HBP Profitiablity

[bboyminn]

---  "sartoris22" <sartoris22 at ...> wrote:
> 
> sartoris22:
> 
> Those are excellent points. Then why do people make so much fuss about box office? It just gives people like me the wrong impression about successful movies. Perhaps they should devise another way of keeping score--other than Academy Award nominations, of course. At least they should report what films actually made money and how they made it. That would interest me. For example, I didn't know Forrest Gump lost money. I would love to see the movie business demystified.
> 
> 

bboyminn:

Also keep in mind that Hollywood is notorious for 'creative 
accounting'. Agents are always negotiating 'net profits' for 
their clients. However, in the entire history of Hollywood, no
one has ever collected a penny in net profits. Hollywood has a
way of cooking the books so that any money made is consumed
somehow somewhere. 

The really big Actors have agents that are smart enough to 
negotiated a percent of 'first dollar gross', meaning a
share of the gross profits. That is where the real money is. 

Also, according to the same BoxOfficeMoJo.com site, Harry 
Potter has a $250 million production budget. It has already 
grossed $865,705,000. I think they made a profit. 

The first weekend gross was $77,835,727 which if not a record,
is at least in the top first weekend grossing films of all 
time. (Actually, #1 worldwide, and #3 in the USA.)

Also, notice that they easily make their money back in US
ticket sales, and make more than twice that amount in foriegn
ticket sales. 

And, The Half Blood Prince isn't over yet, it is still showing
in the theaters, and as mentioned by others, there is much
profit in secondary aspects like HP posters, lunchboxes,
toys, DVD sales, DVD rentals, video games, product tie-ins,
etc....

The movie will take in close to $1 billion before it is done
on just direct views alone. Plus a few hundred million on
these secondary channels. The HP series as been a real cash
cow for Warner.

Steve/bluewizard