Negative cost is the net expense toproduce and shoot afilm, excluding such expenditures asdistribution andpromotion.^[1]

Low-budget movies, for exampleThe 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 finalnegative.

• 'We call it martian accounting', Gary Susman,The Guardian, 31 August 2001
• IMDb Glossary - NArchived 2017-11-09 at theWayback Machine

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