‘Bones’ Profit Participation Lawsuits Moved to Arbitration
In which we learn that Rupert Murdoch is willing to screw his biggest stars and producers because he can.
What made the litigation even more noteworthy was the explicit details of so-called “Hollywood accounting,” or as Josephson’s complaint put it, the “veritable mother lode of accounting chicanery and self-dealing.”
Court papers provided an almost Sony Hack degree of secrets including the precise licensing fees earned from countries worldwide and what the show paid for things like animal handlers, music and insurance, not to mention salaries for the directors and editors who worked on the series. Ultimately, a drama that took in nearly a half a billion dollars in its first seven seasons was in the red after expenses and distribution fees. A suspicious auditor’s report flagged everything from the manner in which Fox was licensing the show to itself to the failure to report advertising revenue from episodes exhibited on Hulu and fox.com.
More: ‘Bones’ Profit Participation Lawsuits Moved to Arbitration - Hollywood Reporter