Net Profit

What does net profit mean in Hollywood? Attorneys for both humorist Art Buchwald and Paramount Pictures agree that an ongoing legal tug-of-war over an estimated $250 million to $300 million in ticket sales, video rights, TV licensing fees and other revenues from the studio's 1988 comedy hit "Coming to America" may come down to how a Los Angeles Superior Court judge answers that deceptively simple question.

'Fatal Subtraction." "Honey, I Shrunk the Gross." "Profit Terminator." For years, Hollywood studio accounting practices have spawned some pretty witty lines. Even the filmmakers and actors who waited in vain for their checks to appear in the mail couldn't help seeing some humor in their predicament. "The studios could publish their books as fiction," mused one screenwriter who hasn't seen a dime from his profit share in a hit movie.

German media conglomerate Bertelsmann said net profit plummeted 25% last year after a charge arising from its purchase of the independent Zomba record label. But earnings, excluding such one-time expenses, rose to $997 million at current exchange rates, up about 63%, as the company's Random House book division and BMG music unit saw improved results. Privately held Bertelsmann said net income slid to about $1.03 billion. Gains from the sale of its stake in AOL Europe were offset by a $1.

If former New Orleans Dist. Atty. Jim Garrison enjoyed needling the government with his Kennedy assassination theory, he would have loved the irritation his estate is causing Hollywood. Its class-action lawsuit essentially accuses the seven major studios and the Motion Picture Assn. of America of conspiring to systematically cheat motion picture participants out of money. The suit challenges the inaptly named "net profits" arrangement so common for authors, actors and other creative talent.

"Forrest Gump," the Academy Award-winning movie starring Tom Hanks as a simple man who believed the best in people, has sold a staggering $661 million worth of tickets worldwide--the fourth-highest-grossing global release of all time. So it was understandable that eyebrows would be raised when a confidential accounting of the movie by Paramount Pictures recently surfaced showing that "Gump" had not made a profit as of Dec.

Preliminary audit figures released Wednesday by attorneys for columnist Art Buchwald and producer Alain Bernheim suggest that, far from losing $18 million on the hit Eddie Murphy comedy "Coming to America," Paramount Pictures Corp. earned a "net profit" of $39.8 million as of last December. Buchwald and Bernheim's share of that net ought to range between $6.9 million and $14.6 million, Pierce O'Donnell, their attorney, asserted in documents filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court.

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.

Even as Warner Bros. Pictures is casting new villains for "Batman II," the original blockbuster is still wallowing in red ink--thanks in large part to the Caped Crusader's archenemy, the Joker. The fifth-highest grossing motion picture in history and the No. 1 box-office hit of all time for Warners is still $35.8 million in the red and not likely to ever show a profit, according to financial statements obtained by The Times.