Don't blame him for not putting a number on it because that sets an expectation and what if they miss it? We will all be blown away by its success I hope.
It makes complete sense to me at this point that MANU is going to use the land and film "YELLOW" as the collateral for the studio complex. That will get him right at about 40 mill in collateral, and also explains why he needed to clean up "YELLOW" as he put it.
By him saying 17 mill, hes basically saying they'll at least break even, and that the value of the film is at least what they put into it IMHO....although we all believe it will do much better....