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Warner Bros shelves finished ‘Coyote vs. Acme’, takes $30M tax write-off
21–30 of 108 posts
Re: Warner Bros shelves finished ‘Coyote vs. Acme’, takes $30M tax write-off
#22Frankly I'm of the increasing opinion that if you do a tax write off on a creative work that you should be required to put it into the public domain. You've already made it clear that you believe that the value you would gain from it is $0, ergo it doesn't make sense to let companies vault content forever once written off. For example, a bunch of TV series were written off last year, which means that content has been…
Yes. And remember, while this may sound unfair ("why should I be forced to give away X by the gubbermint?!"), the company is also free to not take the tax write-off at all and just shove the whole thing into a wood chipper. If they want society to subsidise their successes, they shouldn't get to hoard the rest. And that's before we get into all the tax breaks, copyright shenanigans and chicanery that also subsidises the industry with taxpayer resources.
Re: Warner Bros shelves finished ‘Coyote vs. Acme’, takes $30M tax write-off
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's more like doing the R&D and producing the product, but then deciding not to sell it. In fact, it's literally that. You make it sound more reasonable than it should because you stops things at the research phase rather than after producing the entire movie.
I think it is good that someone has said that it is too poor quality to put out - refreshing even.
> The difference here is that Coyote vs. Acme is a completed movie with very good test scores, 14 points above the family norm.
Re: Warner Bros shelves finished ‘Coyote vs. Acme’, takes $30M tax write-off
#24Can someone explain how this makes any sense at all? They burned 70 million on making the movie and they'll recoup 30 million in tax write-offs, but if they released it, it's pretty certain to make way more than 30 million. And the claim that they're cash strapped after making 1.4 billion on barbie? I just don't understand this at all. Does anyone?
The only logic I can see is pretending to cancel the release, but then suddenly having a change of heart in the next fiscal year, when they are projecting to make a loss anyway. Alternatively, the cynic in me also has a theory - that this is all a marketing ploy to drum up support for this underdog of a movie. But that seems fairly unlikely given that it depends on the CEO voluntarily acting the cartoon villain...
It's the financial equivalent of running off a cliff, hanging there unrealistically for a few seconds, putting a sign that says "Uh oh...", and crashing into the ground.
Re: Warner Bros shelves finished ‘Coyote vs. Acme’, takes $30M tax write-off
#25I can only imagine how the people who made it feel knowing they basically worked for absolutely nothing
Re: Warner Bros shelves finished ‘Coyote vs. Acme’, takes $30M tax write-off
#26Can someone explain how this makes any sense at all? They burned 70 million on making the movie and they'll recoup 30 million in tax write-offs, but if they released it, it's pretty certain to make way more than 30 million. And the claim that they're cash strapped after making 1.4 billion on barbie? I just don't understand this at all. Does anyone?
They'd probably need to spend another $70-$100 million promoting it. So they need to get let's say $170 million returned to the studio to break even. The judgement must be that they won't achieve that. For example, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny failed commercially at the box office: https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Indiana-Jones-and-the-Dial... Disney spent $300 million making it and will have spent at least…
For an anticipated title like this, I think they could have had the same box office figures if they spent zero on marketing. $100m is ridiculous.
Re: Warner Bros shelves finished ‘Coyote vs. Acme’, takes $30M tax write-off
#27The article headline is not as strong as the HN title in its suggestion that shelving the movie is motivated solely or primarily by the tax write-off:
> ‘Coyote Vs. Acme’: Warner Bros Shelves Finished Live-Action/Animated Pic Completely As Studio Takes $30M Tax Write-off
Like other commenters, I don't understand the logic of shelving a finished and likely profitable movie just to obtain a tax write-off on the investment. I suspect the article is strongly discounting the additional costs involved in actually bringing the movie to theatres, and/or the risk that it will be a flop.
Re: Warner Bros shelves finished ‘Coyote vs. Acme’, takes $30M tax write-off
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
They'd probably need to spend another $70-$100 million promoting it. So they need to get let's say $170 million returned to the studio to break even. The judgement must be that they won't achieve that. For example, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny failed commercially at the box office: https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Indiana-Jones-and-the-Dial... Disney spent $300 million making it and will have spent at least…
For an anticipated title like this, I think they could have had the same box office figures if they spent zero on marketing. $100m is ridiculous.
No they wouldn't. Marketing spend it tied to distributor confidence in the film, which is then a lever that the sales department use to book the film on screens.
On an average week there are multiple new films jostling for the same fixed amount of cinema screens.
Re: Warner Bros shelves finished ‘Coyote vs. Acme’, takes $30M tax write-off
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
For an anticipated title like this, I think they could have had the same box office figures if they spent zero on marketing. $100m is ridiculous.
No they wouldn't. Marketing spend it tied to distributor confidence in the film, which is then a lever that the sales department use to book the film on screens. On an average week there are multiple new films jostling for the same fixed amount of cinema screens.
I used to work in the marketing end of the industry, while I don't know all the nuts and bolts it's a very interesting business.
Re: Warner Bros shelves finished ‘Coyote vs. Acme’, takes $30M tax write-off
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
As noted elsewhere in this thread, production is barely half the cost of returns. Marketing is the other half. What you see here is a rejection of the sunk-cost fallacy.
I'm struggling to see how their costs for releasing with 0 marketing are that much higher than scrapping.
I agree with you. The article even mentions that streaming services were interested in buying it. I do not understand why trash it rather than sell it to someone for a modest amount.
Why did they spend the money to finish it? Are there some tax regulations that incentivize it? or is this just bad management?
As awful as the movie sounds to me, I want to see it now.