Alien: Covenant Box Office Performance

Started by John73, May 14, 2017, 05:51:54 PM

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Alien: Covenant Box Office Performance (Read 273,429 times)

SiL

SiL

#1050
To be fair that was only because the Alien camp killed Briggs' version of it in the mid 90s to do A:R. Interest was there, but rights weren't.

Kane's other son

Briggs' version would be too expensive. That's what killed it.

SiL

SiL

#1052
Could've been brought down with rewrites. Hill and Giler didn't want the crossover to happen and wouldn't relinquish the rights. John Davis said he spent years trying to get the rights in order.

Corporal Hicks

There was also talk of there being big fights over the money. Briggs' did do a rewrite but that second draft has never surfaced. I think he said he'd gotten rid of some of the action pieces.

monkeylove

monkeylove

#1054
Quote from: Prof. a on Jun 07, 2017, 08:16:43 PM

It's impossible to tell but a film doesn't need to triple its production budget to make a profit. So, on that metric, the article is not proven.

Let's look at some examples:

Elysium
Worldwide gross: 286 million (boxofficemojo.com)
Reported production budget: 115 million (boxofficemojo.com)
Profit: 18 million (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sony-hack-reveals-top-secret-754491)

According to the IndieWire article, Elysium would've needed 345 million in worldwide gross to make profit. But, it made profit with slightly more than double its production budget

Monuments Men
Worldwide gross: 155 million (boxofficemojo.com)
Reported production budget: 70 million (boxofficemojo.com)
Profit: 10 million (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sony-hack-reveals-top-secret-754491)

This film made about double its production budget and still made profit.

It really does differ from situation to situation. However, if a film needed triple its production budget, it would mean that barely any of the Alien films after the third one made any profit. Do you really think Fox would've made five more Alien films if that were the case?

If funds involved investors who want good returns, then the profits might have to be much larger. Otherwise, they might not invest in future films in the franchise.



Some interesting points are raised here:

"Steven Spielberg and George Lucas predict film industry 'implosion'"

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/jun/13/steven-spielberg-george-lucas-film-industry

That is, studios are in competition with each other, needing tent-pole flicks to cover low earnings and even losses for other movies, requiring high profits to cover investors' demands for better returns, and thus relying more on marketing, lots of special effects, and simple story lines to attract international audiences.

This is probably why expectations were very high for this movie, and why even small profits or a lengthy period through merchandising to earn more might lead to delays, if not cancellation, of future films.

JohnnyChimpo

Without derailing the thread too much - but its kinda come up in conversation now anyway - does anyone know how well stuff like NECA figures sell?

I'd love to see a breakdown on which figures sell the best, i.e.; Which movie has the best selling figures, from each individual movie which is the best selling figure etc. I'd be interested to know how the numbers stack up in terms of Alien v Aliens v Alien 3 v Resurrection v Prometheus etc. And then driving down deeper into the numbers, how many people buy an Alien Queen v a figure of Hudson or Bishop or whatever. Finally, it would be interesting to see the best selling Ripley figure (seen as she was ever present in the original movies).

Scorpio

^I am sure they all sell pretty well as they keep making the things.

As for early 90s AvP movie, I heard that the AVP Capcom arcade game was supposedly based on the movie, as it was intended to come out around the same time.

Robopadna

Robopadna

#1057
Quote from: Stolen on Jun 14, 2017, 05:53:12 AM
@robopadna
You're right, Covenant is a domestic and overall failure because it's half the amount of Prometheus! But with a budget of $100M, and if it works properly in China and Japan ($ 30M and $ 10M) Fox won't lose money. Still big dissapointing, but not a flop.

We must stop thinking that the promotional budget is refunded at the box office, it is absolutely false. The promo budget is always based on how much the movie will return in sales outside the BO, which are huge enough for blockbuster.

If we are talking about the box office then focus on the box office.  The costs are the same.  The promotional budget has nothing to do with the sales outside of the box office.  It is spent before that ever happens (there are other costs like participations, residuals and production costs for digital and physical sales)

QuoteBroadcast TV rights (domestic and foreign) are generally very juicy for studios, between $100M and $200M for a blockbuster. And we can't neglect the home entertainment, the franchise Alien has always had an added value in this sector.

That is absolutely not the case in covenant.  In no terms is this movie a blockbuster.  Suicide Squad pulled in 150 million between foreign and domestic tv rights and then another 130 or so in rentals (there are costs associated with thoseas well, but not terribly high ones)

That movie was a giant blockbuster (something like 800 ww?). This movie will not even come close to that level of interest or sales.  These numbers are not known (rental/buys can't be known yet) but I expect them to largely be in line with other comps.

QuoteAnd the merchandising for the Alien franchise is obviously less important than others like Star Wars or Marvel.
Yet the license sells very well, and the adult public always responds commercially to new products.

Some recent analysis basically shows if you aren't an animated kid film, comic book based movie, or star wars...  your merchandise does nothing in terms of profit.  Sure, Alien will generate more merch money than a movie without any merchandise (moonlight, for example), but it is insignificant.

Again, we are talking box office and this movie will not break even through that avenue.  It's absolute flop in the domestic market virtually ensures that.  Now there are other avenues a movie can make money, like you said, and other costs associated with them.  It will probably break even through those avenues.

Overall Fox does not make movies and invest all that money to essentially break even.  They want to actually turn a profit.  They do love this franchise though and keep over valuing it relation to how audiences actually perceive it.

My guess is that if it even comes close to break even, they will let Ridley finish out the prequel trilogy.

Corporal Hicks

QuoteALIEN: COVENANT debuted on Friday in 1st place with est. ¥76M/¥72M ($11.2M/$10.6M) including/without ticketing fees. @AlienAnthology

https://twitter.com/ChinaBoxOffice/status/875729425773600770

juxtapose

. .thats alreasy more or less the amount it needed to double it's budget. .so horay. .i am just confused with the 4 different figures. .are those different currency's or various estimates?

SuicideDoors

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Jun 16, 2017, 03:32:26 PM
QuoteALIEN: COVENANT debuted on Friday in 1st place with est. ¥76M/¥72M ($11.2M/$10.6M) including/without ticketing fees. @AlienAnthology

https://twitter.com/ChinaBoxOffice/status/875729425773600770

Shit. That's f**king decent!

Jonesy1974

does anyone know if this a good opening in china or not?

Evanus

Yeah, is this good? I've got no idea, I don't really know how this stuff works.  :D

Jonesy1974

Quote from: Evanus on Jun 16, 2017, 03:55:30 PM
Yeah, is this good? I've got no idea, I don't really know how this stuff works.  :D

??? Me neither, where is Robopadna when you need him!

juxtapose

the mummy was number one last weekend and it overtook that movie. .so i would say it's done decently so far. .tho this might just be curiosity on it's first day and it might fall heavily tommorrow. .considering the cuts. .but it made something today and i am so happy it did!

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