“Hollywoodonomics: How Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix “lost” $167M”
For those who may have missed this the other day, check out Hollywood economics here:
First off, look at all those fees. But that’s not even the half of it. See that item “Interest?” That’s money the studio charges on funds it loans to itself via the production. And the distribution fee? Again all internal money.
So there’s that. Which is why the biggest joke in Hollywood is “net profit participation.”
Another interesting number: Over $10M in “Guild, Union and Residual Payments.” What percentage of that goes to Michael Goldenberg, the screenwriter for that particular HP movie? 20%? 50%? 75%? Whatever the figure is, that is a very pretty penny above and beyond his writing fees and production bonus.
Now you know one big fat reason why screenwriting credits matter.
So let’s have a show of hands: Who here is shocked, shocked to discover that ginormous multinational corporations play funny money with their accounting procedures?
