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NEWS > BUSINESS > HARRY POTTER FINANCES REVEAL WARNER BROTHERS IN DEEP TROUBLE
HARRY POTTER FINANCES REVEAL WARNER BROTHERS IN DEEP TROUBLE
July 9 2010
Hollywood, CA – There has never been a creative medium even remotely as popular as film. Literature, painting, sculpting, stage drama, even video games pale in comparison to the sheer number of people film engages. It isn’t just the massive 
dollar revenues the studios bring in, it is the number of eyeballs viewing the screen. An artist with a hit movie is able to express his or her vision to hundreds of millions of people, something people like Shakespeare or da Vinci could have dreamt of doing in their lifetimes.
Because of that, film is perhaps the most desirable artistic medium in the world. Thousands flock to Hollywood every year with the dream of fame and fortune and though many end up disappointed a few, a rare few, are able to get a shot. Of course like anything there are troubles. Making a movie doesn’t guarantee success and no matter the quality it may not become the stuff of legend. That is something the town knows very well and no one knows better than the studio bean counters who can graph the cultural success or failure of a project on a spreadsheet. With every film costing millions to make a produce every project can be make or break, and break is something that appears to
have happened with Warner Brothers who announced that they were still desperately trying to recoup their money from the billion dollar blockbuster ‘Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix’.
“People don’t realize but when you have a movie like that, a big tentpole movie, there is all kinds of risks that need to be incurred. Production, advertising, and all other sorts of incidentals really add up and it makes the thing a risky proposition,” said a Hollywood insider. “The bigger the movie the bigger the risk and no matter how much it brings in there is always going to be a bit of a loss, at least for the first years. This is the game and every studio plays it.”
Despite nearly a billion dollars in gross theatrical revenue the studio has claimed a loss of $167 million making the project one of the most unprofitable in history.
“Filmmaking is about as high a stakes as you can get in the entertainment industry. 
Remember that for every billion dollar grosser, you have movies that flop entirely and lose millions. It’s all a crapshoot because you just don’t know what’s going to hit and what isn’t, they take that risk every time they green light a movie,” said Scrape TV Business analyst Ken Green. “The real question is why do they continue to make movies. In any other industry if every product that you released lost money you would find different things to sell. Hollywood keeps making movies though so the reason has to something more sublime, such as contributing to human culture as a whole, but that is something you would have to ask the studios directly.”
‘Avatar’, the highest grossing movie in history, also has reportedly lost money though exact figures have not yet been released.
“From a purely business standpoint I really can’t understand the whole motivation for making these movies but I guess if they feel they are contributing something to society then they are entitled. Few of us are able to make a major contribution but they are and appear to be doing it through the kindness of their heart,” continued Green. “Great artists throughout history have always sacrificed their personal well being for their craft and though you wouldn’t think of these suits and lawyers as artists, their actions speak differently. After all they keep making movie after movie and don’t make a dime so they have to be getting something out of it.”
The next Harry Potter film will be released this winter, out of the good graces of Warner Brothers executives.
William Ashford, Business Correspondent
NEWS > BUSINESS > HARRY POTTER FINANCES REVEAL WARNER BROTHERS IN DEEP TROUBLE
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