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I knew this would be about Hollywood accounting. For those that are not familiar with the practice, a leaked income statement shows that "Harry Potter and the
by probably_wrong 10y ago
I knew this would be about Hollywood accounting.
For those that are not familiar with the practice, a leaked income statement shows that "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" ended with a $167 million loss[1], while "Return of the Jedi" has yet to make a profit[2].
[1] https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100708/02510310122.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100708/02510310122.shtml
[2] http://www.slashfilm.com/lucasfilm-tells-darth-vader-that-return-of-the-jedi-hasnt-made-a-profit/ http://www.slashfilm.com/lucasfilm-tells-darth-vader-that-re...
- oh_sigh 10y agoGeez, I can't believe they kept making Harry Potter films are losing $167M!
- blowski 10y agoTaxpayers subsidise film production, pay a fortune to watch it, and then pay a fortune to "protect" it from being pirated. The CEOs who have made enormous wealth from this process then lecture us on the morality of "stealing". On taxpayer-subsidised adverts of course.
- adolph 10y agoClearly they are using advanced financial and political engineering. I'd bet that the tax burden is very low too.
- gozur88 10y agoDoes anyone know how they're pulling this off? Are they funneling all the profits to an Irish subsidiary or something along those lines? I'd be pretty irritated if I had a percentage of the net in a project like Return of the Jedi and they pulled something like this.
- kilotaras 10y agoI may be wrong, but my understanding is: 1. "Big Studio Co" decides to create a new film called "Movie" 2. Company "Movie Inc." is created for producing of "Movie". 3. Actors et. al. sign profit-sharing agreement with "Movie Inc" 4. "Movie" gets shot and released. 5. "Movie Inc" licenses something from "Big Studio Co" for a bazillion dollars. 6. "Movie Inc" is now officially in negative.