Christopher Nolan's "Dunkirk" (July 21, 2017) - Part 3

[rashad]

What threshold does the film need to reach in order to turn a profit?

The production budget was only $100 million.

 

[Man in the Suit]

Nolan gets 20% of the gross.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

The production budget was only $100 million.

Really? I'm impressed. The film looks amazing. It looks like stuff is actually happening with real planes and boats on location instead of the usual obvious CGI.

 

[StormC]

Unless the movie has a massive marketing campaign and gets a price tag attached to it, I generally go with the rule of 3x the budget to bypass marketing costs (which are often paid for via tie-ins and such). Forbes brought this up regarding Wonder Woman (450M to break even on a 150M budget).

It's not a perfect rule because of different gross percentages from multiple countries, but as long as the foreign BO isn't completely dwarfing the domestic I don't think it's really an issue.

Nolan gets 20% of the gross.

Not too big of a dent in WB's wallet, I wager. Say the movie makes 100 million in profit, they give Nolan 20 million and keep 80 for themselves.

 

[TheVileOne]

Well Dunkirk only has a $100 million budget which is a little smaller than most tentpoles as of late. For example Fate of the Furious cost $250 million. Wonder Woman cost $150 million. Homecoming cost $175 million. Pirates 5 cost $230 million. Guardians of the Galaxy 2 cost $200 million. Cars 3 cost at least $175 million. Transformers 5 cost $217 million. Planet of the Apes cost $150 million. All without P&A.

The only big ones I think with lower budgets for spring and summer are probably Despicable Me 3 at $80 million, Alien Covenant at $97 million.

I'm not sure Dunkirk will really be the prestige movie WB wanted in terms of awards, but it's going to be highly profitable.

 

[redfirebird2008]

I'm not sure Dunkirk will really be the prestige movie WB wanted in terms of awards, but it's going to be highly profitable.

WB knows what they get with Nolan and it's not awards. I doubt they were expecting anything along those lines.

 

[Kreem Pi]

We're still quite a ways till the awards. Why write it off now?

 

[TheVileOne]

WB knows what they get with Nolan and it's not awards. I doubt they were expecting anything along those lines.

Seemed people were hoping for award prestige before this dropped. What with it being Nolan and the WWII setting. Plus, Inception got nominated for 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Screenplay.

 

[redfirebird2008]

Seemed people were hoping for award prestige before this dropped. What with it being Nolan and the WWII setting. Plus, Inception got nominated for 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Screenplay.

Who was hoping for that? It's a summer action movie designed to be a thrill ride in IMAX.

And it has a typical Nolan plot structure, meaning NOT friendly to the Academy voters. WB would have known that long before anyone else since they've had the script for several years.

 

[StormC]

Best Director nomination could still be in play.

 

[Kreem Pi]

Who was hoping for that? It's a summer action movie designed to be a thrill ride in IMAX.

And it has a typical Nolan plot structure, meaning NOT friendly to the Academy voters. WB would have known that long before anyone else since they've had the script for several years.

Academy's shed a lot of its old men since then.

 

[TheVileOne]

Who was hoping for that? It's a summer action movie designed to be a thrill ride in IMAX.

And it has a typical Nolan plot structure, meaning NOT friendly to the Academy voters. WB would have known that long before anyone else since they've had the script for several years.

http://variety.com/2017/film/in-contention/dunkirk-oscar-contender-christopher-nolan-1202496790/

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ra...ristopher-nolan-movie-has-gone-before-1022078

http://www.indiewire.com/2017/07/dunkirk-christopher-nolan-tom-hardy-oscar-contender-1201856280/

http://screenrant.com/dunkirk-christopher-nolan-oscar-win/

 

[redfirebird2008]

http://variety.com/2017/film/in-contention/dunkirk-oscar-contender-christopher-nolan-1202496790/

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ra...ristopher-nolan-movie-has-gone-before-1022078

http://www.indiewire.com/2017/07/dunkirk-christopher-nolan-tom-hardy-oscar-contender-1201856280/

http://screenrant.com/dunkirk-christopher-nolan-oscar-win/

I don't see how a bunch of blogger opinions have anything to do with your original statement about WB's hopes. WB hoped to make their money back after spending about $200 million on production and marketing. They will get that cash back and then some.

