Ben Affleck Confirms Live By Night as His Next Feature

[scarlet-witch]

Yikes. I didn't think the loss would be that high.

 

[Jekecy]

http://variety.com/2017/film/news/ben-affleck-live-by-night-flop-1201971025/

“Live By Night” mostly fired blanks when it debuted in theaters last December, and its failure has resulted in a lot of financial carnage.


The expensive gangster picture was a passion project for Ben Affleck, who directed, wrote, produced, and starred in the story of a Florida rum runner. But critics ripped the picture, calling it dramatically inert and a muddle. That’s left Warner Bros., the studio behind the film flop, looking at a $75 million loss, according to insiders with knowledge of its financing and rival studio executives.


“Live By Night” has made $16.5 million globally, and is not expected to have international appeal despite Affleck’s star power. Talky period pictures don’t tend to play well overseas, particularly when they don’t come loaded with Oscars (“Live by Night” was shut out). The film cost $65 million to produce and tens of millions more to distribute and market.

 

[Bats123]

Let's see what happens with that Batman movie now....

 

[StarLord]

Hello darkness, my old friend...

 

[DarthSkywalker]

http://variety.com/2017/film/news/ben-affleck-live-by-night-flop-1201971025/

People always forget it cost a good amount of money to distribute and market a film, especially globally. That is why making double doesn't come close to covering the cost.

 

[Gold Samurai]

Hello darkness, my old friend...

 

[Resistance61513]

Man, this news sucks.

Personally, I loved this film. It's kind of like the reports regarding "The Accountant". That movie got lambasted and frankly, I was highly entertained throughout. I'm not trying to defend this movie from people's opinions...people are allowed to believe/think how they'd like, I would just like to say, for my experience, I was completely enthralled in the story.

Sure it was a slow burn but, I liked that. I enjoyed seeing Affleck's "rise" to power in the south. I also enjoyed how it was very period based. Most of the time period films try to bring in relevant slang/culture and it offsets the mood. In "Live By Night" I thought Affleck and Co did a great job bringing to life the era of the 20's-30's.

It's a shame this movie was received so poorly. I'll probably end up picking it up on DVD when it comes out.

Something I'd like to add but trying to not spoil...with all three of Affleck's films, the guy knows how to write an ending. I feel the art of an ending is always lost in films nowadays. They're either trying to set up for future installments/a "money shot" at the end. When "Live By Night" faded to black, that was a closing that stuck with me long after I left the theater.

 

[Kane52630]

http://variety.com/2017/film/news/ben-affleck-live-by-night-flop-1201971025/

 

[harlequinade]

I feel bad for Ben, haven't seen this movie but I cannot imagine this being so bad. Out of his films I only disliked Gone Baby Gone but that's because of the stupid story, the directing was fantastic. I'll definitely give this one a chance

 

[dude stannis]

I'm catching this tomorrow with a buddy who loves old school Cagney gangster movies. I don't see how cheering the failure of a mid budget original programmer as a good thing makes sense, but that's fanboys for you.

 

[Loden Greatstorm]

Wow... speechless.

 

[Dr.]

People always forget it cost a good amount of money to distribute and market a film, especially globally. That is why making double doesn't come close to covering the cost.

But that formula (gross double the production budget = breakeven) is a serviceable “rule of thumb” to roughly calculate a movie’s profit or loss. In this case, LBN needed to gross about $130M to cover its $65M budget. And with a $17M box office, it’s not even debatable. True, distribution and marketing adds even more to the costs. OTOH, home video and TV sales, etc. adds more to the revenue side. But unless you have access to the studio’s spreadsheets, it’s impossible to do a precise P&L calculation. Thus, you go back to the original “rule of thumb.”

 

[dude stannis]

I've had plenty of directors confirm the double the gross thing his b.s.

 

[samsnee]

I feel bad for Ben, haven't seen this movie but I cannot imagine this being so bad. Out of his films I only disliked Gone Baby Gone but that's because of the stupid story, the directing was fantastic. I'll definitely give this one a chance

I wouldn't feel too bad. Something tells me he's still going to get work.

 

[dark_b]

Why do some movie and comicbook movie fans feel sorry for movie stars who are very rich?

 

[Da-Scribe]

Why do some movie and comicbook movie fans feel sorry for movie stars who are very rich?

Money has nothing to do with it. I just feel for these folks when they put their hearts and souls into these projects and they don't work out. That was like 2 years of Affleck's life. Obviously, he'll be fine, but it sucks when your passion project doesn't connect.

 

[BlueLanternKal]

^Exactly.

It's basically being told "**** you, we don't care about your opinions or ideas!"

Except on a really large scale. I don't care how rich you are or how good you've got it. That **** hurts.

But Affleck's tough. He'll bounce back. He's done it before.

 

[OutOfBoose]

The movie was really weak. Almost nothing worked in it. Hard to say what happened.

I hope Ben still got it, because God knows we need him at his finest on Batman solo.

 

[BaelaTargaryen]

Live by Night established a new record - the biggest loss of theaters (2659) in its third weekend.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/theaterdrops.htm

 

[jmc]

No matter how much money you have when you put your work out for others to judged it still hurts if no-one likes it. $75m is a big loss, a real kick in the pants to cap off an already ****** year.

 

[Hurm...]

Ben's performance in this was particularly boring.

 

[dude stannis]

I disagree, he was really good. Especially when struggling to contain himself at how dumb the people he was dealing with where.

 

[harlequinade]

Money has nothing to do with it. I just feel for these folks when they put their hearts and souls into these projects and they don't work out. That was like 2 years of Affleck's life. Obviously, he'll be fine, but it sucks when your passion project doesn't connect.

And all of this is happening on top of him being a laughingstock to some for his Batman which I thought was a great performance. It feels very unjust.

 

[Gold Samurai]

^Exactly.

It's basically being told "**** you, we don't care about your opinions or ideas!"

Except on a really large scale. I don't care how rich you are or how good you've got it. That **** hurts.

But Affleck's tough. He'll bounce back. He's done it before.

If there's one guy who knows what it's like to feel the backlash from his movies it's Affleck

Gigli
Daredevil

Etc etc


Everyone cared more about the new batman movie he's potentially directing

 

[OutOfBoose]

Ben's performance in this was particularly boring.

I think his performance was solid in BvS, but really weak in this film. Talking about sleepwalking...