It is currently 17 Feb 2018, 23:13

### GMAT Club Daily Prep

#### Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.

Customized
for You

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History

Track

every week, we’ll send you an estimated GMAT score based on your performance

Practice
Pays

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History

# Events & Promotions

###### Events & Promotions in June
Open Detailed Calendar

# Of the films Empty Set Studios released last year, 60% were

Author Message
TAGS:

### Hide Tags

Manager
Joined: 11 Mar 2010
Posts: 55
Of the films Empty Set Studios released last year, 60% were [#permalink]

### Show Tags

10 Aug 2010, 10:44
1
KUDOS
00:00

Difficulty:

15% (low)

Question Stats:

84% (01:01) correct 16% (01:13) wrong based on 411 sessions

### HideShow timer Statistics

Of the films Empty Set Studios released last year, 60% were comedies and the rest were horror films. 75% of the comedies were profitable, but 75% of the horror moves were unprofitable. If the studio made a total of 40 films, and broke even on none of them, how many of their films were profitable?

A. 18
B. 19
C. 20
D. 21
E. 22

Above is the first problem on my second online practice test (from Manhattan gmat website).

I have worked this problem every way imaginable for hours on end and still can’t figure it. Basically, we’re talking “part / whole” here, right?.... seems simple, so....

75% (part) / 60%(whole) + 15%(part) / 40%(whole) = x
NOTE: I recognize at least that it is 25/40 and not 75/40 because we really want to know how many horror were profitable not unprofitable (100%-75%=25%). So I make this change at the get-to.

75/60 + 25/40 = x
reduce....and then plug in:

Someone walk me through this please.... is my 75/60 approach wrong? It must be....should it be 75/100 and 60/100, separately? Then reduce, then multiply or divide the two? I've tried this approach and come up empty handed as well. Someone please show me the light. I'm embarrassed to admit i've stubbornly spent hours racking my brain on this, as I realize this is not a "hard" problem by any means...
[Reveal] Spoiler: OA
 Manhattan GMAT Discount Codes EMPOWERgmat Discount Codes e-GMAT Discount Codes
Math Expert
Joined: 02 Sep 2009
Posts: 43789
Re: Word Problem w/ Percents, what am I doing wrong? [#permalink]

### Show Tags

10 Aug 2010, 11:01
2
KUDOS
Expert's post
3
This post was
BOOKMARKED
lifeisshort wrote:
Of the films Empty Set Studios released last year, 60% were comedies and the rest were horror films. 75% of the comedies were profitable, but 75% of the horror moves were unprofitable. If the studio made a total of 40 films, and broke even on none of them, how many of their films were profitable?

A 18
B 19
C 20
D 21
E 22

Let me offer another solution:

Out of 40 films 60% were comedies and the rest, so 40%, were horror films --> comedies=40*60%=24 and horrors=16;
75% of the comedies were profitable --> profitable comedies=24*75%=18;
75% of the horror moves were unprofitable, so 25% of the horror movies were profitable --> profitable horrors=16*25%=4;

Total profitable movies = 18+4=22.

_________________
Manager
Joined: 19 Jul 2009
Posts: 50
Location: baltimore, md
Schools: kellogg, booth, stern, ann arbor
Re: Word Problem w/ Percents, what am I doing wrong? [#permalink]

### Show Tags

10 Aug 2010, 11:04
i got 22.

if there are a total of 40 movies and 60% were comedy, then 40% were horror. therefore:
40*.60 = 24 comedy movies
40*.40 = 16 horror movies

now we know that 75% of the comedy were profitable.

24*.75 = 18 profitable comedy movies

if 75% of the horror were not profitable, then 25% were.

18*.25 = 4 profitable horror

18 + 4 = 22 profitable movies total
_________________

Paaaaayyy Meeeee!!!!!

Manager
Joined: 11 Mar 2010
Posts: 55
Re: Word Problem w/ Percents, what am I doing wrong? [#permalink]

### Show Tags

10 Aug 2010, 11:13
After fiddling some more, this is how I got to answer choice E...but did I get here using voodoo math or is it sound?

(.60*.75) + (.40*.25) = .44 + .10 = .55
55/100 = 11/20

Then subtract from 40:

40 - 11/20 = 22 (answer E)

NOTE:
I see how you both approached this right off by taking both known %'s of 40, getting two solid numbers to work with, and then taking a percentage of both knowns. Smart. Thank you for the keen insight. Your way is definitely the smart way, but is my math above correct or just lucky?
Senior Manager
Status: Time to step up the tempo
Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 403
Location: Milky way
Schools: ISB, Tepper - CMU, Chicago Booth, LSB
Re: Word Problem w/ Percents, what am I doing wrong? [#permalink]

### Show Tags

10 Aug 2010, 16:47
lifeisshort wrote:
After fiddling some more, this is how I got to answer choice E...but did I get here using voodoo math or is it sound?

