Spare a copper guv....? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Boo Radley · 05-16-2009, 12:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davem

and as we all know from New Line's disastrous experience with the LotR movies there's simply no profit in Tolkien movies.......

I know! Sad, innit?

davem · 05-16-2009, 03:12 PM

Maybe MGM will find that New Line's 'creative accounting' over the LotR movies comes back to bite them badly as regards getting new finance - claiming that they made no profit from the trilogy might have seemed a good idea at the time, as a way to avoid handing over anything to those who worked on the movie & in particular to the Tolkien Estate, but how many investors will want to put money into the Hobbit movies (particularly in the current economic climate) if they may risk the same thing? After all, the Hobbit movies could apparently gross billions of dollars but still not make any 'actual' profit....

Lush · 05-19-2009, 05:00 AM

Urrrrrrrrrrgh.

This is the reason why I tell 99.9% of people planning on starting a production company to learn how to crochet instead (unless they're going small, niche and creative). The crisis is bad enough, but Hollywood essentially runs on outdated business models. There's hardly any money for anything good, so you get stuck making straight-to-DVD schlock, while changing media is ensuring that the idea of "big stars" is becoming more and more obsolete - which in turn makes "big blockbusters" trickier to pull off.

It's not nearly as bad as the music business, which basically poured gasoline on itself and stuck a match as a result of greed (yeah, getting rid of singles CD and trying to force people to buy an entire bad album was really, really smart right as downloading gained momentum), but it's bad.

On one hand, you feel bad for the big studios facing these crises, if only because genuinely good films under their wings are going to get their budgets slashed or grind down altogether, on the other hand, enough is enough.

05-16-2009, 03:12 PM	#2
davem Illustrious Ulair Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: In the home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names,and impossible loyalties Posts: 4,240	Maybe MGM will find that New Line's 'creative accounting' over the LotR movies comes back to bite them badly as regards getting new finance - claiming that they made no profit from the trilogy might have seemed a good idea at the time, as a way to avoid handing over anything to those who worked on the movie & in particular to the Tolkien Estate, but how many investors will want to put money into the Hobbit movies (particularly in the current economic climate) if they may risk the same thing? After all, the Hobbit movies could apparently gross billions of dollars but still not make any 'actual' profit.... __________________ “Everything was an object. If you killed a dwarf you could use it as a weapon – it was no different to other large heavy objects."

05-19-2009, 05:00 AM	#3
Lush Fair and Cold Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: the big onion Posts: 1,770	Urrrrrrrrrrgh. This is the reason why I tell 99.9% of people planning on starting a production company to learn how to crochet instead (unless they're going small, niche and creative). The crisis is bad enough, but Hollywood essentially runs on outdated business models. There's hardly any money for anything good, so you get stuck making straight-to-DVD schlock, while changing media is ensuring that the idea of "big stars" is becoming more and more obsolete - which in turn makes "big blockbusters" trickier to pull off. It's not nearly as bad as the music business, which basically poured gasoline on itself and stuck a match as a result of greed (yeah, getting rid of singles CD and trying to force people to buy an entire bad album was really, really smart right as downloading gained momentum), but it's bad. On one hand, you feel bad for the big studios facing these crises, if only because genuinely good films under their wings are going to get their budgets slashed or grind down altogether, on the other hand, enough is enough. __________________ ~The beginning is the word and the end is silence. And in between are all the stories. This is one of mine~ Last edited by Lush; 05-19-2009 at 05:03 AM.