When your billion dollar grosser loses money.

Sad Max said:
The market dictates the market value of the thing, which effectively is its real value - since any given product or service's value is defined in a market by what the market will pay, for it.
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yeah, but only in a capitalist system. then again, i'm no economist :)
 
No, this holds for any system of trade whether it is capitalist, or not. Even in a basic barter economy the relative perceived market values of the bartered items will determine how many of one thing will be exchanged for how many of another.
 
Sad Max said:
No, this holds for any system of trade whether it is capitalist, or not. Even in a basic barter economy the relative perceived market values of the bartered items will determine how many of one thing is exchanged for how many of another.
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i suppose.

but regardless... what the F? a billion dollar generating movie loses money?
 
A quote I've often cited from Mamet's "Bambi vs Godzilla", his book about working in the film biz--

All films make money. Their income, indeed, flows from on high, and the closer one is to the height of land, the more one gets. The farther from the source, the poorer. This is the meaning of the term of art “net profits,” which may be loosely translated as “ha, ha.”
 
Oh well. Hollywood gets no sympathy from me. If anyone of use ran a business or our homes like this (and many actually do) we'd be out on the streets. Learn to make a good film and roll back the budgets. Figure the damn thing out in real dollars and cents. So much money goes into "talent" and special effects, then you actually make that million/billion dollar hit and still can't collect. At that point you did something wrong. Everyone wants that million dollar paycheck and they're shooting themselves in the foot. It's comedy. The only thing upsetting here is it's usually the small guy who takes it in the arse on these "net profit" deals. Here's a question though, is it true that in some cases they can get money back for a flop?

-Nate
 
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Nathyn said:
Oh well. Hollywood gets no sympathy from me.
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Were they asking...?

Nathyn said:
If anyone of use ran a business or our homes like this (and many actually do) we'd be out on the streets.
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If I were raking in billions of $$$ and successfully witholding monies due from people who should receive them, I wouldn't be out on the street. At least, not unless I was driving my 24K gold-plated Hummer with silver spinner hubs.

Nathyn said:
Learn to make a good film and roll back the budgets. Figure the damn thing out in real dollars and cents. So much money goes into "talent" and special effects, then you actually make that million/billion dollar hit and still can't collect.
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Over a sufficiently long time scale, virtually everything earns out. Although that may be small consolation to the people stuck with a bomb, on opening day.

Nathyn said:
At that point you did something wrong. Everyone wants that million dollar paycheck and they're shooting themselves in the foot.
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Except, of course, for the people actually collecting those million-dollar paychecks. Who coincidentally are to a great degree the same people whose decisions we're talking about.

Nathyn said:
It's comedy. Here's a question though, is it true that in some cases they can get money back for a flop?

-Nate
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There is a practice called 'loss minimization,' wherein a given project can be sh*tcanned if it looks like a sufficiently bad bet for the box office, and effectively written off. Although I'm not sure if that can be applied to a project once it's released.
 
Sad Max said:
If I were raking in billions of $$$ and successfully witholding monies due from people who should receive them, I wouldn't be out on the street. At least, not unless I was driving my 24K gold-plated Hummer with silver spinner hubs.
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You would be. The IRS and others would actually do their jobs when comes to the small guy. But if you were raking in billions i guess you wouldn't be the small guy anymore.

Sad Max said:
Except, of course, for the people actually collecting those million-dollar paychecks. Who coincidentally are to a great degree the same people whose decisions we're talking about.
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Is it me or does Hollywood movie making sound like a big pyramid scheme?

-Nate
 
Well...I'd be a very wealthy small guy...


...no, in the usual sense of 'pyramid scheme' standard studio practice doesn't qualify.
 
So...people here are complaining at what? The negative costs? Or the interest generated? Or mayhaps the distribution costs?

Reading through, nothing looks too absurd. I am assuming the interest is charged on the money they had invested in the film. So they are paying themselves interest on money that was tied up in the project.

Their ad spend isn't out of the ordinary.

Also, consider that gross deals were probably already paid out. Everyone who was supposed to get a percentage undoubtedly did. Aside from lower-level people who were on a net deal.

The thing here, is that the studio takes enormous risks when it releases a film. Everyone is already paid no matter how badly the film tanks. And then the burden falls on the studio is they have a film that doesn't pull in more money than their ad spend. So if studios weren't charging large fees on successful ventures - how do you think studios could continue to release films?
 
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