News outlets continue to sift through the trove of documents that they received as a result of the Sony hack that brought the studio giant to its knees. One document in particular reveals the studio’s “ultimates,†which is an industry term for the amount of money a studio ultimately makes once its theatrical run and other secondary streams of profit have been totaled. To that end, The Hollywood Reporter writes that This Is the End earned $50 million in profits, Grown Ups 2 $48 million, Captain Phillips $39 million, American Hustle $27 million, One Direction: This Is Us $18 million, Elysium $18 million, and Monuments Men $10 million.
The document was apparently an effort to trumpet cost-cutting measures the studio tried to take. “Currently, approximately $1B in production spending can be expected to deliver $500M-$600M in profits,†the letter says. “Through his continued focus on financial discipline, Doug [Belgrad, the Columbia Pictures President] hopes to improve that ratio to a point where $800-$900M in production spending delivers $500-$600M in profits.†Belgrad has also been influential in terms of getting production budgets down: He got Kevin James to accept less money and reduce the production budget for a Mall Cop sequel from between $45 million and $50 million to $38 million. Similarly, Adam Sandler’s upcoming movie Pixels was made for $110 million when the originally approved budget was $135 million.
An industry trying to cut costs! Shocking, we know.