Carell's "Evan Almighty" to cost $250 Million?!

[lordofthenerds]

That's crazy. It has the same budget as Spider-Man 3, or at least what Spider-Man 3's rumored to have.

 

[Edward Brock]

40 year old virgin had a budget of 26 million. It made 85 million over budget domestically. As for The Office, its doing fine. Any other night, 9 million viewers is huge. Thursday night it is disappointing, worst case scenario they move it back to tuesday, where it did great ratings for NBC...plus, oh yea, the Emmy.

As for this stuff, it is just a rumor. Smart money says the studio would scrap this before they dumped that much cash into it. Especially since its best case scenario is 100 domestically. This is just a ridiculous rumor.

The $250 figure is estimated from a final production budget of $175 million + worldwide release & marketing. The initial budget was at $140 million which, for a comedy, is already ridiculous on it's own, even more with this cast. Besides, the movie features two factors that make this number belivable: filming with a very large amount of animals and, most important, filming on water.

 

[Darren Daring]

This is false.

 

[Edward Brock]

Yes...?

 

[MulligaN Stew]

Even with the possibility of an enormous 1st weekend, I don't see this film doing anymore than 160-170 million. [domestically speaking]

'Wedding Crashers' was one of the last comedies to break 200 millon domestically, and it only as the result of a loyal repeat audience. Is the script worth this kind of risk or are the producers thinking: We've got Steve Carroll. He's a hot commodity right now; let's do it.

Are the livestock CGI? Why is it that expensive?

 

[Edward Brock]

Are the livestock CGI? Why is it that expensive?

I have no idea, probabily a mix of the two. It could get expensive if there's an awfull lot of them.

 

[ultimatefan]

Hollywood has gone nuts. Period.

 

[Cinemaman]

$250m?

Are they morons? This movie won't make even $100m!

 

[Tempest19]

wow. I'm going to see it. Might be a success- but with THAT budget? WTF?! That's budget suicide!

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

Hollywood has gone nuts. Period.

Ehhh. I think some studios are just so desperate for a mega hit movie. They are so greedy they can't just have moderately successful and at the same time quality films anymore.

 

[Tempest19]

Um, wouldn't a mega hit be the same as finding a way to have a movie cost less and then try to bring in Blockbuster type box office? - best example (possibly): The Prestige. That film looks like it might be looking at a big box office and it wasn't made for alot of money.

 

[The Apatow Crew]

Well some people just think if you throw a lot of money into a movie its automatically gonna make it back. Wouldn't be the first time. I'm not naming names cause i don't wanna start anything.

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

Um, wouldn't a mega hit be the same as finding a way to have a movie cost less and then try to bring in Blockbuster type box office? - best example (possibly): The Prestige. That film looks like it might be looking at a big box office and it wasn't made for alot of money.

Well studios are looking at these huge budget movies making a ****load of dough and they are wanting to catch the same success.

 

[Jennifer Walters]

What the ****? Did they get confused and think they were making a Terminator/X-Men style science fiction film? o_o

 

[Tempest19]

I don't think this news is real. With an ation film- possible. But, with a comedy film with a touch of science fiction? Lol. It's never going to make that back. Never. And sounds like a great film too that could be a success with a smarter budget... just, I think this isn't official news- just a rumor. They wouldn't be that dumb would they?

 

[ultimatefan]

Ehhh. I think some studios are just so desperate for a mega hit movie. They are so greedy they can't just have moderately successful and at the same time quality films anymore.

The thing also is, they´re apparently going full on for the "gotta spend more to make more" approach, that is, that you have to make the movies bigger and bigger and more and more spectacular to make money out of them, when in fact sometimes extremely profitable movies are made with little money, but a good story - movies like Little Miss Sunshine, for instance.

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

Yeah Little Miss Sunshine was like one of the most profitable movies this year right? Damn I want it to come out on dvd I still haven't seen it yet.

 

[Tempest19]

If this is true- that flood has gotta look ****in' amazing.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

The thing also is, they´re apparently going full on for the "gotta spend more to make more" approach, that is, that you have to make the movies bigger and bigger and more and more spectacular to make money out of them, when in fact sometimes extremely profitable movies are made with little money, but a good story - movies like Little Miss Sunshine, for instance.

Yeah, exactly. Then you have Superman Returns - extremely expensive movie with no story.

Joke, I love SR.

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

Yeah, exactly. Then you have Superman Returns - extremely expensive movie with no story.

Joke, I love SR.

And a ton of money pumped into scenes that didn't even make it into the movie.

 

[Warhammer]

Wowzer. that's alot of money, especially for THIS film.

 

[SoulManX]

Costs have skyrocketed for Universal's upcoming Evan Almighty, starring Steve Carell, with final expenditures likely to exceed at least $175 million -- $250 million, including marketing -- the Los Angeles Times reported today (Monday).
Such a budget would make it the most expensive comedy in history, the newspaper observed. According to the Times, studio executives have acknowledged that the Bruce Almighty sequel has exceeded original budget estimates but are confident it will eventually be profitable. Describing the film as a "spectacle fantasy and also a comedy," Universal Chairman Marc Shmuger told the newspaper that it is "a great bet."

The newspaper quoted unnamed sources as blaming the overruns on the studio's desire to release the film during the holiday season in December, thereby cutting preparation time and forcing the crew to shoot scenes in Virginia during a rainy period. (Bad weather reportedly forced an 11-day production delay.) Producers also encountered delays having to film hundreds of animals (it's a kind of Noah's arc tale), with predators like lions and tigers having to be separated from monkeys and giraffes.

 

[Shifty]

It could break even, internationally. Who knows how the Christian crowd will react to a bible story/comedy. It won't be as bad as Pluto Nash.

 

[XwolverineX]

Evan Almighty has to be the best film title ever.

 

[xwolverine2]

this should show them not to waste so much ***in money on uneccesary sequels.......

they wont make half of it back