How do you agree a fair box office split between a venue and producer?

The venue offers you 70% of the box office. Another offers 75%. You're bringing the same production, selling the same tickets and paying the same cast, so the second offer sounds better.

Then you find the house costs that come out before the split.

A fair box office split starts with a shared definition of the money you're dividing, the services each business supplies and the losses each can afford. Agree those first, then test the percentage against realistic sales. The offer worth accepting is the one that pays for the work and risk you're taking, with a calculation both sides can check.

This matters whether you're the producer booking a small theatre or the venue programming somebody else's show. You can agree a generous-looking percentage and still discover that your business loses money on every performance. You can also reject a lower percentage that would have left you better off because it included the technician, rehearsal access and audience campaign you needed.

Let's work through the deal, including a complete fictional settlement, minimum guarantees, deductions and what happens when sales disappoint. The examples use invented USD figures to explain the choices. They aren't recommended rates, forecasts or actual venue deals.

Start with what each business is agreeing to provide

Before discussing the percentage, describe the booking in ordinary language. The producer supplies a complete production for an agreed run. The venue supplies a particular space, access and whatever other services the parties negotiate. Ticket income will fund some or all of that work, but the agreement needs to say whose costs get paid and when.

Write down the performances, the permitted ticket inventory for each one, rehearsal and technical access, audience admission times and the deadline for removing the production. Confirm whether the booking includes an exclusive room or shared facilities. A four-performance run with a full technical day is a different purchase from four evening slots with an hour to load in.

Then list responsibilities. Who provides the front-of-house team, technician, cleaning, ticket sales, publicity materials and customer support? Which equipment is included? Who pays for extra hours? If you need accessible performance arrangements, describe the actual service and its cost rather than assuming a general promise of support covers it.

The venue should ask equally direct questions about the production. What arrives ready to use? How many people are touring? What equipment, dressing space and turnaround time does the show need? A percentage cannot compensate for a technical requirement that the building cannot meet.

Adelaide Fringe's own guide to venue hire structures distinguishes fixed hire, a box office split and arrangements combining hire with a share. Its guidance connects the charge to the services supplied. That's a useful starting point for this conversation, rather than assuming every offer called a split includes the same support.

If you're negotiating the wider booking document, our event venue contract template develops access, services and cancellation terms. Here, we're concentrating on how the venue and producing company divide admission income for the whole production. Payments to individual performers need their own agreements and budget.

Define the box office before you divide it

"Gross" and "net" sound precise until two finance teams use them differently. One person means ticket face value before deductions. Another means the amount after ticket taxes. A third means whatever the ticket seller deposits into the venue's bank account. Put the calculation in the agreement so nobody has to guess.

Start with the actual admission sales included in the deal. State whether that covers advance sales, the venue box office, cash and card sales at the door, group bookings and any approved outside sales channel. Include the whole agreed run, or specify a separate calculation for each performance. Those choices can produce different results when guarantees or minimum charges apply.

Next, identify reductions and exclusions. Completed refunds reduce the admission revenue retained. Discounts mean you count the amount actually paid, rather than multiplying every ticket by the full advertised price. Complimentary admissions create no ticket income. Tickets included in a package need an agreed admission value, especially when the package also includes a meal or merchandise.

Separate a buyer booking fee from admission revenue if that's what the deal requires. Establish who receives that fee and what it pays for. A payment processing cost already deducted from reported receipts must not come out a second time under another name. A bank payout can also contain several events, so it may need reconciliation before it becomes an input to this production's account.

Tax needs a specific answer for the actual businesses and location. Ask your accountant which admission taxes apply, who accounts for them, whether amounts include recoverable tax and how payments between the venue and producer are treated. A commercial label such as "our share" doesn't establish the tax treatment. Write down the agreed calculation after that review.

A useful working definition might say that the split applies to admission revenue actually retained after completed refunds, specified ticket taxes and listed ticketing costs. It should then identify exactly which further production or house costs, if any, are deductible. If the answer is none, say so. Don't leave a blank that somebody fills with a cleaning invoice later.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe's guidance for touring companies specifically tells companies to ask what costs come out of gross box office income before it is shared. It also distinguishes several payment structures. The practical lesson is to bring your own cost budget into the negotiation and calculate what the proposed terms would leave you.

Compare two offers using the same production

Here's a fictional four-performance run. The agreed layout provides 150 ticket-holder places per performance, or 600 across the run, within the venue's separately checked lawful occupancy arrangements. Originally, 480 tickets sell for $30 each. Twenty are fully refunded, leaving 460 valid paid tickets and $13,800 in retained admission sales.

