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Hollywood Accounting: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''"Darling! This is the Industry! The really creative people are the accountants. A big studio got over half the profit, after setting breakeven at about three times the cost, taking twenty-five percent of income as an overhead charge, and taking thirty percent of income as a distribution charge, plus rental fees, and prime interest on what they advanced."''|'''John D. MacDonald''', ''Free Fall in Crimson''}}
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{{examples}}
== Film ==
* [[Warner Bros]]' ''[[Batman (film)|Batman]]'', despite earning $253 million at the box office, [http://articles.latimes.com/1991-03-21/entertainment/ca-796_1_net-profit posted a $36 million loss] when the accounting was done. According to WB's formula, the studio would have had to take in an additional $150 million before the movie could begin turning a profit. Many criticized the production company for using a "rolling break-even point" to justify the film's losses. According to the Los Angeles Times (who did their own investigation), the film still should have made close to $90 million in profit by the time all expenses were paid.
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* Novelist Winston Groom got nothing from the ''[[Forrest Gump]]'' film, and thus refused to sell the [[What Could Have Been|screenplay rights for the sequel]]. Even if they fixed it, it's probably too late now - Eric Roth was working on it anyway, but handed it in ''one day'' before [[The War on Terror|9/11]], at which point they just gave the hell up.
* Sigourney Weaver was told that the studio lost money on the original ''[[Ghostbusters]]'', despite it being one of the most successful films ever made, and thus she wasn't going to get any royalties from it. Supposedly she showed up with an army of lawyers and accountants to check the books, and the studio offered her an exorbitant amount of money to appear in the sequel to keep her from looking at them.
* ''[[Harry Potter
* New Line Cinema was sued over ''[[The Lord of the Rings (film)|The Lord of the Rings]]'' by [[Peter Jackson]] (leaving ''[[The Hobbit]]'' in [[Development Hell]] for several years), the Tolkien estate, and over a dozen actors.
* The cast and producers of the film ''[[My Big Fat Greek Wedding]]'' (with the exception of lead actress Nia Vardalos) ended up going to court to sue Playtone Pictures, HBO and Gold Circle Films for unpaid profits. The studios claimed the film lost $20 million, despite being one of the highest-grossing independent films of all time (and a record-holder for highest-grossing independent for several years).
* Ben Affleck agreed to take his salary for ''[[Pearl Harbor]]'' from the net profits. Oops.
* [[Gary Oldman]] has yet to be paid for ''[[Léon: The Professional]].''
** Nice irony, that.
* According to David Prowse (the man in [[Star Wars|Darth Vader's suit]]), Lucasfilm still hasn't [http://www.slashfilm.com/lucasfilm-tells-darth-vader-that-return-of-the-jedi-hasnt-made-a-profit/ paid him residuals] for his work in ''[[Return of the Jedi]]'', despite the film earning over $570 million at the box office (not counting home media releases), against a $32.5 million budget. As one commentator put it:
{{quote|
* This was the origin of the [[Stan Lee]] vs [[Marvel Comics|Marvel Enterprises]] lawsuit: Stan's contract said he was entitled to 10% of Marvel's profits from their movies ... and Marvel's share of the net from ''[[Blade]]'' turned out to be zero. When Marvel got wise and started asking for a percentage of the gross, they tried to claim that Stan's contract didn't cover that. A court of law disagreed.
* Paramount has never paid any of the ''[[Star Trek]]'' actors for the use of their image in any of the merchandising that has been sold for the series, claiming that it has lost money in all of them. It is fairly impressive that they keep producing all this merchandise that does nothing but lose money, isn't it?
== Live
* Non-film example: [[J. Michael Straczynski]] got screwed out of his cut of the profits from ''[[Babylon 5]]''. Fortunately, he was [[Doing It for the Art]] anyway.
{{quote|
** [[Harlan Ellison]], in a clip from his film "Dreams With Sharp Teeth", also discusses his involvement with ''Babylon 5'', notably when Warner Brothers asked him to provide clearance rights for an interview he did during the show's production for inclusion on the DVD set. When he asked what he would be paid, the studio told him that they didn't have enough money in the budget to pay him royalties (in addition to telling him that he'd have to go buy a copy of the DVD set in a store because they couldn't justify sending him a set).
* In 2010, Rysher Entertainment, who produced ''[[Nash Bridges]]'', claimed it didn't have to pay royalties to lead actor Don Johnson because they never made a profit from the show and didn't have to share anything with the actor. Johnson, whose contract stipulated he owned half the show's copyrights, sued the company and won $23 million.
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[[Category:Hollywood Style]]
[[Category:Hollywood Accounting]]
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