Always Losing Money

[Doug_Dimmadome]

I find it incredibly hard not to go bankrupt. You can't make profitable movies without spending money on better tech, actors, and advertisements. Even when you spend money, everything is so low quality you don't make a profit at the box office, or at least a negligible amount. By 1931-32 I am almost always drowning.

It doesn't help almost every event during production is aimed against you. Actors are absolutely nightmares, especially the drunk you get from the start. No event ever improves mood or film quality, just takes it away, so by the end of the production a 8.3 script turns into 4.0 slop that nobody pays to see.

This game has so much potential, but right now what's the point in playing it with so much stacked against you?

[Larmendra]

It does feel like every filming is just the oregon trail and making a decent movie is just not worth the effort, needs a balance patch definitely

[jtm]

Yes the game is not balanced at all, it really need a hotfix about this asap it makes the game unplayable unfortunately

[Lord Brian of Brianton]

It's good point about the events. There appear to be no positive events? Everything is just something that hurts your production and wallet.

All of that would be fine if you could actually make money on the end product but the returns just aren't there.

[TSpirit_Wycc]

I know this is going to sound weird, but I've noticed that cost optimization is just essential for survival. Otherwise, you're really going bankrupt.

What worked for me:
I fired the starting composers and editors
Starting employees are VERY expensive, for example Emma Berry is worth $14,300 every month, although if you fire her, she immediately appears on the job market demanding a salary 2.5 times less than the starting salary she had. And there are tons of overpaid employees like that.

I didn't use high quality actors, but took cheap low quality actors with a good attitude, it greatly increased the quality of the movie while these actors cost ~$3k for 3 years. After that I stamped mid-rated movies one after another.

Screenwriters wrote the script almost on the same working template copying 2-3 successful movies.

Yes I realize that this strategy sounds cheesy, but the utilities for electricity and water at the studio are ~$1.5kk$ a year, which means that the revenue from the movies should as a MINIMUM cover it.

There are a couple other ways, but I don't want to spoil the game for those who read this, so I suggest you discover it yourself.

[Larmendra]

Originally posted by TSpirit_Wycc:

I know this is going to sound weird, but I've noticed that cost optimization is just essential for survival. Otherwise, you're really going bankrupt.

What worked for me:
I fired the starting composers and editors
Starting employees are VERY expensive, for example Emma Berry is worth $14,300 every month, although if you fire her, she immediately appears on the job market demanding a salary 2.5 times less than the starting salary she had. And there are tons of overpaid employees like that.

I didn't use high quality actors, but took cheap low quality actors with a good attitude, it greatly increased the quality of the movie while these actors cost ~$3k for 3 years. After that I stamped mid-rated movies one after another.

Screenwriters wrote the script almost on the same working template copying 2-3 successful movies.

Yes I realize that this strategy sounds cheesy, but the utilities for electricity and water at the studio are ~$1.5kk$ a year, which means that the revenue from the movies should as a MINIMUM cover it.

There are a couple other ways, but I don't want to spoil the game for those who read this, so I suggest you discover it yourself.

That's a problem, min-maxing just to stay alive shouldn't be the gameplay. I'm not going for an achivement or a challenge, just playing the game normally shouldn't require that.

[Larmendra]

No investment has a worthwile return, you really need to churn out cheapest and fastest romcoms or you're going bankrupt, this shouldn't be the case.

[Machaon]

Right now, it is too hard to earn money.
It seems you have to know every detail at start to not go bankrupt or, like Tspirit said, cheese the game to survive.

1.) The game doesnt describe its mechanics at all (How does everything you have and can do while making the movie impact the film quality and making money? I dont know after going bankrupt twice after two years)
2.) The mechanics mostly seem to punish you (mood always going down and you cant do nothing against that at start -> film quality goes down; your starting employees suck -> film quality goes down; random events are mostly bad -> film quality goes down)
3.) Do you need all the buildings? How does the quality of the buildings impact the game? Dont know, but It seems you need most of the buildings -> much money gone to build them and then your payroll is going straight up
4.) Should I use other movie theaters? The starting film uses it, so I used it. But should I or not? How does it affect ticket sales and Income? Don´t know
5.) Should I hire my employees per movie or per year? I tried both and the movie quality still went straight down. (the mafia movie you get later went from 8/9 script quality to a final 4/5 quality, although I hired only the best available on every position for that movie, all had 7/8.. what???)