The $30 admission value is after any separately assessed ticket taxes. The parties have agreed $800 of ticketing and payment costs for this example, leaving $13,000 available for their deal. Cost figures include any irrecoverable purchase taxes and exclude recoverable amounts. There is no sponsorship, bar or merchandise income, and no additional tax or withholding on the transfers in this fictional model. The results below are before financing costs and business income tax.

The producer has $8,000 of production costs. That includes cast and creative fees, rehearsal, travel, scenery and its allocated management time. The venue has $2,400 of costs allocated to supplying this run, including the agreed house staff, technical provision and premises costs. These are assumed full costs for comparing the booking, not just the cash either business spends on show night.

Offer A pays the producer 70% of the $13,000. The venue receives 30%, with its agreed house services included and no further house-cost deduction. The producer receives $9,100 and has $1,100 left after its $8,000 production costs. The venue receives $3,900 and has $1,500 left after its $2,400 costs.

Offer B pays the producer 75%, but only after the venue first recovers the agreed $2,400 of house costs. That leaves $10,600 to split. The producer receives $7,950 and finishes $50 below its $8,000 cost. The venue receives the $2,400 reimbursement plus 25% of $10,600, or $5,050 altogether. After its $2,400 costs, it has $2,650 left.

The producer's higher percentage has left it $1,150 worse off. That's the effect of changing the amount being divided. It doesn't prove that taking house costs first is unfair. It proves that the two offers allocate the same production's return differently, and the producer needs to negotiate a deal it can deliver.

Across both businesses, each offer leaves the same $2,600 after the assumed combined $10,400 costs. The split changes who receives it. If the venue adds genuinely useful services or the producer reduces a cost, that total can change. Merely moving a deduction ahead of the percentage doesn't create more money for the production.

Keep that distinction in mind during negotiation. You can argue about how to divide the available return, or work together to improve it through credible sales and cost changes. Both discussions are legitimate. They're easier to have when the first version of the calculation is visible.

Decide which costs can come out first

A deduction gives one business priority over the revenue before the percentage applies. That can be a substantial commercial benefit. Treat the list of deductions as carefully as the percentage itself, especially when one side controls the spending and the other side funds part of it through a smaller share.

For every proposed deduction, record the item, the basis of the charge and its maximum. "One house technician for the agreed access hours, actual cost up to the approved amount" lets you inspect a bill. "Technical expenses" could cover extra people, equipment and time you never requested. If the charge is a fixed service price rather than reimbursement of an actual cost, label it that way.

Agree what happens when spending falls below the cap. An actual-cost deduction should use the supported actual amount under the agreed rules. A fixed charge may remain fixed. Either approach can be clear, but presenting a fixed charge as an estimate of reimbursable cost creates avoidable disagreement at settlement.

Check whether a service is already paid for elsewhere. If the venue's percentage includes front-of-house staff, the same staff hours should not also reduce the split pool unless the parties expressly agreed that structure. A separate hire charge and a percentage can be perfectly clear. What causes trouble is discovering the combined charge only after the run.

Extra spending needs an approval route. Name who can request another technician, approve overtime or expand a campaign. Record the amount, what the change buys and whether it changes the shared calculation. For urgent safety decisions, agree who can act immediately and how they will record the decision. Separately, agree how the businesses will determine who pays the resulting cost.

Keep an agreed cost cap meaningful. If it excludes taxes, compulsory supplier charges or minimum crew calls, the maximum you thought you accepted may be incomplete. Ask for the total payable amount and the conditions that could change it. Price those conditions before confirming a show whose schedule is likely to trigger them.

The UK's Musicians' Union guidance on live engagement deals warns musicians to check for hidden deductions such as equipment hire and promotion costs. Its advice concerns musician engagements, rather than setting a venue-producer rate. The same reading habit helps here: identify every charge that can reduce the agreed payment.

Make minimum guarantees explicit about who gets paid

"There's a minimum guarantee" isn't enough information. Ask which business receives it, which business owes it and whether it replaces a percentage or is added to one. Then ask whether the guarantee covers a performance, a week or the whole run. Write the answer into a calculation before discussing the deposit.

A producer guarantee can require the venue to pay the producer a minimum fee for delivering the production, even when admission revenue is lower than expected. A venue minimum can require the producer to pay a minimum house amount. They protect different businesses. Calling both a guarantee doesn't make their effect interchangeable.

