Film Budget vs. Success - Project- Attn Dan & Jeff

[tsmith15]

Dear Jeff & Dan (and Steve),

I am a high school student, movie enthusiast, and dedicated fan of the show.

For my Grade 12 Data Management summative task I decided to argue that the more budget a movie has, the more successful that movie will be.

For the purposes of my research, success is measured in terms of U.S. Domestic Gross, and ratings (IMDB.com, rottentomatoes.com, etc.).

A part of the project is contacting an expert in the field, and I am turning to you two.

If it wouldn’t be a bother, could either of you, or both, respond with your opinion on the issue; and feel free to speak for or against the "thesis", as I somehow feel your heart won't lie completely on one side or the other.

Everyone else, you are welcome to discuss and debate as well.

Thank you.

And for good measure a picture of me: tsmith15 (http://sleekupload.com/uploads/hpim0998.jpg)

[dannyt]

Hey dude, I am totally not an expert in this field, neither is Jeff- and it would be rad to contact someone who IS-- use this as your chance to really speak with someone.

That said- you have plenty of examples that support your argument- the ones that go against it off the top of my head would be Wateworld (which bombed in the US, but made its money elsewhere) and Heaven's Gate (which basically sunk a studio, very famous story)

[zombierin]

I'm sorry I won't be much help,
my only input is against your argument.

The Full Monty was made for around $3.5 million and it's worldwide gross is over $250 million holding the record for the highest-grossing UK film in history.

[johnnysix]

This might help a lot:

http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/records/budgets.php

[tsmith15]

Hey dude, I am totally not an expert in this field, neither is Jeff- and it would be rad to contact someone who IS-- use this as your chance to really speak with someone.

That said- you have plenty of examples that support your argument- the ones that go against it off the top of my head would be Wateworld (which bombed in the US, but made its money elsewhere) and Heaven's Gate (which basically sunk a studio, very famous story)

Thanks Dan, but you shouldn't understimate yourself. Anyone with an imdb AND a wikipedia page of his own is damn well an expert in everything!

This might help a lot:

http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/records/budgets.php

I am fine on the numbers side, just that the teacher demanded we contact an "expert" in the related field to provide us with an authoritative testimonial of sorts.

[lavahot]

Primer was made for something like $7000, and while not a blockbuster at the box office, was a critical hit. Howard the Duck was made for $37 million, and only grossed $16 million and was completely panned by critics.

My suggestion is this: find a long list of films, good and bad, and get their production numbers, the gross, and their rating on either rotten tomatoes or maybe metacritic. Then make an association with the ratio of their budget to gross, their gross to critic score, and their budget to their critic score. Make note of the year they were made and get as many as you can. Then make the associated charts, discussions, and conclusions. Man, is it weird that I'm getting excited about somebody else's statistical analysis project?

[poltah]

I fully disagree with that statement.

The movie that earns a lot of bucks do it, today, mostly, because it's a name. Because it says Spider-Man on the poster. And because the company knows that the movie will earn a lot of money, they're willing to throw a lot of money after the movie. And, to make the movie look decent, it needs some money for CGi and stuff like that.

But for me, one of the biggest reason a movie makes a lot of money is because there's a build in audience, because it's a franchise.

[books]

I'm sorry I won't be much help,
my only input is against your argument.

The Full Monty was made for around $3.5 million and it's worldwide gross is over $250 million holding the record for the highest-grossing UK film in history.

...and 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding', I heard $4 million for that.

[zombierin]

...and 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding', I heard $4 million for that.

Oh! And I almost forgot the Blair Witch Project.

Under $35,000 to make.
$248,639,099 gross revenue. (as of Jan this year)

[books]

Oh! And I almost forgot the Blair Witch Project.

Under $35,000 to make.
$248,639,099 gross revenue. (as of Jan this year)

Ya, but that was a shitty movie. Haha.

[zombierin]

Ya, but that was a shitty movie. Haha.

Hey now
I never said it was good.
Just "successful"

[dougleach]

It depends on how you want to look at it. You can do it strictly off of dollar amounts, or you can look at the percentage of gross income to budget. If you look at the “Numbers” webpage listed before, the most profitable movies based off of dollar amounts were all bid budget, special effects movies, the cheapest of which was made for 10 million dollars (E.T.) Based off of percentages though it’s almost all low budget movies. Out of the twenty movies it has listed, only 5 had a budget of at least one million, the highest being 11 million (Starwars IV).

[mysteriousblueliquid]

Try to get in touch with the guys who run boxofficemojo.com. They might be able to point you in the right direction.

[puddlefish]

$35,000 actually sounds like quite a lot of money for the Blair Witch (not bagging on the movie, just not sure what they spent that money on...).

I wonder how much of that, if any, was used for the ingenious marketing campaigns.