Or no Hobbits at all...

[davem]

Originally Posted by Sauron the White

If you check the press releases on the lawsuit you will see that it is not a true percentage of the gross. Even the statement from the Estate mentions deductions for expenses. So expenses such as cost of making the films, cost of marketting the films and cost of DVDs will most likely come off of that figure. It is unclear as to what other things can reduce that figure.

Yes, but...the Estate's lawyer states:

The plaintiffs are asking for at least $150m, representing 7.5% of gross revenues, after deduction of certain costs. They claim New Line excluded certain revenues from its calculations, and artificially inflated costs so that it did not have to pay the money owed to it.

Seems NL have been indulging in creative accounting - plus weren't there accusations that NL destroyed some of the accounts? If there's any truth in all that it would be down to NL to prove that they didn't make six billion!

I can see yet another out of court settlement looming. Of course, we'll be able to see how much NL shell out to the Estate if it comes to that - as a charity the Tokien Trust will have to declare all income in its accounts for this year...