Hollywood Accounting and How The Harry Potter Movies (Technically) Lost Money
The biggest scams in film history
According to Lucasfilm, “Return of the Jedi” has never made a profit despite the film earning $475 million at the box office against a budget of $32.5 million.
David Prowse, the actor who played Darth Vader throughout the original trilogy, revealed he’s never received any residual payments on “ROTJ” because it failed — and continues to fail — to make any net profit.
“I get these occasional letters from Lucasfilm saying that we regret to inform you that as Return of the Jedi has never gone into profit, we’ve got nothing to send you. Now here we’re talking about one of the biggest releases of all time,” said Prowse. “I don’t want to look like I’m bitching about it,” he said, “but on the other hand, if there’s a pot of gold somewhere that I ought to be having a share of, I would like to see it.”
What happened to Prowse isn’t uncommon. It’s an insidious practice known as Hollywood accounting and it still happens to this day.
Stan Lee Lost Millions
The late great comic-book legend and human easter egg Stan Lee was also bamboozled out of millions by the same company he helped create.
