From cinemablend, A note to all you Hollywood folks out there: if a studio ever offers you a deal where your salary is dependent on a percentage of net profit, refuse it immediately. They may say there's no business like show business, but that doesn't mean levels of greed are any different.
Deadline has gotten its hands on a copy of the net profit statement for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the ninth highest grossing film of all time totaling $934 million in worldwide box office receipts, and guess what? Apparently they lost more than $167 million on the whole production. According to the statement, the film's expenses, including print copies, advertisements, union dues, taxes and the like, totaled more than $191 million and destroyed any chance of profit the film could make.
If movies actually worked this way then the industry would have died decades ago. If a film can make nearly a billion dollars in the box office and still lose money for the studio you are either looking at a tremendously flawed system or crooked accounting. Some of you may remember a similar situation back in 2007 when Peter Jackson got into a tussle with New Line over a similar accounting matter, so it's not as though Warner Bros. should be singled out here. If anything, this should just work as a warning to all actors, directors, producers and folks behind the camera - you give the studio a chance to screw you and there's little doubt that they will.
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