Anyway of figuring out if a movie will make a profit or not?

silverharp

curiosity peaked with the Independence Day movie just out. In broad terms a movie seems to make 40ish % of domestic takings and 30ish % of foreign takings based on what I read. After that all one tends to see is a list of ways a movie can make money, dvd, TV etc. so its clear that a movie doesn't have to breakeven in the cinema but does anyone know what % roughly comes from cinema only?

Taking the Independence Day movie so far its taken in about $150m gross 100m being international. so roughly $70ish (my guess) has gone to the makers so far as of last weekend. Production costs were $165m , again Ill guess that this $70m creeps up to $100m before it finishes. will they clear $60m or $70m in future sales and distribution rights?

Theboinkmaster

silverharp wrote: »

curiosity peaked with the Independence Day movie just out. In broad terms a movie seems to make 40ish % of domestic takings and 30ish % of foreign takings based on what I read. After that all one tends to see is a list of ways a movie can make money, dvd, TV etc. so its clear that a movie doesn't have to breakeven in the cinema but does anyone know what % roughly comes from cinema only?

Taking the Independence Day movie so far its taken in about $150m gross 100m being international. so roughly $70ish (my guess) has gone to the makers so far as of last weekend. Production costs were $165m , again Ill guess that this $70m creeps up to $100m before it finishes. will they clear $60m or $70m in future sales and distribution rights?

Sure what about all the marketing costs and attributable overheads from the studio....

Have you looked up the major studio annual reports?

silverharp

Theboinkmaster wrote: »

Sure what about all the marketing costs and attributable overheads from the studio....

Have you looked up the major studio annual reports?

im not that curious Possibly even the production cost number might be fudged and they might dump a bunch of overhead in there to make it sound impressive.

I think the distribution and marketing fees come out of the gross number so if I read it right its not added to the production costs. for example the film company takes a smaller cut on foreign distribution to take account of the local marketing and localisation costs

MilesMorales1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSFq7ZbUkG8

Harry Palmr

You need to factor in all the post-production costs which include in no particular order - marketing in media, (Virtual) Print Fee, taxes, tariffs, distribution costs, the the cut that goes to the exhibitor (which traditionally operated on a sliding scale from 90% to 10%. The longer the films stays in a cinema the less the exhibitor gets of each ticket value), any "points" that are in an actors or directors contract which is taken out of the GROSS profit. Something that gets overlooked is in this age of global markets local ticket prices and currency values and fluctuations have to be factored in. A 10 dollar ticket in the USA might be a 2.50 equivalent in Brazil or China.

http://theentertainmentexpert.com/?p=243

MilesMorales1

I mean according to Mark Kermode, a movie has to make back double what its cost to 'make a profit' at least according to the studio, which assuming that is true skews it a tad.

silverharp

Harry Palmr wrote: »

You need to factor in all the post-production costs which include in no particular order - marketing in media, (Virtual) Print Fee, taxes, tariffs, distribution costs, the the cut that goes to the exhibitor (which traditionally operated on a sliding scale from 90% to 10%. The longer the films stays in a cinema the less the exhibitor gets of each ticket value), any "points" that are in an actors or directors contract which is taken out of the GROSS profit. Something that gets overlooked is in this age of global markets local ticket prices and currency values and fluctuations have to be factored in. A 10 dollar ticket in the USA might be a 2.50 equivalent in Brazil or China.

http://theentertainmentexpert.com/?p=243

I had read about the sliding from 90% . apparently that has stopped now as cinema chains were going broke in the US so I think its more level now but goes up in favour of the theatre after a few weeks

tricky D

And then there's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting

Theboinkmaster

tricky D wrote: »

And then there's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting

That's very interesting.