FINAL TOP 20 IS NOW UP (4/3)
Deadline has finished doing a countdown of the Top 20 films of 2016 by total profit for their studios/production companies. This is something that they do annually, using a variety of sources to arrive at their estimates.
While I don't think that we can take their numbers as 100% fact, they are probably ballpark accurate. They also do a good job shedding light on how much money is actually spent and made on films beyond their reported production budgets and box office receipts.
A master list to Deadline's countdown articles (with some justifications for their figures) can be here: http://deadline.com/tag/movie-profits/
Because they are trying to maximize clicks, I have done the work of summarizing the numbers from their various balance sheet images into a few more convenient charts (which will make it easier to compare films). They will probably do a summary article at some point, but too late, I already finished it.
For those who don't really care about the details, here is a summary chart of total revenue, expenses, and profit (from the point of the film studios).
Deadline makes no attempt to quantify things like earnings from product placement and merchandising, so these total profit numbers are likely under-estimates. Especially for the animated films. It is also worth pointing out that a few of these films (La La Land, Hidden Figures, and Moana) are still in the process of wrapping up their WW runs, and will end up making slightly more than what has been listed.
Here are the detailed sheets breaking down the sources of revenue and the categories of expenses.
A few things to point out.
1) You might notice that the revenue sheet for La La Land is a bit strange. This is due to the fact that Lionsgate sells off the majority of the international distribution rights for its films. This allows them to offset the risks of their productions (and avoid losing big money on their bombs), but it is to their detriment when a film blows up like La La Land. So, while the film made quite a bit overseas, Lionsgate only directly profits from the UK gross (where they distributed). I would guess that the remaining $30M or so in that overseas studio cut comes from profit sharing clauses in territories where La La Land overperformed. The proceeds of the international rights sales for La La Land are listed under foreign contributions ($55M).
Selling the foreign rights also means that Lionsgate misses out on international TV and home video profits. I'm not really sure why Deadline left the WW Home Media figure blank though. Presumably, Lionsgate makes money off domestic home video.
2) There are two categories for Prints and Advertising under the Expenses chart. If the studio handled worldwide distribution (with some exceptions in most cases), the total marketing and distribution costs (domestic + international) are listed under WW Prints and Ads. In La La Land's case, Lionsgate is only paying for the domestic distribution and ads, so the expense is listed in the domestic column.
3) The participation expense estimates money distributed in the various gross participation deals in the contracts of a film's actors, director, producers, etc. I assume that the residuals come from TV and Home video profits (and also go to the talent involved in the film).
4) Don't Breathe is a good case study in why studios don't just release 50 low budget films a year even if they typically gross 3-20x their production budgets. When you factor in the other expenses, production budget is almost negligible.
This thread started when we only had #11-20. I have been updating the thread as new data was added. If you are joining late, many of the posts before #47 are talking about an then incomplete list of films.
Deadline has finished doing a countdown of the Top 20 films of 2016 by total profit for their studios/production companies. This is something that they do annually, using a variety of sources to arrive at their estimates.
While I don't think that we can take their numbers as 100% fact, they are probably ballpark accurate. They also do a good job shedding light on how much money is actually spent and made on films beyond their reported production budgets and box office receipts.
A master list to Deadline's countdown articles (with some justifications for their figures) can be here: http://deadline.com/tag/movie-profits/
Because they are trying to maximize clicks, I have done the work of summarizing the numbers from their various balance sheet images into a few more convenient charts (which will make it easier to compare films). They will probably do a summary article at some point, but too late, I already finished it.
For those who don't really care about the details, here is a summary chart of total revenue, expenses, and profit (from the point of the film studios).
Deadline makes no attempt to quantify things like earnings from product placement and merchandising, so these total profit numbers are likely under-estimates. Especially for the animated films. It is also worth pointing out that a few of these films (La La Land, Hidden Figures, and Moana) are still in the process of wrapping up their WW runs, and will end up making slightly more than what has been listed.
Here are the detailed sheets breaking down the sources of revenue and the categories of expenses.
A few things to point out.
1) You might notice that the revenue sheet for La La Land is a bit strange. This is due to the fact that Lionsgate sells off the majority of the international distribution rights for its films. This allows them to offset the risks of their productions (and avoid losing big money on their bombs), but it is to their detriment when a film blows up like La La Land. So, while the film made quite a bit overseas, Lionsgate only directly profits from the UK gross (where they distributed). I would guess that the remaining $30M or so in that overseas studio cut comes from profit sharing clauses in territories where La La Land overperformed. The proceeds of the international rights sales for La La Land are listed under foreign contributions ($55M).
Selling the foreign rights also means that Lionsgate misses out on international TV and home video profits. I'm not really sure why Deadline left the WW Home Media figure blank though. Presumably, Lionsgate makes money off domestic home video.
2) There are two categories for Prints and Advertising under the Expenses chart. If the studio handled worldwide distribution (with some exceptions in most cases), the total marketing and distribution costs (domestic + international) are listed under WW Prints and Ads. In La La Land's case, Lionsgate is only paying for the domestic distribution and ads, so the expense is listed in the domestic column.
3) The participation expense estimates money distributed in the various gross participation deals in the contracts of a film's actors, director, producers, etc. I assume that the residuals come from TV and Home video profits (and also go to the talent involved in the film).
4) Don't Breathe is a good case study in why studios don't just release 50 low budget films a year even if they typically gross 3-20x their production budgets. When you factor in the other expenses, production budget is almost negligible.
This thread started when we only had #11-20. I have been updating the thread as new data was added. If you are joining late, many of the posts before #47 are talking about an then incomplete list of films.
