BDifferent world now: money, heirs, and six billion dollars.
BBender posted on X that the Lord of the Rings films made almost six billion dollars, and Tolkien's heirs received nothing.
BIn 1969, J.R.R. Tolkien sold the film rights to United Artists. He was 77, and he needed money for a tax bill.
BThe deal gave the estate seven and a half percent of gross receipts. That's the key— gross, not net.
BAnd the heirs sued in 2009, claiming they'd been paid nothing. The case settled.
BNow I'm going to be the free market guy here. He sold the rights. The studio took all the risk. If the films flopped, the heirs still had the book money.
BHe sold it under pressure from a tax bill. That's not a free negotiation.
BPeople sell things under pressure all the time. The buyer didn't put a gun to his head.
BNo, but United Artists got the deal of the century— six billion in films for a song.
BThey also waited thirty years, spent hundreds of millions on production, and gambled on a fantasy trilogy in a pre-Game of Thrones world.
BAnd then made billions. The estate should share in that upside because the contract said so.
BHold on— gross receipts can be defined in a thousand ways. Distribution fees, marketing costs, exhibitor cuts all come out before the estate sees a check.
BThat's Hollywood accounting, Brian. You can make a blockbuster look like a loss on paper while someone pockets the profit.
BNo, no wait— a deal is a deal. You can't sell a car, then come back when the buyer restores it and sells for triple.
BThe car wasn't fully sold! The estate kept a seven and a half percent stake. If the car's new owner hides the sale price, that's fraud.
BOh, come on. The heirs settled. That means they accepted something. If they had a slam-dunk case, they'd have taken it to verdict.
BThey settled because lawsuits cost millions and studios have deep pockets. It's a war of attrition. The fact they got anything proves the messy accounting.
BFine. Hollywood accounting is real, and the estate probably got shorted. But they also sold the rights when they needed cash. That's the price of liquidity.
BI'll give you that. The bigger issue is that creators keep signing these deals because they need money now, and studios know it.
BSo what's the fix? Don't sell your rights. But then no films get made.
BOr negotiate better terms. Tolkien's deal actually had gross receipts, which is better than net. The heirs just couldn't enforce it.
BThat's fair. Enforcement is the hard part, especially across decades and corporate mergers.
BExactly. United Artists sold to MGM, then New Line got involved. The chain makes it easy to lose money.
BAlright, you've made your point. The estate probably got a raw deal, but the films exist and are beloved. Maybe that's the real inheritance.
BGrudgingly, I'll take it.
BSpeaking of files people quietly post: Tom Elliott posted on X that the FBI quietly put its Roy McGrath case file on the public Vault.
BI remember McGrath. He was Larry Hogan's chief of staff in Maryland, indicted for fraud, skipped trial, and died in an FBI encounter in Tennessee in 2023.
BThe post claims agents pulled 36 flash drives from his property. If that's true, the man kept everything on little sticks.
BBut I checked— the death and indictment are confirmed. The Vault file claim isn't. No official release.
BSo we have a rumor wrapped around a real, strange story. A former governor's top aide on the run, dead in an FBI stop.
BAnd now someone says the file is out there with all those flash drives. Maybe that's exactly why it got eighteen hundred shares.
BWe can't report shares, Bella. But the point is, people want to know what's on those drives.
BTrue. Until the FBI actually releases something, it's just a post on X.
BAnd that's the kind of thing that keeps us watching.