Part 5/8:
Once profits surface, studios routinely find ways to attribute expenses creatively. From inflated charges on supplies (imagine a shell company for overpriced paper cups) to shared losses from other productions—like some fictitious Clippy biopic—they skirt their responsibilities. What might have looked like an $80 million profit dwindles to a reported $5 million loss, conveniently absolving the studio of its payout obligations to its talent.
Through such ingenious yet dubious methods, Hollywood accounting results in many artists missing out on their rightful earnings.