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Hollywood Accounting — How Harry Potter Loses Money
An anonymous reader writes "Techdirt has the details on how it was possible for the last Harry Potter movie to lose $167 million while taking in nearly $1 billion in revenue. If you ever wanted to see 'Hollywood Accounting' in action, take a look. The article also notes two recent court decisions that may raise questions about Hollywood's ability to continue with these kinds of tricks. For example, the producers of 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' now have to pay $270 million for its attempt to get around paying a partner through similar tricks."
Roger Corman had some problems like that with studios back in the 1970s, and he won, too. Read his "How I Made A Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime".
They very well could have - but thats not a director's fault.
I expect to be paid for writing an application or website if I'm contracted to do it, regardless if its used or not.
Don't most major league sports teams do this as well? And major corporations in a bid to avoid taxes? And most (US) individuals in a bid to pay less in taxes? I'm not saying it's right or wrong only that it just is and is practically universal.
".....and not pay our actors, writers, staff their share of the profit-sharing contract, but if you are dishonest and download a DVD, then you'll get the equivalent of a life sentence in fines! Seems perfectly fair to us." - Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) aka megacorp tyrants
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
I absolutely adore the world of film, but holy fuck do I hate Hollywood.
Living With a Nerd
Saving, no. Making, yes.
That's because you contract doesn't say "will be paid X% of gross income", whereas Peter Jackson's did.
And of course he did get paid, he just got paid less than he should have because New Line sold the rights to sister companies for below market value.
Bubba knew all there was to know about the movie business...
"There's dumb fucks, stupid fucks, lying fucks, stealing fucks, lawyer fucks, producer fucks, and they're all trying to fuck you out of your ideas and passion. And that's... that's about it."
I'm surprised the people like JMS, Ronald Moore, Ira Behr, and others don't rally together and sue these companies. Or maybe complain to the IRS, and let the IRS open an audit.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Oh, right. I'm taking money out of the hands of the starving artists. You know, the ones who aren't getting any money because their points were off the net and golly gee, the movie didn't make any money.
I love Disney strip-mining the world's fairy tales for ideas and then suing people for intellectual property infringements.
Fuck all the fucking fuckers.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
You have to be careful about biting the hand that feeds you, even if it repeatedly punches you in the face while doing so.
and it bit them in the ass. They successfully screwed over the author of the book the movie was based on. Rumor has it that they wanted to film a sequel, but said author refused to allow it. As clearly there is no point in filming a sequel to an unprofitable film.
In the movie industry, gross profits is customarily defined as the profits remaining after production and distribution expenses are subtracted from revenues.
The more you know.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Actually it would be awesome if it was legal to download copies of movies that didn't make money anyway; maybe that would solve this problem?
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
I like his last sentence best:
But then again, I knew that was the situation going in...I saw the
writing on the wall (and the contract) from the git-go. I didn't do
this to build an empire, I wanted to tell this story...and that's worth
more than anything else.
And this is why there's so much dreck in the movies/TV. Who the hell wants to give away their best creative ideas to a bunch of corporate executives, and never recieve anything in return except for the chance to "tell a story"?
Kudos to JMS for doing so; I feel I should mail him some money directly, rather than buy the DVDs, however.
Always ask for a percentage of revenue. It is much harder to lie about revenue than about profit.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
That post from JMS really bummed me out when I first read it since I bought all five seasons and all of the "made for TV movies" on DVD. Not a penny of my purchases went to anyone that poured their heart and soul into B5. Hollywood Accounting is one of the big reasons I don't have much sympathy for the studios crying that they're loosing trillions of dollars to piracy. If they can fudge the numbers so no one can get any residuals, they can fudge the numbers just as much to claim that rampant piracy is going to force them to close up shop and justify their lobbying for more ridiculous laws in their favor.
I'm not sure if the reason is some walled off garden. Remember McCarthy? There is a shinning example of what can go wrong if you start digging into Hollywood too deeply. They control the media more so then any politician or political group could ever hope for in their wildest wet dreams. And being Hollywood with years of experience in making statements without making statements to sway the public subliminally or subconsciously instead of directly, their power is almost unrivaled by any other threat that any politician would see in their lifetime.
If you don't believe me, just look at how the coverage of the BP oil spill has moved to Lindsey going to jail with a fingernail painted to say Fuck You.
Honest people think most other people are honest, while thieves think everyone is a thief. If you see any kind of DRM on anything, you can be pretty sure its creator is a thief, and a stupid one at that.
Free Martian Whores!
Sounds like another old system -- you were paid for your work, but you had to lease all the tools and your food and housing from the company. Your pay always ended up being a bit lower than those costs, but no matter, the company would keep loaning you the tools and housing... as long as you kept working.
Where have you been? It's been posted on Slashdot and elsewhere numerous time. Requiring a source for every claim is just being anal especially for something so easily verifiable by yourself with a google search.
Your reading comprehension is a bit flawed today. I didn't say that honest people thought everyone was honest; you only have to be ripped off once to know that not everyone is honest. Most people are honest, me included. But thieves think everyone is a thief.
Free Martian Whores!
Never trust anyone who claims they are honest.
Yes but there is demanding a source for something that sounds odd and then there is just being a dork and asking for sources for any claim in hopes they won't do it and thus their comment is deemed invalid and giving yourself some sort of self satisfaction.
Copyright infringement is illegal, but it may or may not be wrong. If he pirates a movie that he would never buy, or like a lot of people pirate it then buy it when he sees he's not getting ripped off buying it, what he's doing is still illegal, but it isn't wrong.
Adultery is legal in Illinois, but it's wrong. Smoking pot is illegal, but it isn't wrong. Don't confuse legal and illegal with right and wrong. There are a lot of legal ways to steal, but they're still wrong.
Free Martian Whores!
No, internal billing has a place. It's an ingrained part of project accounting & isn't a problem as such. In most companies that are actually doing it, they charge exactly what it costs. You took 400 man hours of 'Research' time & we paid $30/hour for that time, we're billing you $12K which you can account for in your project budget.
The abusive companies are saying: You took 400 man hours of 'Research' time & we paid $30/hour for it. Adding in our profit margin of 100%, we're billing you $24K.
The internal profit making is what needs to be stopped, not the process of internal billing. If Division A is spending time helping Division B, there needs to be some form of accounting in place to show why A lost X number of man hours that quarter, otherwise it just fucks everyone's bonus and job evaluations.
What the hell kind of hitman charges 2-3 million? Maybe if you were going for a paranoid military dictator or something, but most of these guys don't even have a real security detail.
Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.