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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

#81

Post by dang »

NoboruWataya wrote: post #27

The 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 investm…

Yes, and we've changed it now to the original title, or rather a shortened version to fit HN's 80 char limit.

(Submitted title was "Warner Bros Shelves Finished Coyote vs. Acme Film as Tax Write-Off")

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

#82

Post by rbanffy »

FFP999 wrote: post #68
rbanffy wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best for society. The studio is dodging taxes with it and, therefore, the public is financing the movie in part. Seems only fair. But, obviously, they'd prefer to burn the originals to pay taxes on any profits.

Pretty much moot because "fair" is not a thing the studio is going to take into consideration.

That's why this should be legislated upon them - because they can't to The Right Thing by themselves.

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

#83

Post by FFP999 »

rbanffy wrote: post #82
FFP999 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much moot because "fair" is not a thing the studio is going to take into consideration.

That's why this should be legislated upon them - because they can't to The Right Thing by themselves.

I definitely would not hate that, though I can't really see such a law being passed, at least given the status quo.

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

#84

Post by JCharante »

krapp wrote: post #43
JCharante wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Not according to what I've seen from artists and animators on my Twitter feed. Being "working class" doesn't mean you only care about the paycheck. Seeing something they put years of effort and talent into simply tossed into the bin never to be seen hurts.

I mean that's fair, not being able to see your finished work is a bummer. Like creating a video game only for the publisher to cancel it right before finishing it.

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

#85

Post by FFP999 »

tomohawk wrote: post #69

They actually put warning labels on the original Wile E Coyote v Roadrunner material. In this day and age of political correctness it is probably not considered worth the risk to release a film that might be considered subversive in some sense. Comedy is dead.

People have been whining about "political correctness" for decades. Comedy's still alive.

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

#87

Post by hakfoo »

rtpg wrote: post #42
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.

Movie theaters aren’t going to put a movie into circulation with 0 marketing. Those are slots that are available for other things.

I think there's probably some room for more diverse options.

The last couple of times I went to the cinema were for when they'd do an English release of a popular anime film (One Piece Film Red and the Slime Isekai film). Those are not getting mainstream promotion. I don't think a couple of banner ads on animenewsnetwork.com count as meaningful. But they were in the "normal" multiplex with modest schedules. I feel like before the pandemic, those would exclusively get a one-week run in the art-house cinema by the college.

I wonder if it's a bit of a "flailing" response from an industry that 1) seems to have lost their cadence a bit after pandemics and labour stoppages, and 2) is still trying to figure out what's a viable draw when so much is heading straight to streaming.

The second-run cinema in town seems to be about a 50-50 split now between "second run of newish films" and a random assortment of classics and things obviously meant as family-friendly.

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

#88

Post by altairprime »

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?

It’s a form of screwing over the creators involved. They make $30mil and they don’t have to pay residuals or revenue/profit shares. Everyone involved gets fucked over except the studio, which can easily afford to ’lose’ $40mil to avoid paying actors.

It may help to consider the biggest movie studios at this scale as VCs; they only care about 10x profits, anything less is pocket change, and if it lets them keep actors dependent on them, all the more reason to bin anything that risks becoming a cult classic and has to pay residuals. If you can picture a VC firm shutting down a startup when a union forms, then this is the same mindset.

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

#89

Post by rokkitmensch »

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.

That is releasing in Hollywood. Due to the nature of the industry and the jobs everyone works, simply publishing it is an unthinkable thought. I get that "it should be as easy as uploading a repo to GitHub", but just for starters imagine the incurred cost of residuals tracking. Yes it's amortized over the whole enterprise's catalog, but that's work that still has to be done.

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

#90

Post by cma »

malablaster wrote: post #14
aqme28 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if they only made 1 million on the movie, how would that not still be preferable? It makes no sense to me

Someone who knows what they’re talking about can correct me, but I would guess that a $30 million tax write off would “earn” them $6 million given a 20% tax rate. Maybe they believe the movie would earn less than that?

If the movie earned $5 million they'd still get to write off $25 million, for $10 million instead of $6 million. There could be other complex subsidies involved and stuff though.
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