Because of the current financial crisis, people pay more and more attention to salaries, which are the money that people get paid for the work they do. Obviously, there will be some people who get high salaries, while other people get less. This leads to an argument about whether everyone deserves the money they get. Some people say that famous people, such as movie and sports stars, get paid far too much money. However, these stars definitely deserve the money which they receive because of three reasons: they make a lot of money for their employers, they have to face a great deal of pressure and their careers are really specialized. Firstly, movie studios and sports teams get a large amount of money from their stars’s work. Filmmakers get money from the sale of movie tickets, while spectators have to pay money to watch a sports match. In fact, there is a high difference between the revenue of producer and the money that actors are paid. For example, Mission Impossible 4, a movie released in 2011, had grossed nearly $700,000,000 worldwide (Box Office Mojo Online).
However, the main actor – Tom Cruise was paid only $12,000,000 (Statistic Brain Online, 2012).
Not only that but also the star’s trademark brings a great deal of value to sponsors. Some stars become advertising tools of their teams or their companies, whereas some others share their royalty images with the owners. An example is that Cristiano Ronaldo, a soccer star, who gets $30 million each year in various endorsements, has to agree to a 6:4 split of this money with his club – Real Madrid (Jamie Sanderson, 2012).
Therefore, if movie and sports stars thrust a lot of money on their managements, it will be not fair if they get paid less. Secondly, movie and sports stars certainly are under a great deal of pressure.
The first pressure is that they are always at risk of injuries and also accidents. There are so many types of injuries which sports players have to suffer, such as ligament damage, fractures, disc herniation and so on. Similarly, it is not surprising if actors have unwanted incidents in the film studios. There is a list from Wikipedia shows that there are over 100 deaths related to film accidents from the 1920s (Wikipedia, 2012).
Another pressure is that these famous people are always scrutinized by the media. Being a star means losing privacy. They are followed closely by journalists all the time. This clearly causes plenty of stress that they have to suffer. Furthermore, movie and sports stars are sometimes threatened by their anti-fans. Anti-fans are groups of people opposed to the star’s activities.
Stars are often terrorized by these groups on social networks but sometimes, they are also attacked outside. For example, on September 13th 2012, Kristen Stewart, who plays the main actress of Twilight Saga, was physically attacked for cheating on Robert Pattinson by his fans (Truthquake.com Staff, 2012).
In short, there is no doubt that the life of movie and sports stars is very stressful even though they get a lot of money. Lastly, both actors and athletes are specialized careers. First of all, these careers require aptitude. Most people can play sports, but not all of them are athletes and only a few become sports stars who need some inmate abilities to get achievement. For example, being a basketball star requires a really good height, endurance, agility and also strength and toughness (Herman, 2011).
Moreover, movie and sports stars often have quite short careers. Athletes often have to retire at the age of 40.
Likewise, the older actors get, the fewer roles they receive. Finally, extremely hard training is compulsory for actors and athletes to get success. Actors must cast and reenact many times before the role, while athletes are harder. In fact, soccer players must begin training when they are very young, often at the age of 6. After that, before becoming real players, they have to undergo a process of extremely strenuous exercise for 10-12 years. Thus, high salaries that movie and sports stars received are paid for their efforts. In conclusion, it is reasonable for movie and sports stars to get paid a lot of money. As can be seen, they are the main revenue sources of their managements. They also have to suffer a lot of pressure. Moreover, movie and sports stars require their true efforts to get success. Therefore, if someone thinks that it is not fair to pay them a high salary, it actually is their envy. Movie and sports stars have to work hard to satisfy the audience and undoubtedly deserve the money they get.
References
(n.d.).
Retrieved November 30th, 2012, from Box Office Mojo Online: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=mi4.htm (2012, November 27th).
Retrieved November 30th, 2012, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_film_accidents (2012, August 20th).
Retrieved November 30th, 2012, from Statistic Brain Online: http://www.statisticbrain.com/tom-cruise-statistics/ Herman, J. (2011).
What Are Some Requirements to Become a Basketball Player? Livestrong.com Online ,
http://www.livestrong.com/article/340866-what-are-some-requirements-to-become-a-basketball-player/. Jamie Sanderson. (2012).
Cristiano Ronaldo ‘sadness down to image rights row with Real Madrid’. Metro Online , http://www.metro.co.uk/sport/football/913286-cristiano-ronaldo-sadness-down-to-image-rights-row-with-real-madrid. Truthquake.com Staff. (2012).
Kristen Stewart Physically Attacked by Twi-Hards for Cheating on Rob Pattinson. Truthquake News , http://truthquake.com/2012/09/13/kristen-stewart-physically-attacked-twi-hards-cheating-rob-pattinson/.