HARRY POTTER: A LOSER?

Deadline Hollywood blogger Nikki Finke has put the spotlight on another egregious example of Hollywood accounting practices — displaying on her website a net profit statement for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix showing that while the film grossed $938.2 million worldwide, it has thus far failed to make a profit — and is in fact $167 million in the red. Finke quoted one unnamed “dealmaker” as saying, “As one dealmaker tells me: “If this is the fair definition of net profits, why do we continue to pretend and go through this charade? Judging by this, no movie is ever, ever going to go to pay off on net participants. It’s an illusion to make writers, and lower-level actors and filmmakers [whose deals include a share of the net] feel they have a stake in the game.”