Hollywood studios have multiple books they use to cheat everyone. Below is an explanation. This is why actors ask for money upfront as they know they will be cheated otherwise.
Hollywood accounting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting
Example is The Lord of the Rings films which made $6 billion but the studio New Line’s says the trilogy made “horrendous losses” and no profit at all!
The Star Wars films and the Harry Potter films all show losses yet the studio heads and the producers all live in nice homes and have lots of money.
George Lucas only became what he is now by being dissed by the studio honchos for the first Star War's movie. Since he could not get them to develop it, he used his own earnings from "American Graffiti" and got Fox to do the production and distribution. He did Fox the 'favor' of keeping his director fee at the standard 150k in return for sequel rights, merchandizing and spin-offs.
All this and he is, by his own words, anti-capitalist because people are greedy. From a 2012 interview with Charlie Rose / CBS - "You got people -- you know, basically, it's all -- we got a country based on greed. And as long as you got that, then it's corrupt. And as long as it's corrupt, you're never gonna get a real meeting of the minds on what is best for --"
SIGH!