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LucasFilm Tells Darth Vader that Return of the Jedi Hasn’t Made a Profit

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Re: LucasFilm Tells Darth Vader that Return of the Jedi Hasn’t Made a Profit

#61

Post by thebooktocome »

alttag wrote: post #58
thebooktocome wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Mormon church is hardly a laudable "non-profit" charity.

Okay, they have some real estate holdings. But they've also provided significant relief for every major disaster in the past century. In addition, they offer job search assistance, food assistance, etc., through a network of farms, canneries and thrift stores. And all of this is funded by member donations in addition to the 10% mentioned by the GP. But none of that's the point. The GP was pointing out that a not insi…

"Some" real estate holdings?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finances_of_The_Church_of_Jesus...

My point is that a person donating 10% to an inefficient charity like the Mormon Church is not as laudable as, e.g., a person donating some fraction of 10% to one of these: http://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities

Re: LucasFilm Tells Darth Vader that Return of the Jedi Hasn’t Made a Profit

#62

Post by jessriedel »

thebooktocome wrote: post #43
chc wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Donating 5% of your net worth to charity is praiseworthy, but it's not really anything special, particularly for people in that range of disposable income. He could probably release another boxed set of the original trilogy and make the entire amount back. Every active Mormon donates twice that much to their church.

The Mormon church is hardly a laudable "non-profit" charity.

The point wasn't the amount of good being done with the money, it was the size of the sacrifice being made as it affects the life of the donor.

Likewise, suppose I donate 5% of my income to charity A which is 100 times as effective at saving lives as charity B. My neighbor, of similar means, donates 50% of his income to charity B because of his mistaken belief that charity B is just as good. Now, I may know he's making a mistake, and there's no way I would choose to send my money to charity B, but my neighbor is still more honorable for making such a large sacrifice for something he thinks is right.

Re: LucasFilm Tells Darth Vader that Return of the Jedi Hasn’t Made a Profit

#64

Post by illumin8 »

usedtolurk wrote: post #57
noonespecial wrote: post #37

I'm always fascinated by the way institutionalized dishonesty creeps into entire industries. From used car salesmen to film moguls, once a certain practice has ossified over the years into "everyone in the biz does it", practices that would result in jail time in other industries are simply accepted as business as usual. Even more curious, everyone to the man knows its wrong, but no one moves to change it. The empero…

Many would say the same thing about the software industry.

There was actually a time in the 1980s when software developers got a percentage of profits. I remember working at WordPerfect in the late 80s and seeing some of the developers houses - one guy built a medieval castle complete with a working moat and drawbridge.

At the time I was hired in '89 or so they were doing away with that practice. "New developers don't get royalties any more."

But, it was a good business to be in for a short time. I'm not sure if Microsoft developers ever enjoyed royalties.

Re: LucasFilm Tells Darth Vader that Return of the Jedi Hasn’t Made a Profit

#65

Post by thebooktocome »

jessriedel wrote: post #62
thebooktocome wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Mormon church is hardly a laudable "non-profit" charity.

The point wasn't the amount of good being done with the money, it was the size of the sacrifice being made as it affects the life of the donor. Likewise, suppose I donate 5% of my income to charity A which is 100 times as effective at saving lives as charity B. My neighbor, of similar means, donates 50% of his income to charity B because of his mistaken belief that charity B is just as good. Now, I may know he's maki…

That's a truly bizarre definition of honorable. If that's actually what being honorable actually means to people, then I no longer want to be there.

In my book, you don't get any points for merely thinking you're right. You only get points for actually being right.

Re: LucasFilm Tells Darth Vader that Return of the Jedi Hasn’t Made a Profit

#67

Post by fialk »

mmaunder wrote: post #21

Less than 5% of movies actually show a net income (or net profit as the article calls it). It's called Hollywood Accounting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting Summary: -Studios create a subsidiary corporation for each movie and they almost never show a profit. -The studios charge the subsidiary service fees for services performed like distribution, which lowers net income to zero or less. -They do thi…

Another example of how criminal it is: A major studio will pay Technicolor $25 million annually for an exclusivity fee. Then Technicolor will charge inflated rates to the studios, so the films will appear to lose money.

Re: LucasFilm Tells Darth Vader that Return of the Jedi Hasn’t Made a Profit

#68

Post by roc »

rbanffy wrote: post #55
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't be the 1st to change; you'd get run over.

Only if you were unable to actually turn a net profit. What would happen instead is that more actors and writers would be willing to work with you because they knew they'd get a fair share of the whole deal.

The problem there, is that the talent that would truly help you succeed can already demand gross participation from any studio. And the rest, while they would undoubtedly prefer to work for an honest studio, would climb over one another to land almost any work regardless of accounting policy.

Re: LucasFilm Tells Darth Vader that Return of the Jedi Hasn’t Made a Profit

#70

Post by lukejduncan »

illumin8 wrote: post #64
usedtolurk wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many would say the same thing about the software industry.

There was actually a time in the 1980s when software developers got a percentage of profits. I remember working at WordPerfect in the late 80s and seeing some of the developers houses - one guy built a medieval castle complete with a working moat and drawbridge. At the time I was hired in '89 or so they were doing away with that practice. "New developers don't get royalties any more." But, it was a good business to b…

Its still a good business to be in
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