"Merchandising, merchandising, where the real money from the movie is made."
You can go blind trying to figure out Hollywood accounting, but I imagine the addiction to the $300 million film is that the $300 million is only a percentage of the revenue.
I was just in Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and the new ‘world’ they created is based around Pandora from Avatar - the movie everyone saw and nobody liked. It’s seriously the most amazing Theme Park experience I’ve ever had. And I HATED that movie.
Because of that, I spent $100 on merchandise related to a movie that came out 8 years ago and that I did not like. (My kids wanted the stuff).
You can’t do that with, say, Spotlight.
Even that front is getting diminishing returns though. With so many “toy franchises” out there, plus all the costs that go into merch, and the bad press that comes when Hasbro decides not to include one of your main characters in the Monopoly set, that revenue stream doesn’t flow like it used to.