If they wanted to win awards, they would have hired Tom Hooper to direct a very conservative $10m prestige movie. Instead they did a pretty risky $100m IMAX spectacle and it will make some money for them. I don't see anything else beyond that. If it receives any credit during awards season, that's just a little bonus for them. It was certainly not the primary goal on this movie to begin with.

 

[Kreem Pi]

Aren't they gearing up to push Wonder Woman and Dunkirk as their award candidates?

 

[TheVileOne]

I don't see how a bunch of blogger opinions have anything to do with your original statement about WB's hopes. WB hoped to make their money back after spending about $200 million on production and marketing. They will get that cash back and then some.

If they wanted to win awards, they would have hired Tom Hooper to direct a very conservative $10m prestige movie. Instead they did a pretty risky $100m IMAX spectacle and it will make some money for them. I don't see anything else beyond that. If it receives any credit during awards season, that's just a little bonus for them. It was certainly not the primary goal on this movie to begin with.

You asked who, and there were quite a few trades and major outlets stumping for the movie to be an Oscar contender. It wouldn't surprise me if Warner Bros. execs feel the same.

Also, Nolan's films have garnered quite a few awards nods over the years as well.

It wouldn't surprise me if they do push Dunkirk for awards contention later on. It might still be too early.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Dunkirk is almost a lock for s**t tons of Tech awards like Editing, Sound mixing, Sound Design, Cinematography and Score. Production design & Costume Design will be tough but Dunkirk will definitely get nominations at least. Nolan is almost a lock for BD because Dunkirk is universally acclaimed and he is due for one. Dunkirk's chances at BP are rather slim tho. It has little chance at a SAG ensemble award and it'll work against the movie. Plus original screenplay is too stacked this year so Dunkirk is already at a major disadvantage there.

 

[harlequinade]

Aren't they gearing up to push Wonder Woman and Dunkirk as their award candidates?

They are. WW thing is ridiculous but I'll be shocked if the film is not up for sound, cinematography, music and director and that's the least optimistic scenario.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/la-et-mn-christopher-nolan-dunkirk-oscars-20170723-story.html

Pros:

Nolan’s latest film, the war movie “Dunkirk,” opened this weekend to rapturous reviews and a better-than-expected box office take of $50.5 million. The eagerness to see “Dunkirk” extended to Oscar voters, who packed the film academy’s 1,000-seat Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills on Saturday night looking to see if the picture, presented in glorious 70mm, lived up to the hype.

Even considering that at this time of year academy members can bring up to three guests to screenings, the early evening line snaking blocks around the Goldwyn indicated a high level of anticipation. The turn-away crowd for the 7:30 p.m. show resulted in the academy adding a second presentation at 10 p.m.

When “Dunkirk” ended and the credits rolled, Nolan’s name elicited a roar of approval and the majority of the audience — perhaps unaccustomed to a Nolan movie running under two hours — stayed in their seats until the lights came up.

Afterward, academy members — those able to articulate their thoughts after the grueling film — expressed admiration, calling it a “tour de force,” “gut-wrenching,“ “astonishing,” “extraordinary” and, yes, a “masterpiece.” Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema (BAFTA-nominated for “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” and “Interstellar,” but still looking for his first Oscar nod), composer Hans Zimmer and the film’s sound design team were singled out.

Cons:

And yet, though many critics cited “Dunkirk” as the Nolan movie that might convert non-believers (leaner run time, expository dialogue kept to a minimum), some Oscar voters left the Goldwyn without the scales falling from their eyes.

The film’s elastic structure — “Dunkirk” flits between three sections (air, land and sea) taking place in different locations and (mostly) different time frames during the 1940 rescue of Allied troops caught between advancing German forces and the French coast — irked some.

