Videoage International October 2017

6 World October 2017 V I D E O A G E theaters that show it because it “denigrates the image of Tsar Nikolai II” (with whom Matilda had an affair). The film was produced by TPO Rok with a budget equivalent to U.S.$25 million. U.S. TV, Film CEOs Cash In T he New York Times recently shared the 2016 compensation figures for 200 chief executives of U.S. public companies that amassed at least $1 billion in annual revenue. Of the top 40 corporate leaders whose total compensation the Times ’ reported, 16 head entertainment companies such as CBS, Walt Disney, and Time Warner, among others. For base salaries, the execs at the higher end range from less than $1 million to over $3 million. These executives, whose total compensations were dramatically higher, earn more through various instruments, which include cash bonuses and stock and option awards. Among those with relatively low base salaries are CBS’s Leslie Moonves, Discovery Communication’s David M. Zaslav, and Comcast’s Brian L. Roberts, which range from $3.5 million (Moonves) to as low as $900,000 (Netflix’s Reed Hastings). At the top of the Times ’ list is Thomas M. Rutledge, chief executive of Charter Communications, who reportedly made $98,012,344; however, $77,990,740 of that total was collected from option awards. This was a 499 percent increase from the previous year. For chief executives from companies like CBS, Walt Disney, and AMC Networks, close to half of their total compensation came via cash bonuses. For example, CBS boss Moonves, who ranks second on the Times ’ list, received $32 million as a cash bonus; his total earned amounts to $68,594,646. Walt Disney’s Bob Iger also earned half of his 2016 compensation through a cash bonus. R ecently, both Russia and China were up in arms over a TV series and a movie: The first, In The Name of The People , is a 55-episode drama produced by the Chinese government’s Film and TV Center and broadcast for China’s Hunan Satellite Television. The TV series was adapted from a book of the same name and the cost to produce was the equivalent of U.S.$17 million. It glorifies the anticorruption efforts of China’s Communist Party under President Xi Jinping. The title was first used in the U.S. in a 1985 documentary film about El Salvador’s Civil War, narrated by Martin Sheen and produced by Pan American Film of San Diego, California. (A similar title, For The People , is a new Disney series for ABC). Moving to Russia, a newmovie, Matilda: The Mystery of the Romanovs, about ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya, set in 1890, is challenging the iron rule of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin even before it’s released on October 25. Protesters, fueled by the government, threatened to burn the Entertainment in China And Russia Aids — But Still Interferes With —Government Mandates (Continued on Page 8)