Box office take isn't that hard to find out but box office profit is much harder.
It's basically done by number of weeks in box-office. The first two weeks a theater generally only receives 35%. There may be the rare 30% or 40% but it is rare. 35% for the first two weeks is a rule (unless wei're talking independents, and we aren't.) After those first two weeks theaters can take 70-80% depending on the week. Of course, theaters live off of concessions, but studios don't make as much as people often think. MI3 is a great example. The Studio lost out big on theatrical. Out of the $150 million it says it spent it is only really recouping about 80 of the 150 domestically. The special editiion DVD for MI2 sold close to three million copies - each of those came with a ticket to MI3. Perhaps a fourth touch advantage, now most theaters don't accept those in the first two weeks, but after that point, the studio (yes the
studio) is stuck paying the theater their 70% share. And they report it as box office. That's right that $8 ticket in that $15 DVD is actually reported as a full ticket purchase. HMMM
Basically, on a film that scores roughly $150 million, with free tickets on the loose in droves, the studio is likely to receive back domestically about $70-80 million. If this were a film with great legs, that could could easily grow (ie. Meet the Fockers and Pirates of the Carribean). Of course there's overseas too but trust me, that's an even bigger cluster often.
Plus add this in. If anyone has managed to watch a film within the last 5 years without seeing more than one production company involved I would be completely amazed. Most seem to have 6 or 7. They all get a cut. SOME even on the gross. If a film make $150 and the Cruise Production company (only used for example) get's 5% gross, well, that snatches 7.5
million from the primary financing studios.
BUT wait, there is a democracy involved. Wouldn't the Cruise facility have had to put in 5% of the cost in order to get 5% of the gross? YES. You hit it on the head. Except Paramount footed the bill up to 10 million dollars. So Paramount under the guise of Tom Cruise productions (not his companies name) puts it's money in, and Tom Cruise takes his net or gross, take your pick out.
It's this fun difference between net or gross profits within poduction companies that Hollywood has often relied upon for their confusing bookkeeping.
Tonight I watched Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. Give me that film and it's poster over this bollocks every day of the week. Ron
PS. Seriously, would love to have that poster. Leaving the PC now to watch Them, love that posters, it's in the main room right behind me while I watch the
tele.
JR <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
A question:
Does anyone have any idea how much of the "box-office take" the studio which puts out the film gets? We are always tossing around box-office numbers as if the studio gets all of that money, but obviously this can't be so. I can't recall seeing any information on how much of the cost of a ticket gets back to the studio? I know that classic "Hollywood accounting" make it impossible to tell how much a film eventually makes, but surely there must be some relatively straight-forward way or formula for getting the money from the box-office back to the studio?
-- JR
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