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Users who Dugg This
Mr. Baby Man
26689 Followers
Ted A'Zary
46 Followers
subatomicdoc
2537 Followers
DIGG-WillNotFixMy-STATISTICS
12264 Followers
kufurexJul 7, 2010
The movie industry wants to be the only one screwing. They don't like being on the receiving end.
ultramegafilmsJul 7, 2010
That's too bad, because it feels GR-R-REAT!
boneheadfarkerJul 7, 2010
Great...now I've got Tony The Tiger taking it up the ass stuck in my head...thanks...
doctechnicalJul 7, 2010
"Part of this complete sodomy!"
/RIP Thurl Ravenscroft
jabbrwockeyJul 7, 2010
Don't we all?
crazedleperJul 7, 2010
Wait, this is Hollywood that we're talking about. I'm sure they go both ways.
canudi9itJul 7, 2010
It's so generous of the movie studios to keep entertaining us all these years, even though they're not making any money.
csmassJul 7, 2010
GO AMERICA!! WOOOO!!!
fiveironfrenzyfJul 7, 2010
Downloading Often Is Terrible!
bdfarielloJul 7, 2010
Based on the current negative Digg count, I'm guessing not everyone has watched the Bender's Game DVD extras (probably because they downloaded the movie)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWPfcEOr2Yg
ghostwoJul 7, 2010
Photographing a painting <> stealing a painting
crazedleperJul 7, 2010
If I see a painting and remember, do I have a copy of it in my head? Should I report myself?
acknotswJul 7, 2010
You should probably chop off your head to make sure you are not stealing anything, then gouge out your eyes so it can't happen again.
radiodemonJul 7, 2010
D.O.I.T.
Do It!
winklemanJul 7, 2010
I'm really not that surprised with anything that happens in Hollywood these days.
csmassJul 7, 2010
I think you mean; I am not surprised with anything that happens in AMERICA these days.
kerrigoreJul 8, 2010
Hollywood isn't the REAL America, the REAL America is Hicksville, Mississippi.
hascatJul 7, 2010
Buried for misuse of the word profit.
exscindJul 7, 2010
whoosh
spypiratesJul 7, 2010
revenue*
Big deal, not worth a bury- that's not the point of this submission.
/future accountant
kratylosJul 7, 2010
Reading this article made me want to don an eyepath and wooden leg. Yarr.
mstachiwJul 7, 2010
Dear Warner Bros (and Warner Sister Dot),
Invoice for Beowulf (2007)
Number of minutes of my life I can never have back: 115 minutes
Value I attribute to my personal time in dollars and cents: $500.00 /minute
Total $57, 500.00
Thanks.
PS- Next time you want to bring an Old English heroic epic poem to the big screen have your people call my people.
bruceleelennonJul 7, 2010
And.... I am subscribed to mstachiw posts, officially.
serif69Jul 7, 2010
Coming soon from Warner Brothers...
The Canterbury Tales
Closed AccountJul 7, 2010
The massive quantity of butt jokes would surely appeal to the masses.
veriixJul 7, 2010
Thats crazy, just like how snape killed dundledorf.
buttsmaugJul 7, 2010
Spoiler Alert!
jgzmanJul 7, 2010
Dude, there's a statute of limitations on this s**t.
dtfinchJul 7, 2010
Reminds me of The Producers.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0395251/
firex726Jul 7, 2010
Go with the Mel Brooke version, much better:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063462/
theangrymobJul 7, 2010
Mel Brooks was behind both versions. You mean the original version.
zephcJul 7, 2010
That's out Hitler!!
zephcJul 7, 2010
out -> our
/goddamnit
piontekJul 7, 2010
man, i just saw The Producers as a musical last thursday.
s**t was cash, the female lead was soo hot
sarahbarberJul 7, 2010
This isn't even a net profit statement. At the very bottom of the page it shows the amount due (deficit) at $0, meaning that they do not owe and are not in debt for any money. The only company unnecessarily wasting money is the one that's paying this fake reporter to write articles. Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
peekmanJul 8, 2010
............ the amount due means the amount of the profits they have to pay out the the people listed in those lines above.
But... there was not profit as stated in the "Defined Proceeds" line..... If defined proceeds was positive there would be an "Amount due"....
essarJul 7, 2010
I think the title confuses profit and revenue. Furthermore, it looks like they are using a current figure for the gross profit even though the profit/loss accounts they have provided are old. You'll notice that date of the sheet is 2009 and the gross profit listed in the accounts is just a bit over $600 million - not nearly a billion.