The Edinburgh touring guidance describes a guarantee against a box office percentage as paying whichever is greater. It also describes other arrangements, including guarantees with additional shares. Use the actual written formula for your booking. A guarantee plus a percentage can cost much more than a guarantee compared with that percentage.

For our fictional run, suppose the producer is offered the higher of $9,000 or 70% of the same defined revenue. At $13,000, the percentage produces $9,100, so that is the producer's total entitlement. The $9,000 isn't added again. Its $8,000 production cost still leaves $1,100 under these assumptions.

Now reduce the defined revenue to $7,000, keeping both businesses' costs unchanged. The percentage would pay $4,900, so the $9,000 guarantee applies instead. The producer has $1,000 left after its costs. The venue must fund a $2,000 gap between the ticket revenue and producer payment, plus its own $2,400 cost. Its result is a $4,400 loss.

That guarantee has moved substantial sales risk to the venue. It might be a deal the venue accepts for a production it wants to present, but its finance team needs to approve the exposure. Ticket revenue alone will not pay that obligation in the weak-sales scenario. The venue needs another identified source of cash.

Consider the opposite protection. If the venue receives the higher of $3,000 or 30% of revenue, $7,000 of revenue gives it the $3,000 minimum. The producer receives the remaining $4,000 and loses $4,000 against its $8,000 costs. The venue has $600 after its $2,400 costs. The guarantee's direction changes who bears the shortfall.

These are alternative fictional offers, not charges to combine. The agreement must also resolve what happens if receipts cannot cover a venue minimum, whether either business must make an additional payment and whether that liability is limited. Don't let a spreadsheet quietly invent a right to collect a shortfall that the contract hasn't established.

Check whether the guarantee resets for each performance

A minimum for the whole run and a minimum for every performance can produce different payments, even if the headline totals look similar. Work through an uneven sales pattern, because opening night and the final weekend may sell very differently.

As a separate fictional illustration, take two performances with defined revenue of $2,000 and $8,000. The venue receives the higher of $1,500 or 30% for each performance. The first pays the venue $1,500, and the second pays $2,400. Its total is $3,900. If the deal instead compares a $3,000 run minimum with 30% of the combined $10,000, the venue receives $3,000. The difference is $900 from the same revenue.

Neither formula is inherently a mistake. The problem is approving a budget that assumes one while the contract requires the other. Identify whether strong performances can offset weaker ones before a minimum applies. Also decide how an added, removed or rescheduled performance changes the calculation. A run guarantee should not rely on an unstated assumption about the number of dates delivered.

For the producer, this affects the risk of agreeing extra performances. Another date may add ticket opportunity, but it may also create a new minimum, another crew call and additional cast payments. Calculate the additional income and costs of that date before accepting it. For the venue, specify any limits on extending access or occupying the room between dates so the financial offer matches the space actually reserved.

Test a weak run before agreeing to a strong one

Go back to the simple 70% producer, 30% venue offer with no house deductions. At $7,000 of defined revenue, the producer receives $4,900 and loses $3,100 after its costs. The venue receives $2,100 and loses $300 after its costs. Both have exposure, but the losses are very different.

Under Offer B, the venue recovers $2,400 first and the remaining $4,600 is split 75% to the producer. The producer receives $3,450 and loses $4,550. The venue receives $3,550 including the cost recovery, leaving $1,150 after its costs. A percentage deal can leave one side profitable while the other carries a considerable loss.

That's why "we share the risk" needs more explanation. Which costs must each side commit before sales? Can either side reduce them? Who has control over pricing and promotion? Does one business recover its costs first? A description of the arrangement should make those differences clear enough for both parties to decide whether they can accept them.

Also test revenue below the costs that are supposed to come out first. If Offer B produces only $1,500, it cannot reimburse $2,400 from the box office. For a model where the venue recovers only available receipts, receives no separate shortfall payment and takes the remaining loss itself, it receives $1,500, loses $900 and leaves no revenue to split. The producer loses its $8,000 production cost.

A different agreement could require the producer to fund the missing $900. That would change both results. Make this an explicit negotiation point. The phrase "costs first" tells you an order of payment; it doesn't fully describe what happens when there isn't enough money.

Work out the revenue each business needs. Under Offer A, dividing the producer's $8,000 cost by 70% gives approximately $11,428.57 of required defined revenue. Apply the agreed rounding rule when calculating the actual payment. The venue needs $8,000 to cover $2,400 at 30%. Compare those requirements with credible sales evidence and the actual ticket inventory. A budget only works if the necessary sales can happen.

