Hey, not to be antagonistic or anything, but do you have a source for your comment: "the contract with Orson Scott Card was one of those 'all the money you’re gonna get is up front'" I looked everywhere and couldn't find anything D:
I'm basing the statement on the general nature of book to movie contracts combined with the fact that people involved directly in the film and indirectly at Lionsgate have said quite a few times that Card is producer in name only as a courtesy beyond just a based on the book by" credit.
And the way a book-to-movie contract works is an up-front single payment of royalties to the author from the studio. For example, J.K. Rowling got $2 million for the film rights for the first four books, only later receiving money for acting as a producer when the contract for 5-7 was negotiated and it was specifically written in for her to receive both the up front royalties payment and a percentage return for putting her own money into it as an active producer.
Orson Scott Card has not put any of his own money into the movie (actually all he's done beyond selling the film rights has been complain when changes were made), and as Lionsgate has openly been supportive of LGBT rights they would not have continued to negotiate for the movie rights if Card had made it an unnegotiable requirement that he recieve a percentage as a producer (which, again, requires him to put forward a certain amount of his own money in the first place).
In the end though, I am all for people making their own choices on whether or not to boycott the movie. I just believe that the boycott will not really fulfill the goal people have set forth for it. Orson Scott Card will continue to receive money from book sales, the likelihood of him seeing any further money from the movie is slim to none, and as far as I'm concerned with the growing trend of people (especially the younger generations that will be taking the place of the Baby Boomers and older members of Generation X currently in power) being supportive of LGBT rights Orson Scott Card and his ilk are already losing.
And I'll also say this: if the initial contract was only for Ender's Game and the movie is deemed successful enough to warrant an adaptation of the sequels, THEN is the time we need to worry about Card getting a percentage because if an adaptation of one of the sequel novels is deemed financially important enough Lionsgate would probably as a business be okay with giving him an actual legit producer's credit and a percentage of that sequel. And THAT is when a boycott is going to be most effective: when he's actually put some of his own money and potential future money on the line.
And even in that case a boycott would only be addressing one individual's homophobia and not the institutionalized homophobia of the groups he's involved in like the National Institute for Marriage or the Mormon Church (which like any such group even though there are individuals who are in fact pro-LGBT to an extent as a whole the Church is still very much homophobic.)
I really fucking hate Orson Scott Card and his homophobic activism, but honestly even if every single person did actually agree to boycott the film I think it would not be all that effective. I think even in the "it'll show Orson Scott Card that we won't listen to or tolerate his shit anymore" sense of the boycott it'll fail, because Card would play off the failure of the film as "well I DID repeatedly say Ender's Game was unfilmable and should only function as a novel so I told you so."
