20 Things You Didn't Know About Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
1. Jeffrey Katzenberg Was Paid A Bonus For Delivering The Movie On Time—In Pennies
When Paramount made the decision to blind-book Star Trek—The Motion Picture into theaters, it meant a $30 million windfall in guarantees from exhibitors, provided the movie could be delivered in time for a December 7, 1979 release date. The studio made that date, barely, in part by throwing money at every problem that arose and racking up an unprecedented production budget of $44 million. At Paramount, Jeffrey Katzenberg was the young executive who received the credit for delivering on time, but he was also held responsible for the film’s tremendous cost overruns.
According to Michael Eisner’s memoir, Work in Progress: Risking Failure, Surviving Success (1998) Barry Diller thought Katzenberg was owed a bonus because he made his date, while Eisner did not, because he “felt that [Katzenberg] had allowed the movie’s budget to spin out of control.” In the end, they came to a unique compromise:
We decided to give him a mixed message: a bonus in pennies delivered to the front door of his house.
This tale may seem apocryphal; however, in 2010, Katzenberg gave a public talk at CalArts where he confirmed that he received his bonus for the film in pennies (although he recalls receiving the bonus in Barry Diller’s office, not at home).
Special thanks to Maurice Molyneaux, Neil S. Bulk, Sherilyn Connelly (author of The First Star Trek Movie), Preston Neal Jones (author of Return To Tomorrow) and Sean McMahon for providing source material and other research assistance with this article.