005: SPIRIT - Bill Duke, Hollywood's $1.5 Billion Man & Quintessential SpiritStar

Getting Deals Done with Patrick A. Howell

Films and television shows with Bill Duke have grossed more than $1.5 billion. After a Bill Duke box office overview, that's the tally in the line notes below. He has more credits behind the camera as a producer and director than as an actor. But the bottom line has always been artistic achievement and continual refinement craft - not riches. In the game of business that is Hollywood, however, score is kept with bottom line tallies. So, let's take a look at the numbers, their correlating cultural assets and some analysis:

Films (annotated list) in which Bill Duke directed, produced or acted In:

Car Wash, 1976: 17 million USD
American Gigolo, 1980: 52.7 million USD
Commando, 1985: 57.5 million USD
Predator, 1987: 98.3 million USD
Action Jackson, 1988: 65 million USD
Bird on a Wire, 1990: 138.7 million USD
Rage in Harlem, 1991: 10.4 million USD
Deep Cover, 1992: 30 million USD
Menace to Society, 1993: 16.6 million USD
Sister Act II, 1993: 57.3 million USD
Hoodlum, 1997: 23.46 million USD (nominated for a Palme d'Or)
Payback, 1999: 161.6 million USD
The Limey, 1999: 3.2 million USD
Exit Wound, 2001: 80 million USD
Red Dragon, 2002: 209.2 million USD
National Security, 2003: 65 million USD
Get Rich or Die Trying, 2005: 46.4 million USD
X Men Last Stand, 2006: 460.4 million USD
Total - $ 1.603.49 billion in box office receipts

Nearly 80% of Bill Duke's films are qualified with "A" movie status and over 70% are profitable. That means that Bill Duke either picks his roles very carefully or attracts the right projects with a professionalism, network and business acumen that is first rate and rare in Hollywood. But these attributes are the same for any Master in every endeavor. He has appeared in behind the camera more than in front of the camera. That means his aim has been consistent refinement of his craft until his very being is emblematic of the industry in which he works and his knowledge base is essentially institutional. This is to say nothing of his television slate of shows which include Kojak, Charlie's Angels, the night time soap opera Dallas, Benson, Knots Landing, Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice and Black Lightening. In every decade since the 1960's, Bill Duke has managed to operate in American culture and the Hollywood industry at the highest levels, an outsized influence in our global culture. He is show. He is business. His strength, longevity and excellence all seem to owe to a debt to his ongoing quest for self-evolution and the golden anchor to his wealth: wisdom. Bill Duke is as bankable a Hollywood star as any in the history of the industry. However, he owes his success to his strength as a Spirit Star. Or, in Africa - since the invention of the story and the beginning of societies that uses the story as its basic technology - he is a global griot with a legacy going back to the ancestors.
Credits:
Guest: Bill Duke
Show Creator and Host: Patrick A. Howell
Executive Producer: Tori Reid
Directors: Tori Reid with Patrick A. Howell
Writers: Patrick A. Howell and Lauren Young
Post Production Editing by: Hanic and We Edit Productions
Post Production Assistant: Lauren Young
Advertising Sponsors: Vivreau Water Systems and Hilton Sacramento Arden West
Graphics: Henny Vallee
Photo credit for Bill Duke: Unknown
Music:
"Earth Light It Up"

Getting Deals Done is a show about doing business, changing power, changing systems and making the world a better place one deal at a time. Host, veteran banker and entrepreneur Patrick A. Howell, speaks with leading and successful innovators, mavericks and captains of industry about making big things happen in the world.