Comments on: The Business of Making Movies

By: meghan@twitter

meghan@twitter — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 02:05:35 +0000

Any other NPR’s Planet Money (or This American Life) listeners out there? If so, did you hear Adam Davidson’s voice speak the article in your head as you read it? I sure did!

By: cdarcy

cdarcy — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 16:02:59 +0000

Fewer “reboots” and sequels, fewer movies ripped from ’80s pop culture, more creative and inspiring films that don’t rely soly on CGI, and perhaps lower the cost of tickets. That might get a few more people to the theaters.

By: cdarcy

cdarcy — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 16:02:59 +0000

By: selenana

selenana — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 04:50:50 +0000

I’ve already seen Spiderman- it opened here in Japan last weekend. I guess this is one of the big places they hope to make their foreign money? But the 630 showing on a Sunday night was pretty empty. A couple dozen people, tops.

By: jfruh

jfruh — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 22:42:35 +0000

@Mirch I’m still offended that a three-movie series that debuted during my adulthood has now been done long enough to be rebooted, which would imply that I’m old somehow, which for the record, I am NOT.

By: Jenn@twitter

Jenn@twitter — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 20:32:56 +0000

@Mirch I agree it doesn’t look so good. But I’m going to see it anyway, because… well, I don’t even know, really.

By: stuffisthings

stuffisthings — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 20:20:29 +0000

@Jenn@twitter The comparison I like to make is between two well-known films that came out around the same time in 2001, Memento and Pearl Harbor. Memento’s worldwide gross was about $40 million, to Pearl Harbor’s $450 million. Seems like a clear win for the blockbuster.

However, Pear Harbor cost $140 million to make, probably at least $100 million to market. A 187% profit certainly sounds like a good investment, but Memento cost only $9 million to make and next to nothing to market. So it was actually a 444% profit.

I know where I’d put my money…

(Note that I didn’t cherry pick this example, it was just the first time I ever ran these numbers, after seeing that Memento had one of the highest per-screen grosses that year. There are plenty of other examples of breakout indie hits doing even better.)

By: Mirch

Mirch — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 20:12:27 +0000

Does anyone else think the Spider-Man movie is going to be a big flop? The previews look pretty damn bad, especially that reptile monster, what the hell is that? the geico gecko on steroids?

By: Jenn@twitter

Jenn@twitter — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 20:07:55 +0000

@stuffisthings It would definitely be more enjoyable for most of the moviegoers I know.

By: stuffisthings

stuffisthings — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 19:53:20 +0000

@stuffisthings And incidentally, I think the economics suggest it would be better to produce more, smaller-budget movies than a few titanic mega-blockbusters that cost more to market than they do to make. Which would be both a good business decision and a win for aesthetics.