4 ms·

Even if they honor the contract she will get nothing besides being credited. Her contract states that she gets a percentage of the profits - and the movie will

Even if they honor the contract she will get nothing besides being credited. Her contract states that she gets a percentage of the profits - and the movie will probably never make a profit. Return of the Jedi never made a profit "despite having earned $475 million at the box-office against a budget of $32.5 million" (Wikipedia "Hollywood Accounting") Very sad.

mdturnerphys 12y ago
[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting
- cdolan92 12y ago
  Crazy. I wonder what the follow up for Stan Lee's lawsuit was
  - Torgo 12y ago
    In Stan Lee's case, it could be argued it was cosmic justice.
- thret 12y ago
  Unreal: "A WB receipt was leaked online, showing that the hugely successful movie Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix ended up with a $167 million loss on paper. This is especially unusual, given that the Harry Potter film series is the highest-grossing film series of all time."
  - a3n 12y ago
    And these are the people who are trying to police our moral profiles wrt file downloading. It works because they can. They do it because they've figured that out. It's that simple.
    - chii 12y ago
      piracy prevention has not once been about morals, even their very thinly disguised propaganda (ala the "you wouldn't download a car" ads) is basically not about morals, but about profits.
arobertson 12y ago
If it is well known that the studios use various accounting methods to hide profits, why do the people in the industry still accept contracts based on profits?
- objclxt 12y ago
  Nobody takes net points. Plenty of people take points on the gross, which is fine. Studios know that talent has wised up to net points, but that doesn't stop creative accounting from screwing you over in other ways. For example, one of Peter Jackson's main grievances when he sued New Line was that he had been promised a cut of the revenue from merchandising right sales. New Line sold the merchandising rights to its own sibling and subsidiary companies using a closed bidding process at well below market rates.
  - charlesdm 12y ago
    I can't imagine he will work with those guys again. Also, I can't imagine any of my friends still working with them after I've been screwed over. Isn't this a relatively small world? Why work with people like that?
  - petegrif 12y ago
    Plenty of people don't take points on the gross. Very few people get such points on gross.
- Gravityloss 12y ago
  A better question is, why do US federal laws allow that kind of number mangling and contract swindling? Since any contract can be full of tricks, it just means you need an army of lawyers even for the simplest things. It then gets really hard to actually do anything. And if you're poor, you're bound to get exploited by some obscure loophole.
bsder 12y ago
Yeah, there is a reason why everybody who negotiates a contract with Hollywood or the music industry asks for percentage of gross, not net.
- charlesdm 12y ago
  One wonders why not everyone just negotiates gross then? Is it because people are that inexperienced, that some rookies will still fall for net profit thing? Heck, I'm not in film, and even I know not to ask for net. :P
  - petegrif 12y ago
    No. It's because only top players get gross. Anyone can ask for it but few get it.
  - bsder 12y ago
    > One wonders why not everyone just negotiates gross then? Sometimes inexperience. Sometimes you just don't have the leverage. In this instance, she probably got paid some fixed amount up front and wanted her name in the credits. From reading the article, it really sounds like the only thing that's contentious is the fact that they didn't give her credit. She probably assumed that the whole percentage of net was actually as useless as expected.
  - dagw 12y ago
    Everybody obviously wants gross, but unless you are a big star that the studio really really wants you'll basically be laughed out of the room for even suggesting it. Realistically your options are 0.00% or Gross or a few points of Net. Given those options most people will settle for the net on the off chance it might be worth something at some point down the line.
greenyoda 12y ago
"Even if they honor the contract she will get nothing besides being credited." She mentions that the contract also entitled her to a "production bonus", which sounds like some kind of lump-sum payment if her book is made into a movie.
- petegrif 12y ago
  She would indeed get such a bonus.

mdturnerphys 12y ago

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting

cdolan92 12y ago
Crazy. I wonder what the follow up for Stan Lee's lawsuit was
- Torgo 12y ago
  In Stan Lee's case, it could be argued it was cosmic justice.
thret 12y ago
Unreal: "A WB receipt was leaked online, showing that the hugely successful movie Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix ended up with a $167 million loss on paper. This is especially unusual, given that the Harry Potter film series is the highest-grossing film series of all time."
- a3n 12y ago
  And these are the people who are trying to police our moral profiles wrt file downloading. It works because they can. They do it because they've figured that out. It's that simple.
  - chii 12y ago
    piracy prevention has not once been about morals, even their very thinly disguised propaganda (ala the "you wouldn't download a car" ads) is basically not about morals, but about profits.

arobertson 12y ago

If it is well known that the studios use various accounting methods to hide profits, why do the people in the industry still accept contracts based on profits?

objclxt 12y ago
Nobody takes net points. Plenty of people take points on the gross, which is fine. Studios know that talent has wised up to net points, but that doesn't stop creative accounting from screwing you over in other ways. For example, one of Peter Jackson's main grievances when he sued New Line was that he had been promised a cut of the revenue from merchandising right sales. New Line sold the merchandising rights to its own sibling and subsidiary companies using a closed bidding process at well below market rates.
- charlesdm 12y ago
  I can't imagine he will work with those guys again. Also, I can't imagine any of my friends still working with them after I've been screwed over. Isn't this a relatively small world? Why work with people like that?
- petegrif 12y ago
  Plenty of people don't take points on the gross. Very few people get such points on gross.
Gravityloss 12y ago
A better question is, why do US federal laws allow that kind of number mangling and contract swindling? Since any contract can be full of tricks, it just means you need an army of lawyers even for the simplest things. It then gets really hard to actually do anything. And if you're poor, you're bound to get exploited by some obscure loophole.

bsder 12y ago

Yeah, there is a reason why everybody who negotiates a contract with Hollywood or the music industry asks for percentage of gross, not net.

charlesdm 12y ago
One wonders why not everyone just negotiates gross then? Is it because people are that inexperienced, that some rookies will still fall for net profit thing? Heck, I'm not in film, and even I know not to ask for net. :P
- petegrif 12y ago
  No. It's because only top players get gross. Anyone can ask for it but few get it.
- bsder 12y ago
  > One wonders why not everyone just negotiates gross then? Sometimes inexperience. Sometimes you just don't have the leverage. In this instance, she probably got paid some fixed amount up front and wanted her name in the credits. From reading the article, it really sounds like the only thing that's contentious is the fact that they didn't give her credit. She probably assumed that the whole percentage of net was actually as useless as expected.
- dagw 12y ago
  Everybody obviously wants gross, but unless you are a big star that the studio really really wants you'll basically be laughed out of the room for even suggesting it. Realistically your options are 0.00% or Gross or a few points of Net. Given those options most people will settle for the net on the off chance it might be worth something at some point down the line.

greenyoda 12y ago

"Even if they honor the contract she will get nothing besides being credited." She mentions that the contract also entitled her to a "production bonus", which sounds like some kind of lump-sum payment if her book is made into a movie.

petegrif 12y ago
She would indeed get such a bonus.