Quote from: Robopadna on May 29, 2017, 03:47:03 PM
Quote from: Denton Smalls on May 29, 2017, 02:45:12 PM
Quote from: Kerrod33 on May 29, 2017, 02:24:01 PM
I may sound really stupid in saying this (but I haven't been one to follow box office ratings), but wasn't the budget for this film $97mil? And from what I have seen it has earnt in the region of $150mil, isn't that a profit? Doesn't seem like a bomb to me... and I quite enjoyed the film. If I don't leave the cinema and ask questions or talk about the film, then it's a failure in my book
It's weird, man. That does seem like a solid profit, but studios usually need a considerably high margin for their films to be considered a commercial success.
Also, in addition to the $97 mil production cost, the cost of marketing was most likely substantial, so in that regard, I'm not sure the film did much better than break even yet, if that.
We are in a strange cinematic era where the only films that seem to do well (outside animated or live action kids' movies like "Beauty and the Beast" or "Boss Baby") are monster budget comic book films that flood the market and appeal to a massively large audience demographic, or micro budget genre movies like "The Purge" franchise, "Get Out," "Don't Breathe" or "Split," which are made on such a cheap budget that even a ~$100 mil worldwide box office haul is considered successful on a $5-$20 mil budget.
Blumhouse is an example of a studio that churns these lower budget films out regularly. It makes me wonder if Alien might do better if it were made as more of an independent movie.
First, you are REALLY underestimating how well those movies did. You said they can make a profit on 100 million WW.. they can, but they make far more than that.
Split = 280 million WW (138 domestic)
Get Out = 240 million WW (astounding 170+ domestic)
Don't Breathe = 157 million WW (90 domestic)
All of those will outpace Covenant's domestic take (where the studio keeps the majority of the money).
Quoteor micro budget genre movies
A majority of those fail (at the box office). You only remember the ones that succeeded.
QuoteBlumhouse is an example of a studio that churns these lower budget films out regularly. It makes me wonder if Alien might do better if it were made as more of an independent movie.
Finally, it would make no difference if it isn't a good movie. An 'indie' movie doesn't make it better by default. If you threw Covenant on a 10 million dollar budget you would have to have an entirely different vision for the film (and it would be far more restricted). Good luck seeing Paradise... they can't afford it. You can say that it would be a good thing to make it more character driven but that only works if it is well written and being 'indie' (I think you really just mean smaller budget) doesn't guarantee that.
Lol, I'm sorry dude I was just trying to get the point across that those 3 smaller films were successful. I don't live on or spend the majority of my day on Box Office Mojo so I'm just making a broad statement without the numbers in front of me.
I did not simply mean "smaller budget." Of course it would be restricted and big effects pieces would be out of the question, going to Paradise included, but the whole point would be to, as you said, make it more character driven. That means new script, new concept, the works.
The thing about successful indie films is that they require much more attention to the script, character interactions, etc. because they don't have the big pretty set pieces to fall back on. Therefore much more energy is spent perfecting the actual storytelling. I'm not suggesting they re-stage an indie version of A:C where the Covenant is made out of cardboard.
