raptorific:

So, apparently some folks are pretty mad that people are boycotting the Ender’s Game movie, saying that it’s screwing over all the people who worked on it and ignoring the fact that Lionsgate is doing its best to counteract Orson Scott Card’s donations to hate groups

Of course, that completely ignores a few things:

That’s not how movies are made. The film’s entire production has already been paid for. That’s the role of a producer. The producers pay millions of dollars to have a movie made. The reason they charge admission for movies is not to pay the employees.

Once the movie’s done being made, everyone who worked on the film has already been paid. Their salaries are included in the film’s budget, and the film’s budget is supplied up front by the producers and investors.

Now, if a movie makes back its budget, it breaks even and the producers have neither lost nor gained any money on the project. If a movie makes more than its budget, it has cut a profit, and the producers end up with more money than they started with.

If a movie makes back less than its budget, that means the producers end up with less money than they started with, or to simplify, they lost money on the movie. 

And that’s where the boycott comes in: The people who are hurt by a boycott on Ender’s Game are:

1. Orson Scott Card
2. People who gave Orson Scott Card their money so he could try to turn it into more money

It also totally ignores the fact that Orson Scott Card wouldn’t have movie profits to donate to hate groups if he didn’t have a movie, meaning Lionsgate wouldn’t have jack shit to counteract if they hadn’t produced his movie in the first place.

So basically, I’m happy to choose not to spend my money on a ticket or copy of Ender’s Game, knowing that Orson Scott Card will get back less of the money he’s already given to the cast and crew of the film, and that spending that money on cast and crew salaries means he can’t donate it to hate groups.