Movies Profits

This report is based on projections of total U.S. box-office gross from a consensus of industry sources and studio financial models. The U.S. returns represent only 20% of a film's final revenue, which includes income from video, TV and overseas theatrical release. Typical industry marketing costs are factored into this profit analysis. Results for the weekend of Feb. 2-4: * Highlights: * The teen thriller "Valentine" will be profitable based on its modest investment. Warner Bros.

A New Jersey author whose novel formed the basis for the 1993 hit film "Indecent Proposal" is questioning Paramount Pictures' accounting methods after studio financial statements show the film has yet to make a net profit--despite more than $250 million in worldwide ticket sales.

Never before have I read such pure propagandized dreck as that in "Lights, Camera, Money" (May 2). The stakes are high indeed for the major movie studios who have all invested so heavily in their summer-release films. Do we really need this annual, nonsensical fairy tale about how only one in every seven or eight films actually makes a profit? An anonymous studio head is quoted as saying that "the big movies cost 10% to 20% more this year than last, and you can say the same for marketing costs . . . " And from Twentieth Century Fox's chairman, Peter Chernin: "The overall production cost of this summer's slate is more expensive than last year's . . . " And: "The profit margin on movies is slim today--about 4%. . . . It is more and more difficult for companies to see their movies land in the black."