Negative cost

Not to be confused with Negative pricing.

Negative cost is the net expense to produce and shoot a film, excluding such expenditures as distribution and promotion.^[1]

Low-budget movies, for example The Blair Witch Project, can have promotional expenses that are much larger than the negative cost.^[2]

The term comes from the costs up to the production of the final negative.

References

1. Barnes & Noble Glossary http://video.barnesandnoble.com/search/glossary.asp?z=y&LTR=N&TRM=1007105Retrieved 2007-02-12 Archived 2009-07-31 at the Wayback Machine
2. IMDb Explanation for differences in reported budget https://www.imdb.com/help/show_leaf?boxofficedifferentRetrieved 2007-02-12 Archived 2016-03-07 at the Wayback Machine

External links

• 'We call it martian accounting', Gary Susman, The Guardian, 31 August 2001
• IMDb Glossary - N Archived 2017-11-09 at the Wayback Machine