Quote from: gantarat on May 22, 2017, 02:08:31 PM
Sorry to ask again (For sure) but How much does a movie need to gross to be break-even ?
300 ? 400 ?
I see there is a lot of confusion and varying information regarding Covenant and the Box Office. Let me start out by saying I have a background in Film/TV, teach courses on the business aspects of the media industry, and do pay close attention to the box office.
Firstly, we (the public) will never actually know how much was spent on the production budget (let alone marketing/distribution costs which aren't included). Hollywood is known for "creative accounting" so to speak. Look at the many lawsuits against studios for denying key personnel a percentage of the gross. So, the "books" are generally very secretive.
Secondly, we don't always get a completely clear idea about how much a film makes outside of the Box Office - including Video-On-Demand, home DVD/Blu-Ray sales, merchandise, etc.
So, the rule of thumb (even though it may not always be accurate) is a film should make double the production budget to break even. The budget from this film (from what I've heard) ranges from 90 to 110 million dollars. So, 180 to 220 million should put it (most of the time) in break even territory. Right now, with about 117 million, Covenant should be able to reach that.
There were those in the media that portrayed Prometheus as a box office misfire but with around $400 million in Box Office with about a 120-130 million budget, we saw that Fox still had confidence in the franchise to launch not just Covenant, but the more risky Scott movie -
The Counselor. I read reports that the only reason Fox made
The Counselor was because Prometheus generated a lot of profit - contrary to some media outlets.
So, the Covenant box office is not a disaster. It's not great but it should make at a minimum, break even territory.
Key question is what does Fox do?
They could go the AvP:R route, make one more film but at a much, much lower budget.