ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Hollywood accounting

Okay kiddo, so you know how movies and TV shows cost a lot of money to make, right? But did you know that sometimes the people who make those movies use something called "Hollywood accounting" to make it look like they didn't make as much money as they really did?

Here's how it works. Let's say a movie studio spends $100 million to make a movie. That's a lot of money! But then let's say that movie makes $200 million at the box office. You might think the movie studio made a lot of profit - $100 million, right?

Well, that's not how Hollywood accounting works. The movie studio might say that they actually spent $200 million to make the movie, when they really only spent $100 million. They might say that they spent money on things like "marketing and distribution" that cost a lot more than they actually did.

So even though the movie made $200 million, the studio can say that they actually lost money on it because they spent so much money making and promoting it. And because of this, the people who were supposed to get a share of the profits (like the actors and directors) don't end up getting as much money as they thought they would.

Some people think that Hollywood accounting is kind of sneaky and unfair, because it makes it hard for people who work on movies to get the money they deserve. But it's something that's been going on in Hollywood for a long time, and it doesn't look like it's going to go away anytime soon.