Tom Hanks Screwed By Net Profits Just Like Everyone Else

So you just signed a movie deal and you can't believe your good fortune. You are actually going to get a percentage of the net profits. You think to yourself how rich you are going to be and that maybe you can even afford to date Kim Kardashian at least for a night.

Well your movie ends up costing about $5M to make and it grosses $370M so you figure, hey I'm going to get a big, fat chunk of money. From these numbers it looks like the movie made a $365M profit.

Not so fast. As Tom Hanks should know because I'm sure he has been on the screwing end of one of these suits, net profits are the biggest scam going. No matter how much a film makes, only about 5% of all films actually make a net profit. For those of you slow with math it means that 95% of movies lose money. Then why the hell are the studios in business? Because the numbers are crap and would get you thrown in jail in any other industry.

Tom, along with his wife Rita and Nia Vardalos have sued one of the producers of the film My Big Fat Greek Wedding because they feel like they have not received the profits due to them.

The amounts I used above are the actual numbers from this film, but unlike most people it does actually appear that Tom and his group did get some net profits because I guess the producer didn't want to screw around with Tom Hanks. Nia Vardalos's contract called for her to get 8% of the gross profits so she has made tons of money, but now wants more.

The producer being sued says the suit is without merit and that Tom and his group have been paid about $44M in profits so far. Most of that $44M has probably gone to Nia, but some has no doubt worked it's way down to Tom and Rita. Until recently, the producers of the film claimed that it had lost $20M. I guess the threat of the suit may have changed their minds on that one.