All that and the movies you do barely make profit. It should be fun to play, not a nightmare to survive the first two years.

it is a promising game and I know, I will have fun with it. But right now? So unbalanced, while not describing anything, that it sucked every fun out of it for me.

[cx2325]

I blame people who start whining about the game being "too easy" every single time a new tycoon game comes out. But yeah, I have no idea how to make money here. Only the tutorial movie is profitable, every single one I produce afterwards turns out to be a flop and I go bankrupt.

[Angry Trash]

I did the math on the studio costs per month of production vs the actual payout of a highly successful #1 in spot movie.

600k to produce, but 1.26m in monthly costs to run the studio. Against a profit of 2.4m for two months (which actually is another 140k each month, so really less than 300k profit which you cannot afford anything with.)

[Niko Raviel]

I find it's extremely easy to overspend on a movie, I find keeping in mind how good the ratings are and matching cost to it keeps you from going in the red. Also a big mistake i made several times over is overspending [and sometimes under spending] on marketing.

Marketing will make and break your movie, targeting the wrong audience hurts a lot but you can still make a small profit. not giving your marketing enough time before launch also will hurt you at the end, I also find taking advantage of holidays can save a film especially if the other studios movies are not lined up the same day.

that's another thing you have to be very careful of, timing your release outside of another blockbuster hit. think of it as if you're a indie movie and you release next to titanic, ain't no one gonna pick your movie over titanic.

I will say the balancing of employee happiness is pretty rough in the start, which may need some balance tweaks. for the first 5 years I haven't had a issue with making at least a small profit for majority of movies with a few really cursed productions where rng is not in my favor and the quality takes a huge dump to the point i'll never get the production cost out of it, but in a way drives down the end profit a bit which isn't always a bad thing when the tax rate is taken into effect.

will say the game doesn't hold your hand and gives you just the very bare essentials to get you going and expects you to figure ♥♥♥♥ out on your own which I personally like but can see how some may not be as fond of.

another easy money pit you can land in is paying too much for too much talent that you can't use to the fullest ability. it's better to get budget average talent then it is to overpay for a 10 star that you can't use to the max.

also poaching talent with low demanded salary is ESSENTIAL

[Fantasy]

The key to success is having a good happiness across your staff, if happiness is good - they will increase the film quality.
You can maintain a good happiness with gifts and improving your area quality (you need to unlock it in tech tree). Having 8 hours shifts helps too, but you can maintain good happiness with gifts and 2 grade area.
Use script constructors, you don’t need 8-8 script to be profitable, you can be profitable even with 3-3/4-4 scripts. Even if the final production is low, you can still profit. Just don’t buy a lot of screenings from 3rd party theatres. I buy around 3-4k for the first two weeks (max in first week), then start declining.
Showing movies in your theatres is free, that will allow you to always extend your movie for another 4 week for free.

[karembundle]

I recall during the first couple of play-throughs of the demo I went bankrupt, but no issues now, just lots of mid- to low-score 8 week run movies. The big thing I was losing money on was movie theatre rentals, so now I only rent 4K/3K/2K/1K (unless a movie is opening on a holiday, then maybe go 6K), and for the extended 4 weeks I dont advertise or rent at all, costs $19 a week to run your movie, even if you only make 25K a week, that's easy money. Haven't lost money on a movie in years now.

ALso agree with above, using gifts to make sure everyone is happy seems to help, although that seems way more balanced now than the demo, almost ALL employees were unhappy in the demo, gave out more watches, cigars, and whisky than I suspect will be required now.

As mentioned above, also lost some of the high wage low talent actors early on. I usually end up having to hire for each movie, usually producers (which is a pain until you get to the spot they can work on 2 movies at a time).

