I don’t usually spend a lot of idle time on social media, but when spending the weekend fighting bronchitis in bed–Social Media happens! Well, to be fair, it was a combination of Netflix and Facebook, so not a total binge. I watched the new Katt Williams stand up special (Hilarious!), took intermittent naps, and got a feel for what the people of Facebook were talking about. One of the bigger topics to splash my screen was conversations about Mo’Niques call to boycott Netflix. Having just spent so much time perusing Netflix I felt convicted to find out why she wanted me to stop.
I’m going to give a quick recap on this, so pay attention. Netflix offered Mo’Nique $500,000 to do a project with them to which she said no. She thought the price was insulting and asked them to rethink it. After rethinking it, Netflix came back and said thank you, but no thank you. Yep, instead of negotiating they canceled altogether.
Mo’Nique brought her talents to Sway’s radio show to let it all out about how she felt about the situation. She said she’s the most decorated living comedian and Netflix should’ve offered her as much as Dave Chapelle ($20 million), Chris Rock ($20 million), and Amy Schumer ($13 million). Mo’Nique called for a boycott of Netflix on the grounds of racism and sexism, and she went on to talk about how she felt taking a low offer would make it harder for women like Tiffany Haddish to make the kind of money they should.
There are two sides to this Hollywood coin. On the one hand, Mo’Nique is NOT “the most decorated living comedian,” but has certainly accomplished much in her career. In the past 18 years, she has had roles in 16 movies including her mostcritically acclaimed role as Mary Lee Johnston in the multi-award winning motion picture, Precious. She has had roles in 15 TV shows, been hailed as a “Queen of Comedy,” written a book, and toured the world. She is without a doubt an amazingly talented actress.
Precious is quite honestly one of my favorite movies. It was released in November of 2009 perfectly placing it at the end of my high school career and beginning of my undergraduate. I saw the evolution of myself with this movie through the high school conversations that turned collegiate. It sparked multi-level dialogues that my 18-year-old mind was happy to be a part of, but more so learn from. As much as this movie poured into me, it is regretfully, the second side of the coin against Mo’Nique’s argument.
Precious was the biggest hit in her career and it (1) was released in 2009 and (2) was not a comedy.
When going into business with a company that is looking to make money from their investments in you, it’s important to see both sides. Is $500,000 low? Yes. Does she deserve to be paid what Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, and Amy Schumer were paid? No. Why you ask? — Because of the three letters that every business person bases their spending on R.O.I.
ROI, return on investment, is how most money-driven decisions are made (and since all business decisions are money decisions I’m going to go off the deep end here and say how ALL business decisions are made). ROI is the actual worth of your investment; it’s what you’ll get back from the money you invested. ROI is expressed as a ratio or percentage and is calculated like so: ROI = Net Profit / Total Investment * 100
Let’s do some math. Netflix offered Mo’Nique $500K to work with them. This isn’t the FULL investment into the project, but let’s pretend it is. Let’s also assume Netflix wanted to see a 100% minimum ROI on their project with Mo’Nique it would have to generate $1million. Honestly, that shouldn’t bea problem given the Netflix brand and Mo’Nique’s previous work. Let’s say, Netflix paid her $20 million like Dave Chappelle was reportedly offered, and this was the full investment in the project. An assumed ROI of 100% here would be $40million.
ROI is just one business measurement tool. When you add in the demographics of Netflix users and compare them to the demographics of Mo’Niques fan base, a whole other conversation begins. I personally can’t speak for the interworkings of the Netflix brand and how they goal their projects, but I do know that most businesses make offers contingent upon how they think those projects will do based on what they know about their customers.
Mo’Nique has history, but again, her biggest film was 9 years ago and was NOT a comedy. Having worked the Los Angeles comedy scene for 5 years I had the opportunity to see up and coming comics sharing the stage with the greats while working out bits for specials and new ideas. The same big names I see on the Netflix roster are the same big names I saw practicing on small stages. Kevin Hart, Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Tiffany Haddish, DeRay Davis, Lil Rell, and others were constantly hopping on and off stages polishing up their material.
One of the times I was watching Kevin Hart he stopped mid-joke and said, “I don’t have an ending for this joke, but I like the beginning.”– he wasn’t perfect but was working through his material. Just because I didn’t see Mo’Nique on the scene doesn’t mean she wasn’t working, but it does strengthen the cases of the comedians that are getting higher offers. The comics that are making the big bucks on Netflix and other platforms have been putting in work on the local scenes, and this I’ve seen for years with my own eyes.
I stand with Netflix on this one when I say, my sister, I’m going to needyou to show and prove. We often believe that because we are older or have spent more time in an industry that we “deserve,” to have what we think we should have. The reality is, our longevity alone will not be the reason why these companies decide to invest deep pockets into our dreams.
If Mo’Nique doesn’t like numbers being offered to her, that’s fine. I agree she shouldn’t take anything lower than what she feels is acceptable. But what now? What is she going to do differently? Is she going to produce this project independently and show Netflix what they missed out on, using that to leverage negotiations on future projects? –Or, is she going to wait for the current wave of “boycott Netflix,” to boil over and let that be that.
Calling for boycotts is easy because it makes everyone else do the work that we don’t really want to do. Taking accountability for where we are and what we’ve done is a tough pill to swallow, and creating a movement from there is even harder. This is not a race issue, nor is it a gender issue. It’s an issue of relevance. Shonda Rhimes was given $100million dollars by Netflix and Tiffany Haddish could walk in TODAY and get a great offer– because they’re relevant right now. I’m interested to see how this will all end and rooting for Mo’Nique to get back in the game in a way that’s best for her.
***Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not
reflect the official position of BlackDoctor.Org. Examples of analysis performed within this article are only examples. They should not be utilized in real-world analytic products as they are based only on very limited and dated open source information. Assumptions made within the analysis are not reflective of the position of any BDO entity
Bryana Holcomb is the Editor of BlackDoctor.org and graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Gender and Women’s Studies, an MBA in Management Strategy, and Life Coaching and Nutrition certifications.