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Agreed. From article: The complaint filed Monday in California federal court is packed with enough nuggets to instantly make this a must-watch "Hollywood Accou

Agreed. From article: The complaint filed Monday in California federal court is packed with enough nuggets to instantly make this a must-watch "Hollywood Accounting" case... Despite the film's legacy and Spinal Tap's enduring success as a commercial band able to sell out arenas, Shearer's company Century of Progress Productions alleges that the four lead creatives have received just $81 in merchandising income and $98 in musical sales income in the past three decades from the franchise. Those figures are pretty remarkable. Especially when they were supposed to get "40 percent of net receipts"! I suspect it is more the principal than the money for Shearer. I'm a devoted listener of his weekly Le Show radio show and the fact that he's been doing it the last 20+ years for little to no money, not to mention his public advocacy on behalf of professional musicians and New Orleans, supports this view. I consider Harry Shearer one of the greatest living satirists, a spiritual heir to Mark Twain. (If ever someone deserved the Mark Twain Award...) I'm just happy he's made enough money from his more popular commercial endeavors to continue to fund his more elevated interests. If he did get $125M, I expect he'd put it to good use.

AimHere 10y ago
> Those figures are pretty remarkable. Especially when they were supposed to get "40 percent of net receipts"! The clue is in the word 'net'. Classic Hollywood accounting. If the owners make sure that Spinal Tap doesn't turn a profit, then they don't have to pay out anything. As long as their revenue is going some other direction (wages, say, or paid out to suppliers who do turn a profit), then they can still make money, while denying it to the suckers who put in work for points on the net receipts. If Hollywood calls, and you're offered a percentage of net takings, then the example above probably is a pretty good indicator of how much you can expect to receive - $170 split four-ways over 30 years on a modern day classic.

AimHere 10y ago

> Those figures are pretty remarkable. Especially when they were supposed to get "40 percent of net receipts"! The clue is in the word 'net'. Classic Hollywood accounting. If the owners make sure that Spinal Tap doesn't turn a profit, then they don't have to pay out anything. As long as their revenue is going some other direction (wages, say, or paid out to suppliers who do turn a profit), then they can still make money, while denying it to the suckers who put in work for points on the net receipts. If Hollywood calls, and you're offered a percentage of net takings, then the example above probably is a pretty good indicator of how much you can expect to receive - $170 split four-ways over 30 years on a modern day classic.