We’ve previously reported how Sir Ridley Scott regretted choosing to direct Alien: Covenant over Blade Runner: 2049 and now it seems that we have more of his opinions about not directing the Alien sequels as well. Variety reported on the director’s interview with Vanity Fair during the promotion for the upcoming Gladiator II how he was never given the chance, nor made aware of the sequels being developed for Alien or Blade Runner.
I was slow out the starting gate. I mean, I should have done the sequels to Alien and to Blade Runner. You change over the years. At that time, I didn’t want to go through it again. So Jim Cameron came in—and then David Fincher—on Alien.
Later, in the interview with Vanity Fair, Scott made further remarks.
I’m the author of two franchises. Most directors in Hollywood — certainly, let’s say, at my level — don’t let that stuff go. But I did Alien as my second movie, so I didn’t have much choice. And Blade Runner was my third movie. So, I had no choice because I had very tough partners. It was kind of ‘Welcome to Hollywood.’ I was never told or asked [about sequels]. You can imagine I wasn’t happy.
As we’ve previously mentioned, with Sir Ridley Scott’s involvement in both of the Blade Runner: 2099 and Alien series, as well as the upcoming film, Alien: Romulus, it seems that he’s firmly regaining contact and creative influence on the franchises he helped create, for now as a producer. Though does this mean if he has any intentions of directing further Alien and Blade Runner prequels or sequels, only time will tell.
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I appreciate the info you brought in, much of it was fascinating to go through and explore.
I suppose my one big takeaway is to look at how Covenant ended up relative to Bladerunner 2049, not box office but coherence and quality.
I'm grateful that Coalesced Chaos stepped in with that fan edit for Covenant because I was left shaking my head in confusion at the bizarre twist of a bizarrely not quite a sequel of a not quite a prequel.
Then you look at 2049 that really grounded itself into the world in was based on and in so many ways elevated it.
I'd rather see Scott do different/new ip than any kind of revisits
Marketing AND distribution. The x2.5 rule exists for a reason.
I never said that it did prove Ridley Scott correct. Prometheus is a dog shit movie. It's also the movie within the Alien franchise would made the most money at the box office. Box office does not prove or disprove a movie's quality, you know?
If that were the case, and marketing equaled production, that's 250 mil they'd need to clear after theatres get their percentage. I was under the impression that after the theatres took their cut, the studio generally got 50% domestic, 40% overseas, and 25% in China.
Anyhow, Prometheus's gross does not prove Scott was correct that avoiding having the alien present in the movie at all somehow benefitted the movie. There was a plan for one that had an engineer host showing up right at the end, and that one also wouldn't have looked exactly like the original either due to the host; I believe Ultramorph was its nickname.
I don't think people being familiar with a monster's looks necessarily makes it impossible for it to frighten audience members. Or that simply having it present and showing it here and there would somehow damage a movie clearly set in the same universe.
Stompy, the alien in Isolation, was closer to Big Chap than most other recent alien designs, and yet it still managed to scare a lot of gamers. Nobody was shocked with what it looked like, but it still worked. It's how it's implemented that matters.
If I see an alien movie that does everything else right, good characters, story, dialogue, and all that, and yet the movie still bombs, that's when I'd be convinced that the beast is cooked.
That said, I'd like to see more alien media outside of the movies, more video games, and a successor to the Prodos table top, shame what happened with them. I can only watch a movie so many times, so that's like waiting 7 years for a two-hour film that might have my favorite variety of space monster in it for 10-15 minutes of screen time.
That @SiL looking for the nail in the haystack?
I had already adjusted for inflation myself by using an online inflation calculator, not using ChatGTP - yuk (link) and Prometheus was still the highest grossing entry in the series. You can't estimate the marketing budget like that. It's best to just follow the rule of x2.5 (link).
Someone find Holly De Jong on twitter or insta and ask her.
Luxury.
Been doing that for over 20 years when we had to frame by frame on VHS.
Are you doing the Blade Runner thing with every frame or something?
https://media4.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExaWo0ZDI5NXc1OTE5dDZtd3VuOHZxNWkzNjRhdWd3bzZyMGJzdmlsNCZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/buKpYqhgWNy42nzSlL/giphy.gif
We're attracted to heat and conflict.
As should I.
Not good or bad.. just interesting. I do enjoy watching you guys talk about it.. I just have nothing really to add.. carry on!
Insane.
ChatGPT agrees:
That's why I chose to list them in order of domestic gross.
I think the 50% marketing spend is a recent ballpark. Would you have needed to spend $5 million on advertising in 1979? It's not like there's the competition you have today.
Does Rinzler's book go into it? I should really read my copy eventually.
And not sure how accurate those Marketing Budgets would be.
1. Alien (1979)
- Domestic Gross (Adjusted): $296 million
- Worldwide Gross (Estimate, Adjusted): $439 million
- Production Budget (Adjusted): $37 million
- Marketing Budget (Estimate, Adjusted): $18.5 million
2. Aliens (1986)
- Domestic Gross (Adjusted): $222 million
- Worldwide Gross (Estimate, Adjusted): $445 million
- Production Budget (Adjusted): $41 million
- Marketing Budget (Estimate, Adjusted): $20.5 million
3. Prometheus (2012)
- Domestic Gross (Adjusted): $138 million
- Worldwide Gross (Estimate, Adjusted): $418 million
- Production Budget (Adjusted): $141 million
- Marketing Budget (Estimate, Adjusted): $70.5 million
4. Alien vs. Predator (2004)
- Domestic Gross (Adjusted): $113 million
- Worldwide Gross (Estimate, Adjusted): $235 million
- Production Budget (Adjusted): $77 million
- Marketing Budget (Estimate, Adjusted): $38.5 million
5. Alien: Covenant (2017)
- Domestic Gross: $78 million
- Worldwide Gross: $240 million
- Production Budget: $97 million
- Marketing Budget: $48.5 million
6. Alien³ (1992)
- Domestic Gross (Adjusted): $109 million
- Worldwide Gross (Estimate, Adjusted): $227 million
- Production Budget (Adjusted): $92 million
- Marketing Budget (Estimate, Adjusted): $46 million
7. Alien: Resurrection (1997)
- Domestic Gross (Adjusted): $94 million
- Worldwide Gross (Estimate, Adjusted): $204 million
- Production Budget (Adjusted): $107 million
- Marketing Budget (Estimate, Adjusted): $53.5 million
8. Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)
- Domestic Gross (Adjusted): $49 million
- Worldwide Gross (Estimate, Adjusted): $155 million
- Production Budget (Adjusted): $50 million
- Marketing Budget (Estimate, Adjusted): $25 million
Isn't that the fairest way of comparing the box office performance of movies in the same series that are released decades apart?
