ABSTRACT
One would think that there would be a straightforward answer to this. A movie
makes money by earningmore than it costs to make. Right? Not so simple. First,
we have to define what we mean by “making money.” Are we talking about
showing a profit? If I raise $2 million to make a low-budget independent film,
how much money does that film have to make until I start to pay money back to
my investors? The film has a $2 million production budget. That means that it
costs $2million dollars to get the film from script to a finished version, ready for
delivery. That $2million has nothing to do with the cost of getting a film booked
into theatres or sold to cable TV.