For the ticket-sales plan itself, our community theatre ticket sales guide covers the audience offer and selling process. Keep the financial decision tied to expected retained ticket income, including discounts and refunds, rather than assuming every available place sells at the highest price.

Negotiate services that change the production's result

Once both sides understand the calculation, ask what could improve it. A lower venue percentage helps the producer, but so might included rehearsal space, a technician whose hours match the actual schedule, or a clear commitment to reach a suitable local audience. Put a practical value on the service you're discussing.

If the producer would otherwise hire a rehearsal room, included access can remove a real cost. Check that the space is available on the required dates and suitable for the work. Access that clashes with the cast's paid rehearsal schedule may have little value. Use the cost you can actually avoid, rather than the venue's most expensive published room rate.

Promotion deserves similar scrutiny. "We'll promote the show" could mean a listing, a customer email, paid advertising or a poster in the foyer. Specify the activity, timing, responsible person and any spending. Agree when the producer must supply artwork and copy. A promised email cannot help opening-night sales if the required material arrives after the send date.

Ask about comparable productions and local demand without treating historical success as a guarantee. What kind of show sold? How many performances were offered? What prices and discounts applied? Was the audience drawn by an established artist, the venue or a local partnership? Those details help you judge whether the comparison is useful for your own run.

The venue should assess the producer's contribution with the same care. A production may bring suitable creative material, an existing audience, a reliable touring team and a manageable technical specification. Those contributions can justify different terms from a new show that requires substantial support. Negotiate against the work and uncertainty in this booking, rather than claiming one side always deserves a fixed share.

For access, technical changes and cancellation rights, keep the financial schedule connected to the signed production documents. If the venue removes a promised technical day, decide how the replacement cost and timetable will be handled. A percentage agreed for one service package shouldn't quietly remain attached to a reduced one.

Agree who controls prices, discounts and complimentary tickets

Your income share depends on choices somebody makes while the show is on sale. Name who can set the initial prices, approve a discount, release held seats and issue complimentary tickets. A producer can't budget from full-price sales if the venue can run unrestricted promotions that reduce the shared revenue.

That doesn't mean every small sales decision needs a meeting. Agree the permitted offers in advance, including their quantities and dates. Allow a named person to act within those limits. Require approval for changes outside them, with a response deadline that suits the sales campaign. The aim is a workable selling process and a reliable financial record.

Treat comps as inventory decisions as well as revenue decisions. Record the agreed allocation for each side, its purpose and the deadline for releasing unused holds. Don't imply that every comp displaces a sale. An unsold seat and a sold-out performance have different commercial consequences, even though both require accurate counts and compliance with the approved occupancy arrangements.

Decide how accessible booking arrangements and companion admissions work before sales open. The applicable legal duties and the venue's actual arrangements need to be met. Your commercial schedule should say how those admissions are recorded, who manages requests and what enters the revenue calculation. Avoid an argument at settlement that should have been resolved during booking.

With Loopyah's ticketing platform, you can choose for each event whether to add the ticketing fee at checkout or cover it within your ticket price. Make that decision before approving the split calculation, then use the actual fee treatment consistently. It affects what buyers pay and what the businesses have agreed to share.

The platform choice also has to fit any venue or festival ticketing requirements. Establish who is entitled to sell, which channels are permitted and who controls the event account before promising a particular setup. A product feature doesn't override a signed exclusive ticketing arrangement.

Keep ticket income, other income and costs separate

A box office split normally describes admission income in the agreement you're negotiating. It doesn't automatically include the venue's bar, the producer's merchandise, sponsorship or a recording licence. Identify any additional income explicitly and give it its own calculation if it requires one.

For a bar share, establish whether the producer receives a percentage of sales, an amount per attendee or a share after specified costs. Define the service period, the relevant tills and the supporting report. Food and beverage revenue collected elsewhere in the building may not belong to the production's arrangement. If a minimum spend applies, describe how it interacts with the ticket deal.

Merchandise needs its own practical terms. Who supplies the stock and sales staff? Is the venue charging commission or a fixed selling service fee? Are card costs included? The producer's merchandise turnover isn't the same as its profit after manufacturing and staffing. Include only the agreed measure when comparing offers.

Likewise, a sponsor's payment may come with production costs, guest allocations or promised promotional work. Don't add the full payment to the available return and ignore those obligations. Record which business holds the agreement and which part, if any, belongs to this run. In-kind support can reduce a cost without producing cash for settlement.

