Hollywood Creative Accounting, or, How to Hide a Hit and Still Profit From It

Every business decision that you make should be based upon experience or upon current information. Without specific metrics to gauge your success, you will have no data to determine what’s working. Based in West Hollywood, California the Ultimate Bookkeeper is Los Angeles area’s Premier QuickBooks expert, setting up accounting systems, doing bookkeeping, accounting and taxes for almost 20 years.

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• The production budget was inflated by Paramount accounting from 20 million dollars to 70 two weeks after release.
• However, due to Hollywood accounting tactics, the loss was only reported as $78.3 million.
• New Line was later fined $125,000 for failing to provide its accounting documents in relation to the suit.
• They can even be set up to cover more general expenses for accountants, managers, travel and entertainment for studio heads, and so on.

In 2010, Rysher Entertainment, who produced Nash Bridges, claimed it didn’t have to pay royalties to lead actor Don Johnson because they never made a profit from the show and didn’t have to share anything with the actor. Johnson, whose contract stipulated he owned half the show’s copyrights, sued the company and won $23 million. Sigourney Weaver was told that the studio lost money on Ghostbusters , despite it being one of the most successful films ever made, and thus she wasn’t going to get any royalties from it. Supposedly she showed up with an army of https://accounting-services.net/ lawyers and accountants to check the books, and the studio offered her an exorbitant amount of money to appear in the sequel to keep her from looking at them. Battlefield Earth was the film Franchise Pictures founder Elie Samaha said would make his company a force worth taking seriously. Battlefield Earth, however, is notoriously bad, and it later transpired that Franchise existed to “over-budget” bad movies and keep the excess as profit. After this stinker, the FBI closed in and reclaimed the $100 million…er, $75 million…er, $44 million spent.

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The film Spider-Man made more than $800 million in revenue, but the producers claim that it did not make any profit as defined in Lee’s contract, and Lee received nothing. The case was settled in January 2005, with Marvel paying $10 million to “finance past and future payments claimed by Mr. Lee.” Art Buchwald received a settlement from Paramount after his lawsuit Buchwald v. Paramount . Paramount settled for $900,000, rather than have its accounting methods closely scrutinized.

Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee, who shaped much of what we know of the “Marvel Universe” claimed to have had a deal with Marvel for ten percent of any profits from film and television programs that utilize his characters. When 2002’s Spider-Man motion picture raked in over $800 million (against a $140 million budget), Lee stuck his hand out and found it slapped. According to the Marvel’s lawyers the gargantuan success somehow managed not to net any profits whatsoever, so Stan and his company, Stan Lee Media were out of luck. Thus, Lee sued but found little luck in the courts thanks to Hollywood Creative Accounting. Since then, Stan Lee Media has sued Marvel more than once to attempt to obtain ownership of the many characters he co-created. But what if 20th Century Fox employed a little creative accounting to keep that 30 percent from being too high?

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Get directions from and directions to Amy Gorman – Bookkeeping easily from the Moovit App or Website. In 1985, when I started working in entertainment, all I wanted was to run a Hollywood studio . Specializing in Creative Professionals and Creative Enterprises, a few areas of expertise are eliminating manual data entry and integrating external Point of Sale Systems, Enterprise Resource Management Systems &/or Databases. You don’t have to earn a CPA to be an accountant, however, getting your CPA opens opportunities to earn higher wages in this field. Many companies, especially larger ones and government agencies, require at least a four-year degree and CPA when hiring accountants. SimplyHired may be compensated by these employers, helping keep SimplyHired free for jobseekers.

Accordingly, the cast sued the studio for their part of the profits. The original producers of the film sued Gold Circle Films in 2007 due to Hollywood accounting practices because the studio has claimed the film, which cost less than $6 million to make and made over $350 million at the box office, lost $20 million. Hollywood bookkeepers Green Beans Bookkeeping Services provides limited and full charge accounting services to entertainment Bookkeeping Hollywood industry professionals, including writers, directors, producers, agents and managers. We serve entertainment industry professionals in the Hollywood community and throughout greater Los Angeles. Green Beans bookkeepers are Certified QuickBooks specialists and offer accounting services including financial reports , income statement (profit & loss statement), balance sheets, general ledger, payroll and payroll coordination and more.

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She specifically recalls them making a likeness of her face and created a run of Wonder Woman dolls. After the first run, they took her name off of it, marketed later runs as a generic Wonder Woman doll, and she never saw any profit from it. In That Wacky Redhead, this is what prompts George Lucas to sue Paramount Pictures over the issue of Journey of the Force’s being one of the most successful movies ever, while George barely saw a cent of those profits. It ends up with victory for Lucas, and Paramount forced to pay 1 billion dollars. 21st Century Fox was found guilty of using Hollywood accounting practices to defraud the producers and stars of the procedural drama Bones ( ) and ordered to pay $179 million in missing profits, with the ruling made public in 2019.

• If you’re interested in a career in accounting, it’s worthwhile to get a CPA.
• That means he has earned about as much as Sandra Bullock would make on “Gravity” nearly 45 years later.
• They are a one stop solution that strives to help clients approach their business and personal goals with ease and efficiency.
• In spite of its name, My Big Fat Greek Wedding was actually a tiny little independent movie from Gold Circle Films; however, it soon became a Big Fat American Success at the box office, pulling in over $368 million with a budget of only $5 million.

In addition, Green Beans Bookkeeping Services also provides accounting services for individuals with multiple personal income streams in the Hollywood community and greater Los Angeles. Green Beans Bookkeeping Services include accountants payable (A/P), accounts receivable (A/R), general ledger and payroll. Green Beans also handles financial document prep for tax filings with business and personal CPAs.