A todays manufacturer of films have no chance anymore to produce a cheap c 41 emulsion. During the past it wasn`t in that way but this was in concern of the production scale. Regarding the " Gold " films it was the best selling emulsion Kodak ever manufactured. A scale in the near of one billion 135film equvalentes including al versions (ISO 100/ISO200/ISO400 in 135-36/135-24/135-12) was sold within one single year - the top of selling was 2000/2001.
To that time it was economical to higher the sellings of amatheuric c-41 films with special priced cheap alternates. Amatheuric photographers used this films most during holidays. The sellings reached one top after top from year to year and ( perhaps you remember the merchandising
articles Kodak offered during summer in adition with 3 pack bundles - later with 5 pack offerings) people were animated to shot more and more films.
From reasons of lower priced raw materials Kodak used with VR films ( the more concerning effect was obviously the little more simple production processes with 80th emulsions ) Kodak was able to come on lower unit cost with oldschool c41 emulsions in comparison to modern Gold films. Remarcable if you remember the higher scales of Gold films. But generally this wasn`t a must. The task of Kodak to that time was to higher the sellings of films and therefore they had to achive their aim on whatever the cost.
And each single film Kodak wich was able to sell instead of Agfa and Fuji was a " GOOD FILM "

( from the management perspective ).
Today the minimal production scale did not longer allowe such " cross calculation " . And there is no way anymore to save money buy using old recipes for emulsion backing. ( just if this method was indeed successfully during the past ).
So it is indeed with lower cost to produce a modern more complicated processed emulsion. Because the absolute indicator in calculation is the production scale. And the todays method in manufacturing is definitifly to produce in greater scales during a single production run.
And to store masterrolls for interims asembling. Because the scale today is allwas for the worlds demand of some several following years. Just in case of still existing stocks of other emulsions , produced in the past ( and in the past could mean 4 year ago BTW ) - a manufacturer
is able to offer a wider range of films.
This is at the same time the reason why we have noticed that Fuji discontinued a lot of films. We wonder about the decision to stop this or that special emulsion. But we should better wonder about why this films were offered till the last years.
The simple answer in concern of this mystery is in short : Fuji was sitting on a produced scale of films wich was calculated for the demand of a single year - but at the end these inventories could only be sold after a couple years. And to the time Fuji had to decide for a further
production run they calculated that it might be such expensive ( in lower scales ) that the calculated pricing for the films could be such high that the demand would come to zero......

.
So we all wonder about the end of Fuji C 200.......

?
with regards
PS : The color palette of c41 films ( and E6 of course ) varies between different production runs of the same emulsion. The effect is in most cases very small and therefore the production run is indicated from emulsion numbers.
If there are immense differences in color palette between Color Plus and Gold 200 like Agulliver noticed it is indeed a very strong indicator that both films are from different emulsions. I got some Color Plus 200 ( don`t ask me in what year - it might be 2 years ago ) and
I realy are not able to notice a difference to Gold. But as I said before - it may depend from different markets ( regions )