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Stallone is Suing Warner Bros. Over Falsifying ‘Demolition Man’ Profit Numbers

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Dai101

Banned

I KNEW it was going to be that Freakazoid clip without even opening.

Here's a bit of trivia for those not knowing what hollywood accounting is:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/HollywoodAccounting


Hollywood accounting is an art. It even extends to the music industry.

It should be illegal.

The music industry is probably worst.

Do YOU Need a Record Label? | SpectreSoundStudios
 
Hollywood accounting is such bullshit. Just pay your actors and crew, goddammit. Hope the little guy wins this round (not that Sly is particularly little).

My favorite example was New Line Cinema whining about how the Lord of the Rings trilogy was the biggest bomb in their history, right before they greenlit three Hobbit movies. It's so blatant.
 
Wonder how much things change if he wins this. Could set a precedent and have all these studios fervently shuffling things around and maybe reining in budgets?
 
That's entertainment. That's why they have performance rights societies in music. Entertainment is no joke. Corporate is greedy.
 
to be fair to the cartoonishly greedy and parsimonious movie studios...

the whole economic model of the movie business has changed vastly over just even the last few years. The collapse of the physical media market changed the equation big time, and streaming services and on-demand viewing haven't yet even come close to closing that gap, let alone making up for that lost revenue.

Also, some legacy titles do in fact earn substantial sums, but most don't. Yeah, some beloved film like Demolition Man still gets TV play and Blu-Ray sales decades after the fact, but can the Richard Gere and Hulk Hogan movies it curb-stomped on its opening weekend (Mr. Jones and Mr. Nanny, respectively) say the same? For a lot of movies, if they don't earn bank within their first year, their value drops precipitously over time and never gets better. Note that Sly isn't suing anybody for the eventual profits of Stop or my Mom Will Shoot!.

A fairer, more transparent economic process would actually benefit everyone. Artists, technicians, and yes even the studios (in the long run at least I think it would). But its not that crazy to think that a great number of films actually aren't that profitable.
 
Demolition Man made all the money. Everybody knows that.
This is just one of James Cameron's dark machinations. He's still jealous that his box-office records are fake.
 

geomon

Member
Yo Stallone

tumblr_nubozsco901u2ragso1_500.gif
 

ChryZ

Member
Shitty practice on behalf of the studios, especially when they fuck over new talent which haven't gained much footing yet.
 

War Peaceman

You're a big guy.
This kind of fraudulent accounting practice needs to end. I hope the end result is that those who aren't paid enough get their dues. I don't particularly care if Stallone gets more but the crews definitely should.
 

DiscoJer

Member
Hollywood accounting is really something that someone in the IRS should take a hard look at.

But they won't, since Hollywood are big donors to Democrats and the Republicans don't think rich people/corporations should pay taxes
 

Temp_User

Member
Demolition Man, states the complaint, achieved at least $125 million, so Stallone asserts he's entitled to at least 15 percent.

Stallone says that after 1997, he got no profit participation statements until his agent reached out to Warners in 2014 to inquire.

In January 2015, he received a short summary which noted an alleged deficit for the film and stated that no payment was due. Stallone's company then questioned the validity of numbers "because they did not make any sense." Soon, a second statement came along with a $2.8 million check. It was only one page. There wasn't much detail.

That "go-away" money sure had the opposite effect. WB accountants shouldve seen it coming though because Stallone's people was looking for profit clarification. You cant just shooosh them away with a paltry sum and zero explanations; that would just make them more determined to understand wtf is going on.
 

Amalthea

Banned
I always wonder if big tentpole movies really cost hundreds of million dollars in the first place... At least least some.
 

Patryn

Member
A reminder that the stars of This Is Spinal Tap are also suing over Hollywood Accounting.

I always wonder if big tentpole movies really cost hundreds of million dollars in the first place... At least least some.

They actually do. There's actually a weird process where often the publicized number is lower than the actual number, but the number on the books is higher than both the numbers so you have studios that are simultaneously both under-reporting and over-reporting the costs of films.
 
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