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The $55M saga of a Netflix series nobody will ever see

nytimes.com

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Re: The $55M saga of a Netflix series nobody will ever see

#21

Post by dylan604 »

livinginfear wrote: post #15

Since we're discussing the economics of film/TV studios, and their weird decisions. I'd like to understand why the studios are still making Star Trek shows. Each one seems to be more poorly received than the last. That's costing studios far more than $55M. Picard alone cost ~$9M per episode according to Wikipedia.

Eventually, you get one right, right? Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while. Plus, there are so many Trekkies that will watch anything regardless of how bad it is just so they can bitch about it after watching it. They still had to watch it though, and that's about all that matters to the analytics.

Re: The $55M saga of a Netflix series nobody will ever see

#22

Post by nickelpro »

paxys wrote: post #6

Losing the money to a crazy director who gambled it away is at least better than actually finishing the series but never releasing it to get tax write-offs (looking at you Max).

This isn't how tax write-offs work. The expenditures in the production of a film or TV series are always deducted from taxable net income regardless of whether the final product is released or not.

There are a plethora of reasons not to release a creative work. For example, you don't want to spend any more money on music licensing, editing, marketing, etc, that is unlikely to be recouped.

"Tax write-offs" simply isn't one of them

Re: The $55M saga of a Netflix series nobody will ever see

#23

Post by rightbyte »

livinginfear wrote: post #15

Since we're discussing the economics of film/TV studios, and their weird decisions. I'd like to understand why the studios are still making Star Trek shows. Each one seems to be more poorly received than the last. That's costing studios far more than $55M. Picard alone cost ~$9M per episode according to Wikipedia.

It is strange they can fail so bad, since Star Trek is essentially a setup to make any story at all each episode. I mean, McFarlains comedy-as-an-excuse Not-Star Trek Star Trek is so much more Star Trek than the new series ... at a way lower budget. Imagine if they gave him the job instead.

Re: The $55M saga of a Netflix series nobody will ever see

#24

Post by gkoberger »

xrd wrote: post #9

So many stories like this recently. Coyote vs Acme drama is so interesting as well. I bet the movie industry will become as crazy as the world of casinos

Very different situation. For Coyote vs Acme, the movie was finished properly and the only issue was WB projected it would make more money as a tax write-off. There was no malfeasance from the director/producer/etc.

For this one... well, read the article. The director/producer did some crazy stuff with the money.

Re: The $55M saga of a Netflix series nobody will ever see

#25

Post by IshKebab »

mynameisash wrote: post #8
dotcoma wrote: post #4

Isn’t $55 M little more than a rounding error for a company like Netflix ?

According to this site[0], their revenue for 2022 was $31.6B, so $55M would be approximately 0.17%. Stated otherwise, on average, they make $55M every 15 hours or so. So yeah, it kind of seems like a rounding error. [0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/272545/annual-revenue-of...

Revenue is the wrong number. Their net income is only $1.7b so $55m is not completely insignificant.

Re: The $55M saga of a Netflix series nobody will ever see

#26

Post by notimetorelax »

mynameisash wrote: post #8
dotcoma wrote: post #4

Isn’t $55 M little more than a rounding error for a company like Netflix ?

According to this site[0], their revenue for 2022 was $31.6B, so $55M would be approximately 0.17%. Stated otherwise, on average, they make $55M every 15 hours or so. So yeah, it kind of seems like a rounding error. [0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/272545/annual-revenue-of...

It's still around 180k of premium subscribers at 25$ per month for a year, not taking into account traffic costs. It's not nothing, it's lost cash and lost opportunity.

Re: The $55M saga of a Netflix series nobody will ever see

#27

Post by nihiven »

dylan604 wrote: post #16
RajT88 wrote: post #10

I love these stories of sci-fi movie diasasters. There are just as many insane stories of "amazing this classic ever got made". On the topic of disasters, I recommend reading about The Starlost: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Starlost

Sounds like Jodorwsky's Dune[0] where it's famous for not getting made. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodorowsky%27s_Dune

I would love to see how insane a 10-14 hour Dune movie would be. No intermission I'm sure.

Re: The $55M saga of a Netflix series nobody will ever see

#28

Post by gkoberger »

jandrese wrote: post #20

So I assume Netflix sued him for breach of contract? It doesn't seem like the world was deprived of any art except for whatever production wasn't greenlit because this guy was too busy making line go up to actually do his job.

Ironically, he sued them. But yes, it's currently in court as we speak.

(It's all in the article!)

Re: The $55M saga of a Netflix series nobody will ever see

#29

Post by bobsmooth »

nickelpro wrote: post #22
paxys wrote: post #6

Losing the money to a crazy director who gambled it away is at least better than actually finishing the series but never releasing it to get tax write-offs (looking at you Max).

This isn't how tax write-offs work. The expenditures in the production of a film or TV series are always deducted from taxable net income regardless of whether the final product is released or not. There are a plethora of reasons not to release a creative work. For example, you don't want to spend any more money on music licensing, editing, marketing, etc, that is unlikely to be recouped. "Tax write-offs" simply isn'…

There have been multiple completed works that have been canceled for tax reasons.

https://deadline.com/2023/01/as-tv-turns-to-tax-write-offs-t...

Re: The $55M saga of a Netflix series nobody will ever see

#30

Post by aqme28 »

nickelpro wrote: post #22
paxys wrote: post #6

Losing the money to a crazy director who gambled it away is at least better than actually finishing the series but never releasing it to get tax write-offs (looking at you Max).

This isn't how tax write-offs work. The expenditures in the production of a film or TV series are always deducted from taxable net income regardless of whether the final product is released or not. There are a plethora of reasons not to release a creative work. For example, you don't want to spend any more money on music licensing, editing, marketing, etc, that is unlikely to be recouped. "Tax write-offs" simply isn'…

I know this is derailing the main thread, but then why are studios choosing not to release finished movies on streaming? It seems like they could recoup at least some of the expenses compared to just shelving the thing forever.
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