So unless, I'm missing something, this is very inaccurate.
qwertieJul 7, 2010
The DIGGER confuses profit and revenue, not the article. Ironic that MrBabyMan complains about bogus bookkeeping and makes the most basic possible bookkeeping error himself in the same breath!
peekmanJul 8, 2010
It looks like the difference is in the definition of gross. When people say how much a movie makes I believe they take the entire ticket price multiplied by the number of tickets sold. However, Warner Brothers does not get all that money...... According to this they get 30% of that money.
So, the report is saying how much of the revenue Warner Brothers themselves got while the 1 billion dollar number is the total amount received.
inchrntJul 7, 2010
corporate accounting is bogus? shocker...
exscindJul 7, 2010
Not bogus... magical!
crazedleperJul 7, 2010
Who knew that a big studio's big movie wouldn't make money? One wonders how they stay in business but then one remembers the word "bulls**t"...
timthetaxmanJul 7, 2010
It’s not bogus, it is just entirely different from personal accounting. Most people don’t have a good concept of net income, because gross income is what personal taxes are based on.
I’m sure it would be downright scary to find out how many people have a net loss if the used accrual accounting for their own personal finances.
dalittleJul 7, 2010
How much taxes are these movie studios screwing the American Public out of(for those that apply to the US) in this "creative accounting". How about other countries?
peekmanJul 8, 2010
None........... the "creative accounting" is paying themselves fees / interest for s**t that is overpriced or not needed.
When you do the income taxes all the corps Warner Brothers own become consolidated and related party transactions get removed. In fact, they probably pay more tax then they should because in reality Warner Brothers should be paying out the percentages of the projects profits when they are not.
kaiosamaJul 7, 2010
But, but, but... What about profits lost from online pirating! :-S
solkreJul 7, 2010
That would be $∞
leif777Jul 7, 2010
f**king dirtbags....
l0nerJul 7, 2010
OH, Hollywood, why can't you be as creative with your scripts as you are with your accounting,
solkreJul 7, 2010
What a twist!
crazedleperJul 7, 2010
good one.
sulakattackJul 8, 2010
huzzah!!!
fujogustoJul 7, 2010
While it's not a shocker that a studio would do such a thing, I find it very hard to believe that the net participants for the Harry Potter movie in question haven't received a cent.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
dougman82Jul 7, 2010
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting#Examples
fujogustoJul 7, 2010
Well that clears that up. Thanks.
radraze2kxJul 7, 2010
Hollywood: Look out, Harry; it's a huge debt coming right for us!
Harry Potter: EXPELLIARMUS!
Hollywood: I don't think that's going to work.
Harry Potter: EXPECTO... PATRONUM!!!
Hollywood: ... we're so f**ked.
solkreJul 7, 2010
Avada Kedavra!
spritomJul 7, 2010
$87 million in revenue from "video cassette?"
Closed AccountJul 7, 2010
I caught that too... Also, the misc $27 fee...
v3n0mJul 8, 2010
I'm 12 years old and what is "video cassette"?
tdouglerJul 7, 2010
Unfortunately this is the case with alot of big budget franchises. David Prowse from star wars (played Darth Vader) has never been paid because apparently they never made a profit;
"Prowse has revealed that although he is entitled to a small percentage of box office receipts for two of the three original Star Wars films — The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi — he has not received residual payments for Return of the Jedi because producers told him that it has not made a profit."
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article6024677.ece
murxJul 7, 2010
Funny if they don't make a profit on things like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and like here, Harry Potter - how come they don't stop? How come they do make sequel after sequel after prequel...
Shouldn't they know from the FIRST one that it didn't work?
Oh.. they just didn't profit on the paper! Now I see the light.. yeah.. you wouldn't forge your books - only if you were the Mafia, you wouldn't extort money from children and grandmas - only if you were the Mafia - WAIT - even the MAFIA has an honor code! Coming from Italy they hold grandmas in high esteem and bambinos are off limit too... so..RIAA/MPAA are worse then the Mafia.
bionicpimpJul 7, 2010
That's what happened to the sequel to Forrest Gump. There was a 2nd book, but the author got screwed out of the net deal. When the studio came back, he refused to sell the rights to the sequel saying, "(I) cannot in good conscience allow money to be wasted on a failure". Classic MBA/Short Term thinking. Instead of another 300 Million dollars (potentially..probably at least 100million), the screw the author for 5 or 10 million dollars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting
acknotswJul 7, 2010
Awesome, I never heard that before. You have to admire someone that would throw away, what most of us anyway, would consider a big chunk of cash just to make a point.
