also Vancouver
Some of the recent hits (”Get Out” and “it”) are low-budget flicks with new talent not quite tainted....yet.
“Get Out”
4.5M Budget***
245M Box Office
(173M Domestic...77M Foreign)
“IT”
33M Budget***
651M Box Office: still playing in theaters
(320M Domestic...331M Foreign)
Low budget, creative writing, and new talent. From what I’ve read in the trades, these films are the exception as Hollywood is obsessed with big budget projects. Big studios don’t do the small films much these days. It’s typically smaller studios and indies which create this content.
A sample of the biggest flops this year
“Ghost in the Shell”
110M Budget + 60M advertising/Promotion
Opening weekend: 18M
Worldwide: 169M
Expected Loss: 60-70M
Note: If you gonna do Anime, don’t screw with the source material and don’t “whitewash” the main character. Anime is a niche genre in the States...treat it with caution.
GITS is suppose to be a though-provoking sci-fi drama not a boring, generic by-the-numbers cop flick.
Even the Japanese box office was abysmal.
“Power Rangers”
100M Budget + 30-40M advertising/Promotion
Opening Weekend: 40M
Worldwide: 142M
Expected Loss: 40M
Nostalgia can only get you so far.
“King Author, Legend of the Sword”
175M Budget + 60-75M Advertising/Promotion
Opening Weekend: 15M
Worldwide: 148M
Expected Loss: 120-140M
No one likes you Guy Richie and King Arthur is soooo last millennium.
“Valerian and the City of 1000 Worlds”
Budget: 175-200M + 70-80M Advertising/Promotion
Opening Weekend: 15M
Worldwide: 225M
Expected Loss: 110M
This is case where a director with a dream, and a gullible studio learn a hard lesson. The losses were so big that STX Studios and the director (who ponied up a lot of his own money) face bankruptcy.
***Tack on an additional amount for advertising and promotions but for these files it’s not much as the producers relied upon social media, favorable pre-screening with critics, out-of-the-box ideas and word-of-mouth.