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

Question

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

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: 
40 - x = ANSWER

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...

Formating

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

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.

Answer: E.

azule45 · Answer

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

lifeisshort · Answer

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?

ezhilkumarank · Answer

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

ingoditrust · Answer

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)
answer : 18+4 = 22

ulm · Answer

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)

TomB · Answer

Total profitable movies

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

Total - 18+4 =22

Pinali · Answer

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

LalaB · Answer

solution

AayushGMAT · Answer

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

Nikhil Chacko · Answer

"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 ???

s111 · Answer

Bunuel : The question specifically mentions "If the studio made a total of 40 films, and  broke even on none of them "

Why will the answer be 22?

riship2009 · Answer

is this a 700-750 type problem ?

anmit123 · Answer

Number of movies=40
24 are comedies ==> 16 are horror

75% of comedy are profitable ==>18 comedy movies are profitable (and 6 unprofitable)

75% of horror movies are unprofitable ==> 12 unprofitable (and 4 profitable)

Number of profitable films=18+4=22

Archit3110 · Answer

2x2 matrix

----c----h--total
p--18---4---22
np--6---12--18
total-24--16--40
IMO 22; E

bansalgaurav · Answer

"..broke even on none of them." sounds me confusing here. If I ignore this part, the question is easy to solve. But if i consider this part, how can answer be 22 profitable movies, if it did not break even on any of the movies...Q. language sounds me bit confusing....

Request for someone to address it !!!

Request for someone to address it !!!

xsharpliner · Answer

I think the question means that none of the movies were at a stage were Revenue = Cost, hence each movie is either profitable or not profitable.
Therefore total movies = 40.

ManifestDreamMBA · Answer

Given I had the same doubt as many of the other people on this post. I am sharing my interpretation of  broke even on none of them

There can be 3 categories - profit, loss and "no profit, no loss". The information of no break even, eliminates "no profit, no loss" scenario.

In hindsight, I think given we are looking for number of profitable, it doesn't matter since no profit no loss can be considered unprofitable IMO. Nevertheless, we don't need to worry about it, given the question has removed this category to simplify things

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

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

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