the long list of credits of most recent effects heavy movies I don't think it's quite true that special effects are cheap.

>> You can do special effects for a few grand that cost a million dollars a few decades ago.

You can definitely do the same special effects that were available 10-20 years ago by yourself for free today. If you want to do special effects that match today's standards, yes that's going to be much harder. I don't think that's what the OP meant though. I think they were saying that what used to be very difficult and cost tons of money, can now be done by one person relatively cheaply or even for free.

[thayne]

How many of those 1000s of people will continue to benefit from the royalties years after the movie is made?

[redwall_hp]

None of the special effects artists, sound engineers, editors, costume designers or other associated professionals are getting royalties at all. They get paid for the work they do once and that's it. Actors get royalties, but if you're not one of the top names in the film, the checks will maybe buy a dinner out occasionally.

[pronlover723]

Not quite? The reason they have money to pay the salaries of special effects artists, sound engineers, editors, costume designers or other associated professionals is because of previous movie income.