(.60*.75) + (.40*.25) = .44 + .10 = .55
55/100 = 11/20

Then subtract from 40:

40 - 11/20 = 22 (answer E)

NOTE:
I see how you both approached this right off by taking both known %'s of 40, getting two solid numbers to work with, and then taking a percentage of both knowns. Smart. Thank you for the keen insight. Your way is definitely the smart way, but is my math above correct or just lucky?

Quote:
Then subtract from 40:

40 - 11/20 = 22 (answer E)

Did you mean $$40 * (11/20) = 22$$ ???
_________________

Support GMAT Club by putting a GMAT Club badge on your blog

Senior Manager
Status: Fighting on
Joined: 14 Mar 2010
Posts: 309
Schools: UCLA (R1 interview-WL), UNC(R2--interview-ding) Oxford(R2-Admit), Kelley (R2- Admit ), McCombs(R2)
WE 1: SE - 1
WE 2: Engineer - 3
Re: Word Problem w/ Percents, what am I doing wrong? [#permalink]

### Show Tags

10 Aug 2010, 18:28
movie_type:horror-----------comedy
% :40---------------60

as we know total movies made = 40
num_movies:16---------------24
profitable :4-----------------18 (3/4 of horror are unprofitable and 3/4 of comedy are profitable)
Manager
Joined: 03 Jun 2010
Posts: 167
Location: United States (MI)
Concentration: Marketing, General Management
Re: Word Problem w/ Percents, what am I doing wrong? [#permalink]

### Show Tags

11 Aug 2010, 02:17
Let's imagine, that we have 100 movies.
So we can easily jump from percents to actual figures.
In this case we have 55 profitable movies.
55 profitable movies = 55% of all movies.
But actually only 40 movies were made. So we just find 55% of 40 movies = 22 (E)
Senior Manager
Joined: 18 Sep 2009
Posts: 349
Re: Word Problem w/ Percents, what am I doing wrong? [#permalink]

### Show Tags

17 Aug 2010, 11:54
Total profitable movies

comedy - 24*3/4=18
horror - 16*1/4=4

Total - 18+4 =22
Intern
Joined: 11 Aug 2010
Posts: 23
Schools: SUNY at Stonyb Brook
WE 1: 4 yrs
Re: Word Problem w/ Percents, what am I doing wrong? [#permalink]

### Show Tags

17 Aug 2010, 14:46
lifeisshort wrote:
Of the films Empty Set Studios released last year, 60% were comedies and the rest were horror films. 75% of the comedies were profitable, but 75% of the horror moves were unprofitable. If the studio made a total of 40 films, and broke even on none of them, how many of their films were profitable?

A 18

B 19

C 20

D 21

E 22

*snip*

Someone walk me through this please.... is my 75/60 approach wrong? It must be....should it be 75/100 and 60/100, separately? Then reduce, then multiply or divide the two? I've tried this approach and come up empty handed as well. Someone please show me the light. I'm embarrassed to admit i've stubbornly spent hours racking my brain on this, as I realize this is not a "hard" problem by any means...

The only mistake you are doing is in calculating the % (of the profitable movie in this case )
Just keep in mind that mistake, I think it will help in lot of other problems too !
Don't let yourself get confused with part/whole thing. Just remember whole percent and multiply part to while to get actual % of that . I hope this will help you
_________________

Consider giving Kudos if my post helped you in some way

Senior Manager
Joined: 23 Oct 2010
Posts: 375
Location: Azerbaijan
Concentration: Finance
Schools: HEC '15 (A)
GMAT 1: 690 Q47 V38
Re: Word Problem w/ Percents, what am I doing wrong? [#permalink]

### Show Tags

23 Oct 2011, 04:12
solution
Attachments

_________________

Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true

I am still on all gmat forums. msg me if you want to ask me smth

Intern
Joined: 07 Mar 2014
Posts: 16
Location: India
Of the films Empty Set Studios released last year, 60% were [#permalink]

### Show Tags

16 Aug 2014, 03:56
1
KUDOS
Total movies= 40
60% Comedy films i.e 24 out of which 75% were profitable i.e 18
40% horror movies i.e 16 out of which 75% were unprofitable. therefore 25% were profitable i.e 4
so total 18 + 4= 22 movies were profitable
Hope this helps

----------------------------
Hit +1 Kudos if this helps
Intern
Joined: 23 Aug 2015
Posts: 2
Re: Of the films Empty Set Studios released last year, 60% were [#permalink]

### Show Tags

28 Oct 2015, 07:44
"If the studio made a total of 40 films, and broke even on none of them,"

I got thrown off by the broke even on none of them part. Can anyone tell me how that is significant ???
Non-Human User
Joined: 09 Sep 2013
Posts: 13850
Re: Of the films Empty Set Studios released last year, 60% were [#permalink]

### Show Tags

15 Jan 2018, 06:48
Hello from the GMAT Club BumpBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.
_________________
Re: Of the films Empty Set Studios released last year, 60% were   [#permalink] 15 Jan 2018, 06:48
Display posts from previous: Sort by