Part 4/10:
One attendee humorously suggests the possibility of money being shifted around between projects — perhaps expenses from earlier films are being funneled into later ones to inflate perceived costs or to manipulate the financial performance for strategic reasons.
The Reality of Return on Investment
Discussing the profitability of these films, the group calculates that The Force Awakens had a return on investment (ROI) of roughly 10%. After accounting for the production costs, tax rebates, and box office revenue share, the net profit stands at approximately $50 million from a $600 million outlay — a marginal return for such a massive gamble. The frustration is evident; if real investors handled such an investment, they'd be unlikely to be satisfied with such minimal profit.