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  • This video was made possible by Dashlane.

  • Speed up everything you do online for free for 30 days at Dashlane.com/HAI.

  • Welcome to Half as Interestingwere like a Hogwarts class about weird Muggle facts

  • taught by a less funny version of Fred and George Weasley.

  • If your boggart is outdated memes, you should probably leave now, but if your Patronus is

  • keyboard cat, youre in the right place, but here’s where the big reveal comes: this

  • video isn’t really about Harry Potter stuff.

  • It’s about accounting.

  • First of all, goodbye everyone, but second of all, were about to dive into how, despite

  • having some of the highest box office grosses in Hollywood history, some of the Harry Potter

  • films technically lost money.

  • Let’s start with some simple economics: most people like having money, and most people

  • don’t like giving money to other people.

  • It’s a fact that some think is great, others think is bad, but no one can dispute is truekind

  • of like how people feel about Dumbledore and Grindelwald making out.

  • With that in mind, let’s move on to another economic concept: net profits.

  • Simply put, net profits are what you get when you take the money something makes and subtract

  • the money that it costs to produce.

  • So, if Brilliant pays me $100 to make an HAI video, but it costs $40 to pay the security

  • guard at my editor sweat shop, $30 to bribe Susan Wojcicki to put the video on trending,

  • and $20 to license the HAI initialism from Helicopter Association International, I’ve

  • turned a net profit of $10—just enough to buy a banana.

  • So now, let’s get into the accounting.

  • A while back, movie stars decided that being beautiful and famous and rich wasn’t enough

  • for themthey wanted to be beautiful and famous and very rich.

  • They figured that the way to get very rich was to negotiate into their contract not only

  • a salary, but also a share of the movie’s net profits.

  • That way, if the movie made a lot of money, the actor would get some of it, and for a

  • while, this workedbut then the studios realized that instead of giving the actors

  • the money they wanted, they could just screw them out of it.

  • All they had to do was hire someone to lie and cheat and stealin other words, they

  • had to hire accountants.

  • Don’t worry, no accountants are watching this video.

  • It’s tax season, aka corporate slavery season.

  • Here’s what those accountants did.

  • They set things up so that each movie would technically be made by its own little company,

  • created specifically for that movie.

  • So, when Warner Brothers made Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, they had their

  • accountants create a shell company called Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,

  • Inc, but for short, let’s called it HPATOOTPIokay actually no, let’s just call it Phoenix,

  • Inc.

  • Phoenix, Inc is who technically makes the movie Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,

  • and if Phoenix, Inc were to make a net profit, then anyone who is owed a portion of the film’s

  • net profit would get paid.

  • So, if Daniel Radcliffe had negotiated to earn 1% of net profits, and Phoenix Inc made

  • $100 million in net profits, Daniel Radcliffe would earn $1 millionmoney he could use

  • to avoid starring in movies where he plays a corpse or has guns bolted to his handsbut

  • the thing is, no matter how much money the actual movie makes, Daniel Radcliffe will

  • never get a cut of the profits, because Phoenix, Inc will never make a profit, because it is

  • designed specifically to lose money.

  • Now of course, the company doesn’t actually lose the money.

  • They know exactly where it wentto the very studio that created them.

  • In this case, Warner Brothers.

  • You see, to make sure it doesn’t make a profit, Phoenix, Inc will pay Warner Brothers

  • exorbitant fees for distributing and advertising the filmno matter how much it actually

  • costs to do those things.

  • Here’s the actual balance sheet from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

  • The movie grossed nearly $1 billion dollarsat the time, it was the 6th highest grossing

  • movie everbut according to the balance sheet, it lost $167 million dollars.

  • So, where did that $1 billion go?

  • Well, some of it went to the movie theaters, some of it went to the cost of actually making

  • the film, but the key to Hollywood accounting lies here, in the costs of advertising, distribution,

  • and interest.

  • Phoenix, Inc paid the studio, Warner Brothers, $212 million dollars to distribute the film,

  • $130 million for advertising and publicity, and another $57 million in interest, but remember,

  • Warner Brothers created Phoenix, Inc, so theyre paying all that money to themselves.

  • By doing it this way, they ensure that Phoenix, Inc overpays, and thus makes no profit, and

  • thus, anyone who would have shared in Phoenix, Inc’s net profits gets nothing either.

  • It’s not just Harry Potter films that have had their profits disappear like Neville Longbottom’s

  • baby fat.

  • In fact, according Edward Jay Epsteinauthor of The Hollywood Economist and yet another

  • Epstein who didn’t kill himselfnearly every movie ever released has, on paper, lost

  • money.

  • In an interview in 2011, David Prowsethe man who played Darth Vader in Star Wars: Return

  • of the Jedisaid that he still gets letters claiming he can’t be paid any residuals

  • because the film hasn’t turned a profit, despite the movie grossing $475 million on

  • a $32 million budget.

  • So remember, if someone offers you the net profits of a movie instead of paying you upfront,

  • tell them no.

  • Meanwhile, if someone offers to speed up and simplify everything you do online for free,

  • tell them yes.

  • Let’s practice now.

  • What Dashlane is is simpleit’s a shortcut.

  • Pretty much whenever you enter your info anywhere online, Dashlane cuts that outno more entering

  • your passwords, your address, your phone number, or anything.

  • Theyre all autofilled.

  • Meanwhile, Dashlane actually makes your accounts more secure since you can use big, long, complex

  • passwords that you could never remember.

  • Unlike other similar options, Dashlane syncs your data securely across devices, browsers,

  • and apps so that, no matter what you use or where you are, your online experience will

  • be optimized.

  • You can try Dashlane Premium for free for 30 days by signing up at dashlane.com/HAI,

  • and then, by using the code, “halfasinteresting,” youll get 10% off at the end of that.

This video was made possible by Dashlane.

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B1 中級

哈利波特電影技術上是如何賠錢的 (How Harry Potter Movies Technically Lost Money)

  • 9 0
    林宜悉 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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