ABSTRACT
Every week the Los Angeles Times issues its “Company Town Film Profit Report,” a must-read compilation of estimates on costs and box-office revenues for high profile movies. In this report, the Times’s media experts evaluate a number of economic indicators, many of which are supplied by the studios. Using a complex formula, the Times boldly predicts success or failure – a thumbs-up or thumbs-down that is taken very seriously industry-wide. Films are categorized according to projected domestic box-office performance: “megamoneymakers” (at least $50 million in expected profits), “moneymakers” ($10 million in expected profits), “tossups” ($5 million in expected profits or losses), and “losers” (more than $5 million in expected losses). Times staff writer David Shaw puts the popularity of the “Report” in context: “It’s like a scorecard. It is a scorecard. And Americans like to keep score, whether on the athletic field, at the polls or – especially in this company town – at the box office” (Shaw 2001).
