Warner Brothers gave away half of the profits on JOKER to outside investors. They had no idea the film would do so well.
ADAM POST SPEAKS !
Subscribe to the channel
https://www.youtube.com/c/AdamPostSpeaks
COLLEGE OF THE DEAD: (only 2 weeks delivery worldwide)
http://www.collegeofthedead.com/
Record returns for “Joker” have the movie’s backers laughing their way to the bank, but the studio that made the film, Warner Bros., could have reaped even bigger profits if it hadn’t unloaded a substantial share of the film to outside investors, according to people familiar with terms of the film’s financing.
On Thursday, the movie became the top-grossing R-rated film of all time after reaching a total of $788.3 million world-wide, according to Warner Bros., a unit of AT&T Inc. The previous record of $782.6 million was held by “Deadpool,” released in 2016 by Twentieth Century Fox, now part of Walt Disney Co. DIS 0.49%
Mixed reviews for “Joker,” which stars Joaquin Phoenix, have failed to deter moviegoers since the film soared to $96.2 million in the U.S. and Canada during its opening weekend earlier this month.
During its development, “Joker” was considered by Warner executives unlikely to generate the same kind of blockbuster returns as the studio’s more conventional DC comic-book movies such as “Aquaman” and “Wonder Woman,” according to one of the people familiar with the matter. “Joker” is a brooding character-study considered a “hard” R for its strong language and violence. Further limiting its commercial prospects, “Joker” was conceived as a stand-alone film rather than a piece of a larger narrative structure of sequels, spinoffs and prequels—a model perfected by Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe.
But the film’s uniqueness was initially met with skepticism. Before moving forward, Warner Bros. executives enlisted BRON Studios and Village Roadshow Pictures as financial partners to help share the film’s risk, with each shouldering between 20% and 25% of its roughly $60 million production budget, according to another of the people familiar with the matter. Marketing the film around the world cost more than $100 million.
The studio previously shared the spoils on the Dark Knight Batman trilogy with Legendary Pictures, which helped finance the hit films. After that, Warner Bros. committed to a strategy of accepting only limited outside financial backing on its most promising releases, such as its DC Comics and Harry Potter titles.
Now, the outside backers on “Joker” stand to take home together between 40% and 50% of the film’s profits, the person familiar with the financing deals said.