“I know this guy [Nolan] is incapable of telling a story in a linear fashion,” an Oscar-nominated producer complained, noting Nolan’s signature for scrambling time in his movies, “but the results are never as meaningful as he thinks they are.”

“It’s confusing,” added his companion. “And it distances you from what’s happening on the screen. I’ve always found his movies soulless.”

For the last six years, the academy has asked voters to list five movies, not 10, on their ballots resulting in a best picture slate that has varied between eight and nine movies, depending on how members rank the films. Nolan’s last picture, “Interstellar,” released in 2014 in the thick of awards season, failed to earn a nomination. “Dunkirk” returns the filmmaker to a familiar summer movie battleground, with box office, not the Oscars, being the primary focus — for now.

On that front, “Dunkirk” has already scored a victory. The academy’s initial reaction, largely mirroring critics’ ecstatic reviews, signals that a long campaign to the Oscars is likely in the offing.

 

[harlequinade]

“I know this guy [Nolan] is incapable of telling a story in a linear fashion,” an Oscar-nominated producer complained, noting Nolan’s signature for scrambling time in his movies, “but the results are never as meaningful as he thinks they are.”

It's not that the films and people that don't deserve the Oscars win them that diminishes their value. It's that there are so many idiots there in the Academy who are voting.

 

[jmc]

If he doesn't get nominated for a war film then he's simply never going to be nominated. He's not the type to try and pander to Oscar voters, so in all likelihood it wouldn't phase him all the much.

 

[OutOfBoose]

I think it deserves sound design and cinematography awards. Not sure about the rest.

 

[Filmfan93]

Saw it for a 3rd time yesterday. Was still in awe of how good it is. The visuals, the sound design, the narrative structure, Hans Zimmer's score... it was alsmost as like I was viewing it for a 1st time.

Brilliant.

 

[BatLobster]

You asked who, and there were quite a few trades and major outlets stumping for the movie to be an Oscar contender. It wouldn't surprise me if Warner Bros. execs feel the same.

Also, Nolan's films have garnered quite a few awards nods over the years as well.

It wouldn't surprise me if they do push Dunkirk for awards contention later on. It might still be too early.

Well, I think when you implied that WB wanted Dunkirk to be a "prestige awards film" that's where it's sort of inaccurate.

Of course WB is going to make a major awards push. They do for all of Nolan's films, but especially after the rapturous reception here they'll be pushing hard. Make no mistake, this will rack up a bunch of technical nominations at the very least. But it's not a prestige awards film any more than Mad Max: Fury Road, Inception or Gravity were. It fits way more into the category well-made, well-received blockbuster that gets Academy attention than it does your typical Oscar season fare. I think it being a WWII film does help Nolan's chances of being nominated for director, but even as a WWII film it is clearly designed so much more for audiences than it is for the typical voting habits of Academy members.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

It's not that the films and people that don't deserve the Oscars win them that diminishes their value. It's that there are so many idiots there in the Academy who are voting.

The story for this movie is linear. I'm not sure why that producer thought different.

 

[harlequinade]

Well, I think when you implied that WB wanted Dunkirk to be a "prestige awards film" that's where it's sort of inaccurate.

Of course WB is going to make a major awards push. They do for all of Nolan's films, but especially after the rapturous reception here they'll be pushing hard. Make no mistake, this will rack up a bunch of technical nominations at the very least. But it's not a prestige awards film any more than Mad Max: Fury Road, Inception or Gravity were. It fits way more into the category well-made, well-received blockbuster that gets Academy attention than it does your typical Oscar season fare. I think it being a WWII film does help Nolan's chances of being nominated for director, but even as a WWII film it is clearly designed so much more for audiences than it is for the typical voting habits of Academy members.

Oh I disagree. What the story is about alone makes it more 'awards film' than all those mentioned. The Academy loves films based on real stories.

It's definitely not done with awards in mind, you are right. As evidenced by that dumb producer it still goes over poor members' heads.