Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/02/10/coyote-vs-acme-warner-brothers-just-killed-a-full-length-animated-film-to-avoid-paying-taxes.html
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This is ridiculous. If scrapping something like that results in a tax break that’s bigger than the revenue the film would have generated, that points to a really big problem with the tax code. But unless the movie really sucked, I can’t imagine the revenue it would generate over a period of years through its initial release and then streaming would be less than the tax break. It’s probably more about how it makes their balance sheet look right now rather than over time. I know the saying is “The first thing we do is, let’s kill all the lawyers,” but I think that should be changed to “MBA grads”. The current ownership of Warner is going to drive it to bankruptcy eventually just to enrich themselves.
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At least we still have the classic Ian Frazier piece that probably inspired the movie.
That’s definitely what it is. This is Producers-level chicanery, except it’s legal and Zaslav and his minions were too lazy to try and ensure it would be a creative flop.
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It’s a big club and you ain’t in it.
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Right before the meeting, so I hope some shareholder sues 'em over it.
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Here’s hoping this decision blows up in their faces.
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Best of all worlds: someone leaks the movie and the shareholders sue.
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Almost, but not quite the best of all worlds.
It gets leaked, the shareholders sue, and Zaslav gets booted because of it.
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Is this not some form of rent-seeking? A financial equivalent of crypt-mining?
Getting work done to produce a product, paying for it, and then somehow the perverse incentives of finance/tax law mandate that for shareholder value, it be destroyed before the value of the product itself can be realized.
Only the act of expending resources was meaningful to the outcome, not what the spending of resources produced.
Truly the mark of end times is the choice use resources not for something useful but to simply use them and discard the result.
Like burning a log, not for heat, not for warmth, not for cooking, but simply to burn something… anything.
To waste for the sake of waste.
I’m sickened
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Creative accounting is the only art they understand.
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Shame, first I hear of it, but I would have actually watched it. Sounds like a fun concept.
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Maybe time for a change in the tax-laws to favour artists over accountants?.. Who am I kidding?
And the leaked movie becomes a massive, viral success.
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This kind of stunt bewilders me. Wouldn’t they make more by releasing the movie than they would have to pay in taxes?
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I guess that this is a power move in the boardroom, showing how little the CEOs care about the work of their talent.
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I’d like to propose that if a studio does this, that ownership of the film or show passes to the Library Of Congress, who then can distribute or license the film as they see fit, which would provide them with revenue. The LoC could then apply that to new cultural preservation programs as well as continue funding restoration and preservation projects. I mean, if the public is going to pay for it, let’s get our money’s worth and preserve the work of the people involved.
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Yes, but they want the money now.
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The Warner Brothers must be rolling in their deep coyote-shaped hole at the bottom of a canyon.
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That suvks i would have paid money to see that
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