20 Things You Didn't Know About Psycho
19. Hitchcock Deferred His Salary In Order To Get The Movie Made
Produced for a budget of just $806,947, Psycho was bestowed with a far lower price tag than most of Hitchcock's prior movies, largely as a result of Paramount believing the film would be a box office bomb due to straying from the director's "classy" filmmaking style.
In an attempt to appease the studio, Hitch actually agreed to defer his planned $250,000 salary and instead accept 60% of the movie's box office profits.
Sniffing a dud, Paramount agreed, only for the film to become a colossal box office hit, resulting in Hitch netting an incredible $15 million for his gamble. In 2020 dollars, that'd be around $130 million.
Beyond James Cameron similarly surrendering his Titanic directing fee to calm the studio in exchange for a bite of the box office back-end, it's tough to think of a smarter financial move by an embattled filmmaker.