system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How come movies that gross twice or more times their Production Budget are sometimes considered "Unprofitable"?

I have seen it a lot of times: movies whose Box Office grosses are several times higher than their Production Budgets are considered Flops, or in the best case they "barely broke even". Are there extra spendings outside of Production that can be even higher than the Production Budget itself?
gpt
Movies set up a dummy corporation that exists for the production and distribution of that movie. They "outsource" things like advertising to the studio who "charge" very high fees. Even if the movie takes in a lot of money, they have that very big advertising bill to pay off, so all the money goes up to the studio, and none stays with the company that actually made the movie, making it not profitable on paper.