@ynoccp@TheLaurenChen At the start of Covid, it was more insidious - American media wanted to shutdown questions about the origin of Covid at Wuhan and went with “white people are racist”, #StopAsianHate and then shut that down when videos of blacks assaulting Asians started going viral.
Like that, but I mean now - “transfer pricing” - to dodge royalties or license fees at the same time to claim a movie is more profitable than it is and to write off streaming losses.
e.g.
Marvel Studios “sold” the rights to stream Thor: Love and Thunder to Disney+ via an intercompany licensing fee.
Marvel Studios records the licensing fee as revenue, helping the movie show a profit on its books (even if theatrical was just okay).
Disney+ records that same payment as a high content cost, which increases the streaming division’s expenses and contributes to (or helps absorb) the overall streaming operating losses.
Actors, directors, writers, and other profit participants who have backend points or royalties tied to the film’s direct net profits get hosed since the internal transfer can reduce or eliminate the actual payouts they receive.
@noahgittell@baseballcrank You mean when movies weren’t IP skin suits with production by suits and writers could actually write, before tech could capture and release the financials?
Yeah, box office is more interesting than the crap on the screen from the bigs.
Congrats to Obsession and Backdoors.