Movies have very real returns that are trivial to see from box office results and merchandizing. Not to mention they have famously perverse incentives to spend

Movies have very real returns that are trivial to see from box office results and merchandizing. Not to mention they have famously perverse incentives to spend as much of the profit from a movie as they can, due to how a lot of the royalties are structured. More to the point, though, this is a bit of a tangent/deflection from my question. How do you assert the return on this $1m? This line simply says that no return was needed for it to be spent. It shows nothing to say how you calculate what is made from it.