History Main / OneForTheMoneyOneForTheArt

* Allegedly, the reason that ''VideoGame/AliensColonialMarines'' ended up being such a terrible game was because Gearbox used the money that they were paid to make the game in order to fund their own properties, including ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'', and ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'', and only started working on ''Colonial Marines'' in earnest after becoming in danger of violating their contract.

* Adam [=McKay=] agreed to direct ''Film/Anchorman2TheLegendContinues'' so that Creator/{{Paramount}} would let him make ''Film/TheBigShort''.

* Creator/ChristopherReeve did ''Film/SupermanIVTheQuestForPeace'' so the studio would produce ''Street Smart''.

* John Mahoney's primary motivation for playing Martin on ''Series/{{Fraiser}}'' was to earn enough money to be able to afford to perform in the artistic theater productions that were his true love, even financing them from his show earnings if necessary.

* The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America licensed ''WesternAnimation/DaveyAndGoliath'' for an appearance in a Mountain Dew commercial in order to acquire funding for the ChristmasSpecial ''Davey and Goliath's Snowboard Christmas''.

* Patrick [=McGoohan=] used his salary from ''Film/IceStationZebra'' to get ''Series/ThePrisoner1967'' made.

* A group of Baptists financed [[Creator/EdWood Edward E. Wood's]] ''Film/PlanNineFromOuterSpace'' in hopes of using the profits to produce a religious film. One wonders how that worked out.

* Creator/{{Disney}} co-directors John Musker and Ron Clements effectively had to do ''three'' films over 16 years to create their dream project, which would become ''Disney/TreasurePlanet''. During a pitch meeting following their moderate success in directing ''Disney/TheGreatMouseDetective'', they presented the ideas of "Literature/TreasureIsland [[RecycledINSPACE IN SPACE!]]" and an adaptation of Creator/HansChristianAndersen's "Literature/TheLittleMermaid", with Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg much prefer the latter. Even following the monolithic, Disney Renaissance-kickstarting success of ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'', as well as that of ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'' which Musker and Clements were also brought in to direct, Katzenberg remained uninterested in the ''Treasure Island'' project, only greenlighting it if they made one more commercially viable film. It was only after they created ''Disney/{{Hercules}}'' (as well as Katzenberg's leaving of Disney) were they ''finally'' able to make ''Disney/TreasurePlanet''.

* Creator/JohnFord made ''Rio Grande'' purely to get ''Film/TheQuietMan'' made. Ford wanted to make the latter first, but Republic Pictures studio president Herbert Yates didn't think the script was very good and wanted ''Rio Grande'' to be released first to pay for ''The Quiet Man''. To Yates's surprise, ''The Quiet Man'', on its eventual release in 1952, would become Republic's number one film in terms of box office receipts.

* Universal greenlit ''Film/SchindlersList'' on the condition that Creator/StevenSpielberg did ''Film/JurassicPark'' (a project Spielberg liked even before the book came out) first. And Spielberg seemingly repeated this scheme by releasing both ''Film/TheLostWorldJurassicPark'' and ''Film/{{Amistad}}'' in 1997, and ''Film/{{War of the Worlds|2005}}'' and ''Film/{{Munich}}'' in 2005.

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* This is how much of the news media has worked for a long time. Sophisticated viewers/readers may scoff at respected news sources containing pop culture coverage and celebrity gossip, but if it wasn't for the larger viewer/readership that such "fluff" brings in, said publications and their in-depth coverage of more serious topics like politics or business might not exist at all.
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* Creator/RichardAttenborough agreed to direct ''Film/ABridgeTooFar'' so that ''Film/{{Gandhi}}'' could get made.

* Creator/RichardBurton agreed to star in ''Film/ExorcistIITheHeretic'' so that Creator/WarnerBros would finance ''Theatre/{{Equus}}''.

* Creator/FrancisFordCoppola apparently only directed ''[[Film/TheGodfather The Godfather, Part II]]'' in order to do ''Film/TheConversation'' and get funding for ''Film/ApocalypseNow''.

* Creator/JessicaChastain agreed to be in ''Film/TheHuntsmanWintersWar'' to get a starring role in ''Film/CrimsonPeak''

[[folder: Film - Live Action]]

What happens when creators do a project [[MoneyDearBoy for money]] or [[ContractualObligationProject to fulfill a contract]] so that they'll have the finances and creative freedom [[DoingItForTheArt to do their artistic dream project.]]

!Examples
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[[folder: News Media]]

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[[folder: Western Animation]]

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* [[CreatorCouple Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. and Janice Karman]] used the money they had made off the Franchise/AlvinAndTheChipmunks franchise to finance ''WesternAnimation/TheChipmunkAdventure'' (because possible distributors wouldn't meet their proposed budget) - which they later admitted was a big mistake, citing that producers funding their own movies is the Hollywood equivalent of [[AFoolForAClient a lawyer representing himself]].

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* Creator/LucBesson planned ''Film/TheProfessional'' as filler. At the time, he had already started working on ''Film/TheFifthElement'', but production was delayed due to Creator/BruceWillis' schedule. Rather than dismiss the production team and lose his creative momentum, Besson wrote ''The Professional'' It took him only 30 days to write the script, and the shoot lasted only 90 days.

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* Famously inverted by Creator/DavidBowie. After getting a raw deal on his contract, he spent the next several years producing experimental and [[AcclaimedFlop highly acclaimed but not-very-commercial]] material. When his contract expired, he produced some more mainstream (but again, highly acclaimed) work for the money.

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* After alienating much of the comic-book industry with his embrace of Objectivism (and losing the rights to many of his most famous creations to DC when they acquired Charleston Comics), Creator/SteveDitko spent the 80s taking low-prestige jobs like drawing for coloring books in order to fund his own Objectivist-themed comics.

* Creator/OrsonWelles spent much of his career doing this with money from projects like the animated ''Transformers'' movie and TV commercials for Paul Masson wine used to fund directorial ventures. The only reason he made ''Film/TheLadyFromShanghai'' was to finance a stage production of ''Literature/AroundTheWorldInEightyDays''. Even his memorable role as Harry Lime in the classic film noir ''Film/TheThirdMan'' came about so he could get the money for ''The Tragedy of Othello''. Welles used this strategy to good and bad effects on all the films he made abroad. In his interviews with Creator/PeterBogdanovich, he justified this on the grounds of it being a SadisticChoice between being a director-for-hire on stories he didn't care about and acting for others in roles beneath his talent, he [[DoingItForTheArt chose the latter]] as he felt he couldn't devote interest and attention on a subject he'd rather not direct, becoming in the process one of the first independent film-makers. Notably on ''The Black Rose'', which he was doing to finance his version of ''{{Theatre/Othello}}'', he designed his costume specifically to be reused in ''Othello'' later.