How Movie Money Works
In Script Notes, John August and Craig Mason talk about how the money flows in a Hollywood Studio and how a theoretical movie studio can make money even if the last 20 pictures it releases looses money.
Here’s a cheat sheet they created to follow along with the terms:
A very well done talk between 2 knowledgeable industry veterans. And they still just scratch the surface of how money can be moved back to the studio, thus lessening the total profit by increasing the expenses of the film.
At Fox we called it working with Rupert dollars, which was usually 5 or 6 times more than any outside supplier would charge for the same work…. It’s very easy to move hundreds of thousands that way. There is also the case of the $3.00 cost per page for xeroxing on the lot…….