Why aren't these people dragging the studios into court???
Wait, I know, because Hollywood is such a closed f**king system that if they lost (and even if they won) they would never work again. That place needs to go under so badly.
impsethJul 7, 2010
So movie costs $400 million(roughly) to make. Makes almost $1 billion dollars. Yet is still $167 million over budget.
This math is...
*puts on shades*
RIDICULOUS
martianbobJul 7, 2010
YEEEAAAAAAAAAAH!
peekmanJul 8, 2010
Warner Brothers does not get all of that 1 billion dollars. The amount that is wrong is in the $400 million to make. Warner Brothers pays advertising costs and promotional costs at inflated prices to their other companies. As well they may also have lent themselves money and the interest charge is also to themselves.
Closed AccountJul 7, 2010
Roger Corman talks about his first venture into studio produced films in the book "How I made a hundred movies in Hollywood and never lost a dime".
He said they would charge outrageous fees, bill for staff he never saw, and bill his film the full cost for set pieces that had already been built and paid for from previous films.
That was why he started New Line.
dwtcJul 7, 2010
Funny that it was New Line that tried to screw Peter Jackson over LoTR.
Closed AccountJul 7, 2010
That was after Corman sold New Line. Not sure at that time, but it is owned by TimeWarner now I think.
peekmanJul 8, 2010
The cirrrrrrrrrrrrrrcle of liiiiiiiiiiiiiiife.
dreeonJul 7, 2010
Dear Uncle Sam,
While last year I earned $60,000 in income, I also had negative costs of $75,000, therefore I will be expecting a refund check for all taxes paid in fiscal year 2009.
davidnivenJul 7, 2010
Don't joke. Welfare recipients and other poor people actually get checks from the IRS for tax money that they never paid.
dreeonJul 7, 2010
Oh god, not you...
And the wealthy and other elite people actually hide their money in offshore accounts and other places so that they don't have to pay tax money that they really should pay.
betauserJul 7, 2010
Seriously, David.
The whole point of this thread is about accounting practices that shall we say are "less than ethical" and the only thing you can contribute to the discussion is some fake republican bulls**t about welfare recipients. When welfare recipients start opening up offshore accounts to squirrel away all that ill gotten taxpayer gain, then we can talk.
Until then, please read the article and contribute accordingly.
davidnivenJul 7, 2010
@BetaUser
I was responding to Dreeon's post above which was slightly off topic. Take your critique elsewhere please.
peekmanJul 8, 2010
wtf.... if you have a business.......... can you not do this?
zoltan9Jul 7, 2010
WTF?!?!?! $2.35mil for accounts receivable?
Closed AccountJul 7, 2010
...Nina speaking, just a moment!
neutron7Jul 7, 2010
Why doesn't the government audit them..oh wait they are all on the MAFIAA payroll.
exscindJul 7, 2010
Ersatz Accountus!
doctechnicalJul 7, 2010
Dugg for "ersatz". You just don't see enough of that word nowadays.
spanqJul 7, 2010
"So next time you feel guilty for lost profits from pirating that DVD..."
Never have, never will.
enantiodromiaJul 7, 2010
A piratesayswhut?
Closed AccountJul 7, 2010
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fgjhgjhgComment is buried, click here to see the rest.
locnarJul 7, 2010
And they dare to call the pirate bay a den of thieves.. takes one to know one huh? ;)
roycinusJul 7, 2010
f**k MPAA
blacklilyninjaJul 7, 2010
studio spending is retarded . This is a great example distribution/advertising bloat spending. THE REAL REASON the entertainment industry is losing money.
timthetaxmanJul 7, 2010
Revenue does not equal profit. Accrual accounting matches revenues to expenses for a given period. Companies can take in billions of dollars a year and still have a net loss.
pbgswdJul 7, 2010
total greed by the studios. Why havent these companies been dragged into court for these acts already?
whitegloveJul 7, 2010
The same thing happened to the author of Forest Gump. To this day he hasn't been paid for the movie.
