Is there a body to report blatant fudging to? (Wrinkle in Time)

[BK007]

Awhile ago a poster on here clarified that when a movie is fudged, it's basically due to double features (drive-ins?) being counted twice instead of once and splitting the gross into two. 

Obviously this is creative accounting and when there are no benchmarks to get to, it's harmless to an extent. 

 

However, if it is used to get movies above a certain mark $100m, $200m, it gives the studio more clout or more fees when licensing out etc. (another poster said)

So, isn't it basically fraud? The movie actually did not make above the benchmark but because of fraudulent reporting it does and hence the studio benefits. 

I don't know about other infamous fudge jobs but the Wrinkle in Time fudge is beyond ridiculous. It's PTA is the second highest of its entire run (only losing to its first Sat). That's just obvious and blatant BS, industry-malpractice or not. 

Surely there is some kind of body to report this too? Surely the licensees would be happy to have this information so as to not be swindled into the terms tied with reaching $100m etc. ?

 

[That One Girl]

I don’t know nor care I just think it’s funny to watch

[FantasticBeasts]

Yeah go ahead and sue Disney.

[aabattery]

You're welcome to call the police, but I really don't think anyone involved gives a toss and I very much doubt that they're actually breaking any laws. If someone pays for a double feature of AWIT and I2, they've, for all intents and purposes, paid to see AWIT.

[ZattMurdock]

OMG 

[BK007]

17 minutes ago, aabattery said:

You're welcome to call the police, but I really don't think anyone involved gives a toss and I very much doubt that they're actually breaking any laws. If someone pays for a double feature of AWIT and I2, they've, for all intents and purposes, paid to see AWIT.

The gross should then be split into 2 not counted twice. 

Obviously it doesn't affect me, but we know in the world we live in, big corporations screw over smaller companies. So, it's affecting someone.

I'm just saying it might help them not be pushed around by fraudulent numbers. 

All this sarcasm to me screams Disney fanboys at work, when it's about the entire practice and not just one studio. 

[Porthos]

I could make a joke here.  Probably something invoking First World Problems or whatnot.

 

Instead I'll take the serious approach and opine that I am 100 percent sure that the people who give a shit about this are well aware of what is happening.  And that's setting aside the entire question on whether or not what Disney is doing is unethical, never mind breaking/massively bending any contracts.

 

In many respects, it's all a game.  And if the people who might give a shit about this get pissed off enough at Disney allegedly pushing the envelope, I'm quite sure they have their own means of dealing with the so called problem.    

 

That's presuming there actually IS a problem.

 

So, in short, no there isn't anyone "we should be contacting".  If only because we're hardly the only ones who are noticing what is going on.

 

Or, even shorter, let the professionals handle this. 

[BoxOfficeFangrl]

 

Posted because I always thought he should have been a bigger deal. But, back to the topic...

Until some studio stands up and decides they won't stand for any more creative accounting (counting double features twice, rolling sneak preview grosses into movies that are already out, increasingly early Thursday previews counting as part of the Friday gross, etc.) or the studios cave into the pressure from the box office media (seems highly unlikely, but then again, we live in strange times), nothing about these practices is going to change. No studio is going to object too loudly because someday they know they will be the ones indulging in the same sort of trickery. We all know cases where the Deadline or Gitesh column will note the private industry grumbling about a particularly egregious case of fudging (cough Transformers) or an opening weekend estimate for a "record" that is obviously overstated and going to fall by like $3 million with actuals, but in the end, it's business as usual the next time around. But since all the studios have these tricks at their disposal it doesn't seem like an unfair advantage or anything. There's a lot of chance and luck involved with box office results, anyway.