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Another example: The Tolkien Estate got into a lawsuit with New Line because the movie rights came with a stipulation that they would receive a modest 7.5% of p
by gjsman-1000 4y ago
Another example: The Tolkien Estate got into a lawsuit with New Line because the movie rights came with a stipulation that they would receive a modest 7.5% of profits, if any.
Notice the “if any.” The lawsuit was because New Line had used crazy accounting to argue that the whole Lord of the Rings movie series was unprofitable. Of course that’s absurd on its face (no profit on $6 billion of revenue?), but don’t underestimate accountants. New Line had so butchered the accounting, they even had the audacity to claim that LOTR was responsible for “horrendous losses.”
Edit: Initially said Warner, because New Line is owned by Warner, but they weren’t back then and the lawsuits were involving New Line.
- cratermoon 4y agoHollywood Accounting is a world of its own. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting
- 93po 4y agoI wish they'd rename this from "hollywood" to "fraud"
- markdown 4y agoI mean, that's just embarrassing from The Tolkien Estate. Random bus drivers in third world backwaters know about Hollywood accounting. They should have negotiated for 7.5% of revenue.
- gjsman-1000 4y agoThe Tolkien Estate’s hands were tied because the movie rights were sold to United Artists for $75K + 7.5% by Tolkien himself in 1969. At the time it seemed like a good deal to Tolkien. A lot of money for something unfilmable with late-60s technology; but it would also help pay the heavy taxes his children would bear upon his death (which was, for him, the primary motivation). This was just movie rights though. When Amazon wanted TV Show rights, the Estate squeezed out $250M. The Estate has also never sold any Silmarillion-related material.
- bscphil 4y ago> At the time it seemed like a good deal to Tolkien. A lot of money for something unfilmable with late-60s technology Heh. Unfilmable didn't stop United Artists. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings_(1978_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings_(1978_fi... (tongue firmly in cheek)
- zimpenfish 4y ago> Unfilmable Pedantically, since it was animated, it wasn't "filmed" thus fulfilling the "unfilmable" part.
- evan_ 4y agoSince we’re being pedantic… Wait’ll you find out what happens after they do the drawings.
- Am4TIfIsER0ppos 4y agoThey draw them in real time at 24 fps? Wow.
- bee_rider 4y agoHuh; so indirectly estate taxes got us some of the best fantasy movies of the last couple generations. Meanwhile, an IP well controlled by the author’s family got us some… decent but basically bland Amazon show (I honestly thought the Amazon show was perfectly fine background TV).
- midoridensha 4y ago>decent but basically bland Amazon show That's the most accurate description of that show I've read yet. But I will hand it to them: their depiction of the orcs was fantastic.
- 4y ago
- bombcar 4y agoIIRC Tolkien sold the movie rights back in the 60s, so decades ago.
- unmole 4y agoOff topic but I understand that LOTR will enter the Public Domain in India, New Zealand and a a few other countries next year. I want to see if anyone does anything about it
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- monocasa 4y agoAs the 1990's cartoon 'Freakazoid!' taught us: > Always ask for a piece of the gross. Not the net; the net is fantasy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHL91HQzhuc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHL91HQzhuc
- listenallyall 4y agoComing To America was the original "wildly successful movie that made no profit" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buchwald_v._Paramount https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buchwald_v._Paramount
- monocasa 4y agoNope, goes back way farther than that. Return of the Jedi is another movie that never made a profit supposedly, despite ~$400M on a $32M budget. David Prowse, the guy who played Darth Vader in the suit, apparently pretty much never got paid for Return of the Jedi because of that.
- listenallyall 4y agoI'm aware of Prowse's claims, however, they are just that, claims, which weren't even made public until around 2009. Paramount actually demonstrated its CTA accounting practices in court in 1990, such practices were found to be "unconscionable" by a judge, and the plaintiff Art Buchwald was permitted to proceed with a tort suit. So while the practice itself obviously goes back a long way, Coming to America was the movie that revealed such practices to the general public, and even to Hollywood insiders -- thus, I'm sticking with my original statement.