4 ms·

Reminds me of how Paramount claimed Forrest Gump lost money because they owed Winston Groom 3% of the profits. So they found a way to make it not profitable. h

by trimbo 6y ago

Reminds me of how Paramount claimed Forrest Gump lost money because they owed Winston Groom 3% of the profits. So they found a way to make it not profitable. https://konvexity.wordpress.com/2013/01/12/what-accounting-lesson-winston-groom-learned-from-the-movie-forrest-gump/ https://konvexity.wordpress.com/2013/01/12/what-accounting-l...

35fbe7d3d5b9 6y ago
> He went to their office to have a look at the accounting books and found out that they were making $80 million loss. So he looked down at the expense items and he noticed a big expense item of $140 million. This is how every major film works. Sometimes that offset will be for future films, sometimes it will be a charge for "marketing and promotion" paid to a child company of the studio, but no matter what you call it you don't make a blockbuster film without this kind of funny bookkeeping. Warner Brothers claimed a $167 million dollar loss on Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix, a film that made nearly a billion dollars in theaters. https://www.slashfilm.com/insane-studio-accounting-warner-bros-claims-167-million-loss-over-harry-potter-and-the-order-of-the-phoenix/ https://www.slashfilm.com/insane-studio-accounting-warner-br... See the incredible profit/loss sheet there. Top talent – A-list stars – negotiate for gross points. Daniel Radcliffe likely made a percentage of 600 million. Secondary stars might've got a percentage of gross after the "distribution fee" (paid to the same studio making the movie). Everybody else got a percentage of negative one hundred sixty seven million.
Twirrim 6y ago
There's a similar story about Star Wars not making a profit, and how that screwed over various actors on the project. Hollywood does this all the time. It's their standard dirty accounting practice. From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting > According to Lucasfilm, Return of the Jedi, despite having earned $475 million at the box office against a budget of $32.5 million, "has never gone into profit".
gfody 6y ago
> The judge said: “The case dismissed. You got what you deserved.” this story really bums me out - I thought judges were supposed to interpret the essence of situations like this and say something like "nice try Paramount but I say you owe this man $10M" gavel slam. RIP Winston Groom
- smnrchrds 6y ago
  I'm sure if they played the same shenanigan's with government's money (i.e. their taxes) instead of authors' money, the outcome would have been different.

by trimbo 6y ago

35fbe7d3d5b9 6y ago

> He went to their office to have a look at the accounting books and found out that they were making $80 million loss. So he looked down at the expense items and he noticed a big expense item of $140 million. This is how every major film works. Sometimes that offset will be for future films, sometimes it will be a charge for "marketing and promotion" paid to a child company of the studio, but no matter what you call it you don't make a blockbuster film without this kind of funny bookkeeping. Warner Brothers claimed a $167 million dollar loss on Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix, a film that made nearly a billion dollars in theaters. https://www.slashfilm.com/insane-studio-accounting-warner-bros-claims-167-million-loss-over-harry-potter-and-the-order-of-the-phoenix/ https://www.slashfilm.com/insane-studio-accounting-warner-br... See the incredible profit/loss sheet there. Top talent – A-list stars – negotiate for gross points. Daniel Radcliffe likely made a percentage of 600 million. Secondary stars might've got a percentage of gross after the "distribution fee" (paid to the same studio making the movie). Everybody else got a percentage of negative one hundred sixty seven million.

Twirrim 6y ago

There's a similar story about Star Wars not making a profit, and how that screwed over various actors on the project. Hollywood does this all the time. It's their standard dirty accounting practice. From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting > According to Lucasfilm, Return of the Jedi, despite having earned $475 million at the box office against a budget of $32.5 million, "has never gone into profit".

gfody 6y ago

> The judge said: “The case dismissed. You got what you deserved.” this story really bums me out - I thought judges were supposed to interpret the essence of situations like this and say something like "nice try Paramount but I say you owe this man $10M" gavel slam. RIP Winston Groom

smnrchrds 6y ago
I'm sure if they played the same shenanigan's with government's money (i.e. their taxes) instead of authors' money, the outcome would have been different.