Keep performer payments separate from the venue-producer division. The producing company may owe fixed fees, royalties or other payments regardless of its own final share. Our artist performance contract guide develops those booking terms. A producer losing money under the venue deal doesn't, by itself, rewrite what it promised its cast or suppliers.

When both businesses are genuinely financing and producing the event together, they may need a broader co-production account. Our co-promoter settlement guide explains funding returns, partner-paid expenses and profit distributions. Use the structure that matches the relationship instead of forcing every commercial collaboration into a ticket-percentage calculation.

Build a settlement statement before the first performance

Settlement is the final calculation of what each business is owed, followed by the agreed payments. Design the statement while you're negotiating. If you can't fill it in with sample figures, you haven't finished agreeing the deal. It should be possible for somebody who missed the sales discussions to reproduce the result from the contract and supporting records.

For events sold through Loopyah's event financial view, sales, refunds and fees feed into the event figures automatically, and you add external production costs. It also separates cash from profit. Use those connected figures to check the income and costs you need here. The additional decision is how the venue agreement allocates them, which deductions it permits and what each business must approve before payment.

Start with the run, legal businesses, agreement version, currency and reporting cut-off. List admission sales by channel, completed refunds and the adjustments needed to reach the defined revenue. Then show the permitted deductions, the percentage or guarantee calculation, previous payments and the balance now due. Identify anything provisional and its next review date.

Use Offer A to complete the fictional statement:

• Original admission sales, 480 tickets at $30: $14,400.

• Completed refunds, 20 tickets at $30: $600.

• Retained admission sales, 460 valid paid tickets: $13,800.

• Agreed ticketing and payment costs: $800.

• Defined revenue for the split: $13,000.

• Producer entitlement, 70%: $9,100.

• Venue entitlement, 30%: $3,900.

• Earlier advance paid by the venue to the producer: $2,000.

• Producer balance still payable: $7,100.

Assume the venue collected all the sales revenue and paid the $800 ticketing and payment costs. Its own $2,400 house costs are paid separately from its share. The producer's $8,000 production costs are paid from its entitlement. The advance reduces the producer's remaining payment once; it doesn't reduce defined revenue or create another production cost.

For a cash check, assume every ticket receipt has arrived and all those payments have cleared. Retained admission sales of $13,800, less $800 ticket costs, less $2,400 house costs, less the $2,000 advance, leave $8,600 with the venue. Paying the $7,100 balance leaves its $1,500 result. The producer receives $9,100 in total and has $1,100 after its costs.

In a real settlement, the venue may still be awaiting ticket payouts or supplier invoices. Show those timing differences separately. The bank balance won't necessarily equal the amount available to distribute, and a provisional report shouldn't pretend every obligation is complete. Our guide to reconciling ticket payouts explains how to connect ticket transactions with the money received.

Make reporting access and payment dates part of the deal

Agree what the producer can inspect and when, even if the venue runs the box office. A percentage is difficult to verify without sales counts, price categories, refunds and the permitted cost evidence. Provide useful financial records and a process for investigating exceptions, with appropriate controls on buyer personal information.

The venue needs corresponding evidence for any producer costs it has agreed to reimburse. If a deduction or repayment depends on a supplier bill, name the document required and the deadline. Decide how to handle a missing invoice without leaving every other agreed amount unpaid indefinitely.

Edinburgh Fringe's ticketing and settlement guidance explains that where ticket proceeds go through the venue, the venue forwards money under its agreement with the company. It tells companies to establish how long that onward payment will take. The festival's particular payout arrangements aren't a general theatre rule, but they illustrate why you need to identify every business holding money before it reaches you.

Use a dated payment timetable. Specify when the first statement arrives, how long each side has to query it, when undisputed money is paid and when later adjustments are reviewed. If you use business days, define the relevant calendar. If a payment depends on receipt from a third party, understand the delay you're accepting and negotiate an outside deadline where possible.

An advance also needs clear treatment. State whether it's credited against the total entitlement, whether repayment can be required after a weak run and what happens on cancellation. Don't assume a payment called an advance is automatically protected by a minimum guarantee. The written relationship between those clauses decides the commercial outcome, subject to applicable law.

Keep an explanation for any temporary reserve. Identify the unresolved obligation, amount held, business whose payment is delayed and release condition. Holding money for a potential refund doesn't establish that the refund has already become a cost. When it resolves, issue an adjustment that shows what changed and what is now payable.

