[FraudFactor.com]

There isn't a net figure to find. The studios don't publish net figures. They charge a bookkeeping fee to themselves and recycle the accounting so movies never, or rarely, go into the black to people on the outside. They charge overhead to a movie's profits, they have all kinds of profit participation and distribution deals, and they charge THEM for the accounting--which the studio itself performs. They do this everytime they give an accounting to one of their participants, so the "profit" keeps dropping to the naked eye while the studio enjoys the profits.

It's one of the reasons why if you were to write a screenplay or act in a movie and are offered net points, you should laugh very hard, because you will never see them. And only a handful of people earn gross points. Spielberg is one of them, but he also owns Dreamworks, so technically his participation would cut into the net-except he's profitting.

Stop looking for the net; you won't find it.

Ditto!

A movie producer told me that in the movie business, you never accept a percentage of net profit - only a percentage of gross profit if you can get it, or a salary. They adjust, i.e., cook the books, so there is no net profit.

Maybe they find that convenient for income tax purposes. I wonder if they have really good lawyers and accountants that keep them legal, or if they think they are above the law.

[Darkwolf377]

There is a book around, can't recall the title, about the Art Buchwald case against Paramount over their stealing his screenplay for Coming to America. The legal case blew the whole scam open and showed how the studios cook the books "legally" by charging fees for all kinds of things against their movie grosses.

People sometimes forget that the movie business is a business first. As Pauline Kael phrased it, "It's an artform run by businessmen." And as we see lately, not running it as well as they might.