formerbabbyJul 7, 2010
Education: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting
trolleyfanJul 7, 2010
"Always ask for a piece of the net, never the gross, the net is fantasy"
Freakazoid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHL91HQzhuc
dohko_xarJul 8, 2010
He's actually signing a Warner Bros contract.. ha!
canadianmacfanJul 7, 2010
No real shocker here. Figure that music industry does the same thing.
g99xJul 7, 2010
Hollywood accounting is shifty, but here's another fact: actors don't actually get paid what you think they're getting paid. The actor's agents don't want to say how much actors are getting paid - they want to exaggerate so that they can get better deals in future movies (oh, so-and-so made $10 million on his last movie - I guess you'd better offer at least $5 million!). The money they get paid is always ambiguous - with quotes like "so and so signed a deal *worth* $10 million". (The "worth" part is always exaggerated - the deal might be based off of gross sales, and they exaggerate how much 'gross sales' they're expecting to get.)
Also, I disagree with piracy out of principle. Saying that they "earn enough money" could be much better applied to the multi-multi-billionaires who own Walmart than Hollywood (the five Walmart kids, as a group, are richer than the richest person on earth), but I don't believe it's my right to steal from Walmart because "they'll have no problem making up for my shoplifting".
lilrabbitfoofooJul 7, 2010
The studio always makes a profit.
Notice the "distribution fee". This is where the studio takes 30%+ off the top gross BEFORE calculating expenses and costs. Normally, any business would subtract all costs before defining and splitting profits.
The second ripoff is the Advertising budget. If you dig into that number, you'll find that those advertising fees are also paid internally to WB themselves. The markup is about 100% over cost, which is paid to the studio's own in-house team. So while 1/2 of that cost is legit and goes to the commercial airing networks, etc. the other 1/2 is pure graft going right back into the studio.
With this method, the studio has already paid back the entire negative cost of the film AND made a profit covering the film before anyone else sees a dollar.
Notice how with the off the top "distribution fee" covers everything from DVDs to the actual movie?
And notice how if they just want to keep people from making any money on the film, all they have to do is "pay" for more advertising. Since they get 50% back in profit AND keeps the total negative cost in the red, this is an easy way for them to keep everyone and anyone from seeing dollar one.
This is NOT by accident, folks.
PS They do 100x worse to musicians.
cyber2uallJul 7, 2010
Here's the thing, they're not hoarding it as the author is trying to imply. We can see what happens to the money going to a Hollywood studio. It becomes, cocaine, plastic surgery and made for Syfy movies. (rim shot)
The accounting sheet posted in the article shows all profits as being re-invested by the studio as it should and would. It's the best way for studios to stay afloat when bad box office receipts for another film drain the coffers. To the people running David Prowse's story up the flag pole: parts of those investments include actor and director contracts. George Lucas made out very well with his contract while David Prowse didn't. I'm certain I've seen video of Carrie Fisher talking about George being the only one who walked away from those movies with enough real money to call it a profit.
I have to think this practice does so little to raise my ire because it's well understood that if you volunteer to go to Hollywood in pursuit of a career, you will be ground up, spit out, and forgotten.
Now to find out that movie studios are subsidized by tax dollars for some reason while unemployment and health care for we the people gets ignored, that might make a difference emotionally..... oh great.
yellowsnowconeJul 8, 2010
Most producers never count on seeing a dime from the theatrical window. They hope to make their money on the DVD, cable, VOD windows etc.
What a distributor will do is stick your movie in theaters and advertise the hell out of it. They create awareness for your film, turning it into a movie.
You can then take your movie and sell it through the other windows DVD, cable, VOD.
fudgefactor7Jul 8, 2010
This is the exact reason why there was never a sequel to Forrest Gump. They ripped the author off, then wanted to license his next book, and he told them to f**k themselves.... If I ever get some kind of contract from the studios, you can guarantee my share will be full points of gross revenues, or they can suck it.
mca2142Jul 8, 2010
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting
aronnycJul 8, 2010
Wow, $87 million gross for video cassette?
anthonybsdJul 8, 2010
Profit != Revenue. Submitter is a tard, along with all the commenters. Buried!
zbeastJul 9, 2010
I don't care how much they lie. but they really need to stop using these made up number to go after file traders.
We never made a single time on startwars
Harry Potter
I'm sure if I checked they would say that Avatar didn't make any money.