Plan how you'll pay people before settlement arrives

Even an acceptable final share can leave you unable to pay the next invoice. Rehearsal, cast payments, transport and advertising can fall due before a ticket seller releases the proceeds. Put the payment dates against money genuinely available, rather than treating recorded sales as cash in your account.

The Australian government's cash flow statement guidance recommends recording incoming and outgoing cash over time and labelling estimates. For a production, that means mapping the actual deposit, payroll and settlement dates. The financial result and the ability to pay a bill this week answer different questions.

Suppose the fictional producer has $5,000 available before the run. It receives the $2,000 advance, giving it $7,000. All $8,000 of production costs, including payment for the management time, fall due before the final $7,100 settlement. It has a $1,000 funding gap despite eventually making $1,100. Those are timing assumptions for this example, not a claim about normal theatre payment schedules.

The producer needs to resolve that gap before committing. It could negotiate an earlier payment, arrange affordable funding or change a genuinely flexible cost. Simply promising the cast payment after settlement only works if their actual agreements allow it and the timetable is lawful. A good projected result doesn't excuse missing an existing obligation.

The venue should run its own timeline, especially if it has promised a producer guarantee. It may need to pay the company before third-party receipts arrive or make up a weak-sales shortfall. Agree who authorises those commitments and where the money will come from. Both businesses need a viable payment plan, even when the final split looks reasonable.

Settle cancellations and later corrections while you're still negotiating

Low sales, producer cancellation, venue failure and disruption outside either party's control need separate treatment. A guarantee for delivering a run doesn't automatically tell you what happens if that run never takes place. Ask your local adviser to connect cancellation, deposits, liability and any minimum payment in the actual agreement.

If you need a sales review before the run, negotiate the date, evidence and decisions it permits. A review might allow a mutually agreed shorter run or a revised campaign. It should not quietly become an unlimited right for one business to cancel after the other has committed costs. Record which changes require both sides' written agreement.

Define the treatment of later refunds and payment disputes. Who investigates the transaction, supplies evidence and funds any agreed correction? Which adjustments can reopen a settled account, for how long and against what records? If a guarantee limits a reduction, explain that interaction. A separate fee should not accidentally circumvent the minimum both sides thought they agreed.

Australia's business.gov.au contract negotiation guidance, written for contractors and hirers, recommends resolving unclear terms before signing and recording the agreement. For a venue-producer deal, get advice suited to your entities, jurisdiction and production. Use the worked examples here to explain the commercial outcome you want the reviewed terms to deliver.

Take a completed deal sheet into the final negotiation

Prepare one shared commercial summary and ask both businesses to complete it before the contract is finalised. This is a negotiation brief for the booking and its advisers. It needs the actual choices, rather than a menu of alternatives nobody has selected.

• Identify the venue and producer's legal names, authorised representatives, production, performances and agreement documents.

• Record the permitted ticket allocation and the rehearsal, technical, public and removal access included in the booking.

• List the services each side supplies, including staff hours, equipment and named promotional commitments.

• Define included admission sales, refunds, discounts, complimentary tickets, packages, taxes and ticketing costs.

• List every further deduction, whether fixed or actual cost, its cap, required evidence and extra-spending approval.

• Write the payment formula in full, naming who receives any minimum, whether it is compared with or added to a percentage, and the period covered.

• State who bears a revenue shortfall and whether either side must contribute additional money.

• Separate other income, outside costs and any rights or obligations that need their own agreement.

• Specify reporting access, statement deadlines, advances, payment dates, disputed items and reserve release conditions.

• Record cancellation, changes, later corrections and the jurisdiction-specific review still required.

Attach the completed example calculation using expected sales and a weak run. Include each business's own cost result as well as its entitlement. This exposes a deal that balances mathematically but cannot fund the promised production. It also helps explain a counteroffer without accusing the other business of hiding something.

For our fictional producer, Offer A leaves $1,100 at the assumed sales level and a $3,100 loss in the weak run. Offer B leaves a $50 loss at the assumed level and a $4,550 loss in the weak run. Those figures give the producer a concrete reason to prefer A or renegotiate B's deductions. They don't remove the need to judge whether even A's downside is affordable.

Before accepting, ask each business to calculate the same sample settlement independently. Compare the answers, including the advance, cost evidence and money still held. If they differ, fix the definition or clause responsible. Then use the agreed payment dates to confirm you can pay the people delivering the show.