Posted on 10/01/2023 10:32:59 AM PDT by DallasBiff
From a distance, the movie business might look pretty glamorous. Celebrities and producers glide down red carpets, clutch their Oscars, and vacation in St. Barts—just because they can. While there's a lot of money to be made in the film industry, the economics of making movies are far from simple.
Something you’ll likely hear if you walk through the halls of any movie studio is “nobody knows anything.” And that’s true. The public can be fickle, and the industry is in flux. Just about any movie is an extremely risky investment, even a film starring big-name actors and actresses. According to the Motion Picture Association of America's (MPAA) Theatrical Market Statistics Report for 2021, the U.S. and Canadian box office came in at $4.5 billion in 2021, up 105% from 2020 due to theater re-openings following the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, but remained well below pre-pandemic levels.
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Because bored stupid people pay to see crap
Next question
“Nobody knows anything.”
-William Goldman
“Everything You Know is Wrong.”
—Firesign Theatre
“The trouble with movies as a business is that it’s an art, and the trouble with movies as art is that it’s a business.” —Charlton Heston
Twice the production to break even and three times to make a profit. A blockbuster has to make about 4 times its budget back.
That’s the measurement I understand.
Well, they’re not making it off of me, LOL! I’m always 6-12 months behind on the ‘new stuff’ the other kids are raving about at any given time. ;)
DVDs are easily borrowed from the Library or bought for a few bucks at St. Vincent’s Thrift Shop or watched on Free Government TV.
They always have.
The expenses are whatever the production house says they are.
Voodoo economics on an industrial scale.
Which is why so many actors either work union scale or get a chunk of money up front.
Many that have bet on a percentage of profit discover that there is no profit to be shared by the company.
So that magic marker when movies hit $100 million in revenue doesn't apply anymore like it used to.
I haven’t been to a movie theatre in years.
If I want to see a crappy movie, I’ll watch it on my big screen TV without worrying about idiots chattering or talking on their stupid cell phones..
This piece is very childish in its message. Film making is nothing more than hiring people to act, researching what the public that pays the bills to get in want to see and how it is to be presented, then throw it on the screen with advertising until it no longer draws then send the 3D versions to China. It’s just that simple. This is why there are very few, if any, new ideas in an industry filled with remakes and rehashed story lines using special effects, sex, and makeup. They’re just kicking the same can down the road to appease the 13 to 35 year old which makes up for a majority of the audience. (Statista)
Then when they can’t break even on the big screen, it is sent to China and to American pay stations until it no longer makes profit for the sponsors and it goes in storage until the networks need a filler or someone in the cast dies and they bring out the old movies to recognize someone’s overpaid work...again.
And it isn’t just the movie industry. It’s a lot of entertainment rehashing like sports, radio, newspapers on page 110, and their local assistants for all of it. It’s all about riding the dying horse until it is completely dead. And then publicizing the obituary. (Remake)
wy69
Also,consider ticket prices. A movie that made 200 million in 1970 ticket purchases had far more people seeing it than a movie that made 200 million in 2023.
Not always.......sometimes even mega-hits dont make
a profit b/c the cost to make them exceeded the box office.
We know how a movie loses money, don’t we?
That’s the general measurement, but Hollywood lies. They could make a trillion dollars on a movie and somehow still lose money on it.
Dogs came from the stars! The Aztecs invented the vacation ! ... The brain is NOT THE BOSS !!!
( ... On Vinyl )
Oh yeah....Hollywood’s “creative” accounting is legendary.
About the only way a movie makes a profit is if it is a complete surprise. Movies the studio expect to make money will be loaded down with a lot of expenses for the production but profit for the studio. I bet the studio makes profit on lighting, camera rental, floor space to film, catering and a hundred other things so the movie loses money no matter how many tickets can be sold.
Product placement is why movie James Bond’s wristwatch and drink of choice are different from novel James Bond’s. Because Smirnoff and Omeeega paid Cubby Broccoli to have their products on screen and mentioned by name.
Product placement also was one reason why so many Americans got addicted to nicotine. The cigarette industry paid LARGE MONEY to the movie industry to have glamorous and sophisticated people depicted doing glamorous sophisticated things while smoking cancer sticks. Which gave Joe/Josephine Sixpack to believe he/she would be glamorous and sophisticated if he/she smoked them as well. When all it really did for him/her was give him/her cancer and heart disease and made him/her smell like an ash tray.
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