It will be interesting to see what happens once you can actually increase the quality of the equipment, sets, props etc, and if I can start renting more than the basic 4K a week :)

[wendingo]

Originally posted by TSpirit_Wycc:

I know this is going to sound weird, but I've noticed that cost optimization is just essential for survival. Otherwise, you're really going bankrupt.

What worked for me:
I fired the starting composers and editors
Starting employees are VERY expensive, for example Emma Berry is worth $14,300 every month, although if you fire her, she immediately appears on the job market demanding a salary 2.5 times less than the starting salary she had. And there are tons of overpaid employees like that.

I didn't use high quality actors, but took cheap low quality actors with a good attitude, it greatly increased the quality of the movie while these actors cost ~$3k for 3 years. After that I stamped mid-rated movies one after another.

Screenwriters wrote the script almost on the same working template copying 2-3 successful movies.

Yes I realize that this strategy sounds cheesy, but the utilities for electricity and water at the studio are ~$1.5kk$ a year, which means that the revenue from the movies should as a MINIMUM cover it.

There are a couple other ways, but I don't want to spoil the game for those who read this, so I suggest you discover it yourself.

So, you did what real successful studios do and it worked. Seems like that is the way it should work.

[Niko Raviel]

Originally posted by karembundle:

I recall during the first couple of play-throughs of the demo I went bankrupt, but no issues now, just lots of mid- to low-score 8 week run movies. The big thing I was losing money on was movie theatre rentals, so now I only rent 4K/3K/2K/1K (unless a movie is opening on a holiday, then maybe go 6K), and for the extended 4 weeks I dont advertise or rent at all, costs $19 a week to run your movie, even if you only make 25K a week, that's easy money. Haven't lost money on a movie in years now.

ALso agree with above, using gifts to make sure everyone is happy seems to help, although that seems way more balanced now than the demo, almost ALL employees were unhappy in the demo, gave out more watches, cigars, and whisky than I suspect will be required now.

As mentioned above, also lost some of the high wage low talent actors early on. I usually end up having to hire for each movie, usually producers (which is a pain until you get to the spot they can work on 2 movies at a time).

It will be interesting to see what happens once you can actually increase the quality of the equipment, sets, props etc, and if I can start renting more than the basic 4K a week :)

to me I'm unsure how people are finding it impossible not to make money, I have a strong feeling they are way overspending somewhere that doesn't give them any return. I do find the marketing has a bit of a learning curve but once you get the formula you do much better and is a slow ball rolling and I'm already experiencing jumps in my profits in movies as i improve the overall quality and fine tune the spending.

[Angry Trash]

Originally posted by Fantasy:

The key to success is having a good happiness across your staff, if happiness is good - they will increase the film quality.
You can maintain a good happiness with gifts and improving your area quality (you need to unlock it in tech tree). Having 8 hours shifts helps too, but you can maintain good happiness with gifts and 2 grade area.
Use script constructors, you don’t need 8-8 script to be profitable, you can be profitable even with 3-3/4-4 scripts. Even if the final production is low, you can still profit. Just don’t buy a lot of screenings from 3rd party theatres. I buy around 3-4k for the first two weeks (max in first week), then start declining.
Showing movies in your theatres is free, that will allow you to always extend your movie for another 4 week for free.

Happiness was made worse than the demo wrt decay speed and impact of gifts. Beelining all of the happiness skills as early as possible still takes 5+ years, which is almost as much as the lowest loan research, which will put you teetering on the edge of bankruptcy in most usecases. Aside from writers and directors, I have only chosen the lowest budget staff, and am still doing 140k a month without hiring a single soul. An 8/8 movie is not profitable, as I already demonstrated above, I only rented ~1.5k movie theaters and had a return of 2.4m on a 600k budget, BUT the monthly costs for a total of 11 months added to the budget meant I got 2.4m back on 2.1-2.3m, which is nowhere near profitable. This is before I have to spend on marketing myself because of the 3 movie deal at the start of the game. I am down to 2.2m having only bought essentials and having only released movies that were "profitable" in the 600k-2m range. I have not bought any gifts, I have not hired any talent I didn't start with aside from the "choose a contract" stuff where 8/10 staff were the lowest budget.