Studios inflate production budgets so it appears the films lose money in order to cut out investors/producers/etc from net profit participation. The studios make their money on distribution and by charging exorbitant rates. A lot of money goes from one pocket to the other of the same company at these exorbitant rates. Here's how to cut:

- Studios charge production overhead fees in excess of 35% reducing significantly the amount of money spent on the actual production

- Studios charge interest in excess of 20% on all expenses incurred in development, production and development

- Producers are required by the studio to contract with vendors they either partially own or have pre-negotiated rates with the studios

- Example, Technicolor pays Universal $25 million at the beginning of the year to be the exclusive lab for all Universal productions. Then Technicolor charges inflated rates to Universal. The $25 million offsets this and the result is the production budget is artificially (i.e. criminally) inflated.

- Example, studios may make a producer pay 40 cents a foot for negative film processing vs 15 cents normally, or up to $4 per foot for release prints vs $1.50. (this data is old)

- A fair system using digital cameras and related technology (e.g. visualization, digital 3D mapping), along with digital distribution to cinemas, should reduce the production and distribution cost of a major film to a few million. +advertising

Same things happens with marketing. The studios will advertise a film through their TV network, all while controlling the prices and limiting net profit participation for the outside investors and producers. All this is a clear case of financial fraud and is known as - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting