Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix "Lost" $167M

On June 27th, 2011 Cory Doctorow reposted a balance-sheet ("participation statement") detailing the alleged financial state of the corporate entity behind the Warner Bros movie "Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix." This may be shocking (unless you've worked in Hollywood), but a movie that has grossed nearly $1B can end up $167M in the red via studio accounting. The losses in this particular case were mostly driven by prints and advertising costs (a major recipient of the marketing budget would have been Warner's itself, in the guise of its other media divisions) and high interest fees (since the film didn't have outside financing, Deadline.com has speculated that any loan note payments were made to Warners - further enriching the studio while keeping money away from so-called "profit participants").

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