lol, wut?
Production budget = $125,000,000
Box office = $403,000,000
The general rule of thumb is that a movie needs to make x2.5 its production budget in order breakeven, so anything past $313,000,000 was profit for the studio.
What if it's a good movie with awful advertising? Released at the wrong time with too much competition?
How would you measure that it's only the Alien that kept people away or not?
And who decides if it's good or not?
That doesn't prove removing the alien is why it had the highest gross. I also don't see gross as the end-all-be-all proof of success.
As far as the net, using the formula Budget = marketing + 33% of the gross for the theatre's cut, with a gross of 403 million, that's roughly 393 million as the break-even point. Okay, it made money, but not the greatest ROI.
The 1986 production of Aliens cost 18.5 million. With a gross of 85 million, that's about a break-even point of 65 million using that formula. That's a much better ROI, especially considering it was only in less than half the amount of theatres.
Does that prove leaving the alien in Prometheus would have improved its box office? Admittedly, it does not; it's just me arguing that net and ROI matters more than gross, which also has nothing to do with my point.
My point is, again, I don't believe "beast is cooked" unless I see a good alien movie that fails because the alien is in it.
I'll rest my case if I see an alien movie that does everything right, as in good characters and dialogue, good pacing, interesting story etc... and it still fails because the alien was present.
Covenant barely broke even. That's why they didn't make a sequel.
Prometheus is the highest grossing movie in the franchise to date.
You just said that any movie with the alien in it would be Hasbro-worthy. The movie lost money because it was one giant cock tease for the alien. He was using the franchise itself to pique interest and lacking the primary monster. It didn't help the movie, and it grossly underperformed.
The problem with the AVP films was not the titular monsters being present, but bad pacing, bad expositionary dialogue, miscast lead, bad costume design, and a bad choice of setting. Not the fact that the aliens were in it.
I'm glad he was gone, for at least the little while that he was, because we got other visions on what the franchise could be.
I think Alien is the best film in the series, and it was good because of Scott's direction (among other things). But I HATE Scott's continued interference both behind the camera, and between the films.
I don't want anymore, "The beast is cooked," movies where you deliberately tie it into the Alien franchise for the viewership it would get, then make a crazy android movie, but limit yourself and box yourself in narratively when making a crazy android movie, because you base it in the Alien franchise and there are only so many story directions you can go.
You can tell how apeshit crazy he wanted to go, because he put all that effort into Raised by Wolves, but it got cancelled so now he's back trying to leech off of the Alien series. We know he isn't going to be satisfied making another arthouse movie in the Alien universe, so just put money down on your own franchise Ridley, c'mon.
Get him away from the movies. Seriously, before we get any more black goo, or engineers who are half the size of the jockeys. Or introducing the precursor for the pulse rifle, but make it so much better than the actual pulse rifle, that there is no reason that the pulse rifle should've ever been used over the storm, or whatever the f**k it was called. Just go away dude. Everything he says or does with the franchise literally has me rolling my eyes.
He is like the dinosaur. His time is over.
Unless I see a movie that includes the aliens, where everything is done well, and it still fails, I maintain that the problem is not the concept of the xenomorph or its variants.
By done well, I mean a movie with characters the audience cares about, believable dialogue, good set and costume design, well-done editing, and some new abilities or variations of the alien.
Now, as a side note, I'd prefer those variations in the alien designs come innately from the alien's genetic blueprint itself, demonstrating they can be different than expected, unpredictable, independent of the host, and not as a result of genetic tampering by humans either. That is, of course, my preference; I think most audiences probably aren't as picky about that sort of thing as they are about unrelatable characters, poor editing, dumb costume design decisions, bad lighting, and bad expositionary dialogue. Those issues have been the bane of this series, AVP included, for a while now.
J Cameron did a fantastic job. Prometheus was ok. Just ok. Covenant was terrible. Just terrible. So , there's good directors everywhere. Don't think you are the only one Mr Scott
Why were you never told or asked for others Alien movie ? Is there a reason ? So , now, show us you can do something huge finishing the prequels trilogy, directing covenant sequel. Regards
Regarding Denis Villeneuve/Blade Runner 2049, it's worth nothing that that project had a very different way of coming into being than Aliens/Alien 3/Alien: Resurrection did, at least insofar as how Ridley relates to the project. 2049 grew directly out of Ridley's own "Blade Runner 2" development, and he very nearly could have directed it, but he was ultimately forced to choose between that and Alien: Covenant as the timeframe the competing studios were looking to release the films in wouldn't have allowed him to direct both. Of course that isn't to undersell what Denis Villeneuve brought to the table at all, he further developed the project and made the film very much his own and in such incredible fashion, but at its core that is very much Ridley's team's story in there.
Unless they had Paul W.S. Anderson's AVP on the horizon, that is.