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Warner Bros shelves finished ‘Coyote vs. Acme’, takes $30M tax write-off

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Re: Warner Bros shelves finished ‘Coyote vs. Acme’, takes $30M tax write-off

#31

Post by rtsil »

Mindwipe wrote: post #15
upon_drumhead wrote: post #2

Can 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?

> but if they released it, it's pretty certain to make way more than 30 million. It's pretty unlikely this film will make $30 million, and they would have to spend at least another five to ten million to release it (profit participation from talent, marketing (which is probably contractually obligated), finalising post production, mastering, distribution etc etc.). The effects work is nowhere near done etc. > And the…

> and they would have to spend at least another five to ten million to release it

That's very optimistic. P&A (print and advertising, but since movies are now released in digital copies, the print part has become negligible) usually is between half and 100% of the production budget.

Re: Warner Bros shelves finished ‘Coyote vs. Acme’, takes $30M tax write-off

#32

Post by Cockbrand »

Mindwipe wrote: post #16
philipov wrote: post #7

Earlier 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.

Principle photography is done for this film, but it's effects heavy and there's nothing to suggest the effects work is anywhere near done, and releasing stuff also costs money. You seem to feel like this is a completed master sat on the shelf, but it's likely not more than 60% complete to something that could be released.

I'd assume that it's at least almost complete, as the article states that there have been test viewings. Also, the Wikipedia page [0] says that the the film had been completed, so I'd assume that at least a preliminary fully edited version exists. Maybe my definition of "completed" isn't entirely accurate here, though.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coyote_vs._Acme#Cancellation

Re: Warner Bros shelves finished ‘Coyote vs. Acme’, takes $30M tax write-off

#33

Post by tremon »

marak830 wrote: post #18
rokkitmensch wrote: post #11

Earlier 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.

The cost of releasing with 0 marketing is that they forego the $30M tax write-off.

Re: Warner Bros shelves finished ‘Coyote vs. Acme’, takes $30M tax write-off

#34

Post by objclxt »

Mindwipe wrote: post #15
upon_drumhead wrote: post #2

Can 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?

> but if they released it, it's pretty certain to make way more than 30 million. It's pretty unlikely this film will make $30 million, and they would have to spend at least another five to ten million to release it (profit participation from talent, marketing (which is probably contractually obligated), finalising post production, mastering, distribution etc etc.). The effects work is nowhere near done etc. > And the…

> It's pretty unlikely this film will make $30 million

It would easily have made $30 million worldwide. Almost certainly domestic. You could question whether it would have made its budget back (70 million) on domestic, but for a family film with existing IP there aren’t really any blockers to clearing 30 million.

> The effects work is nowhere near done etc.

The film is finished, some critics had already seen it.

Re: Warner Bros shelves finished ‘Coyote vs. Acme’, takes $30M tax write-off

#36

Post by JCharante »

Almondsetat wrote: post #25

I can only imagine how the people who made it feel knowing they basically worked for absolutely nothing

Lucky. That’s the benefit of being the worker class and not the owners. You get paid whether it releases or not.

Re: Warner Bros shelves finished ‘Coyote vs. Acme’, takes $30M tax write-off

#38

Post by lupire »

tremon wrote: post #33
marak830 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm struggling to see how their costs for releasing with 0 marketing are that much higher than scrapping.

The cost of releasing with 0 marketing is that they forego the $30M tax write-off.

Releasing the movie delays the write-off until the film decays in value, not foregoes it.

Re: Warner Bros shelves finished ‘Coyote vs. Acme’, takes $30M tax write-off

#39

Post by [deleted] »

QwertyPi wrote: post #10
HlessClaudesman wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are making an assumption that this film would attract / retain more than 30 million worth of subscriptions.

The vast majority of movies—let alone the ones worth watching—are not on streaming platforms, so I don't understand why you'd expect this to be the payoff route. Movies are still "sold" (i.e. leased) both directly to consumers and to streaming platforms—presumably for a studio that's still the way they make money.

[deleted]
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