I wasn't implying that the next Superman movie should only cost 30mil, as it was obvious that District 9 had things working for it that most movies don't, but I still think that it is dumb that the new running budgets for blockbusters is 175 to 250mil.
I understand what you are saying but I refuse to believe that it is impossible to make a blockbuster for 150mil in 2009. And yes I know it isn't easy to keep the budget down and yeah I know it's hard to make movies.
Stars don't even really matter as much as they use to, I wonder when Hollywood is going to figure that out? They are just wasting money right there with paying Z-grades A- grade prices.
I'm not lumping in the marketing with the cost of the film because those aren't exactly the same thing.
So let me just simply sum it up:
A special effects movie will always cost a s**tload for the reasons you say but (and I could be wrong, after all I don't work in the biz) I still don't think that it's impossible to make a special effects picture for under 175mil.
1) First of all i agree wih when it comes to movie stars taking up alot of the budget. I think it was Favreau who , when making Iron Man , said that Iron Man was the 20 million star not the actor playim him. I think that applies for several of these franchise movies. Superman , Batman etc.
I think this is can be partially blamed on the studios as well. You get an actor pay him a million or two to star in a movie and for some reason the movie performs extremely well. Enter the hollywood agent demanding much more for the next sequel. It's not unheard of. Look at Tobey Maguire and Shia Leboeff . After Spidey 1 and TF 1 their agents demanded a massive salary increase of 20 million for the sequel. The studios of course denied that but renegotiated their deals so that the actors still got a substantial pay increase.
Although i do feel that actor play a (big) role in a movie's success , there are other factors as well. Why not simply work for a small salary (a couple of mil) and when the movie becomes a hit , you'll get your share of the gross. I think that's a scenario everyone is happy. Once the studio has recouped it's costs , everyone can have a percentage of the profits . It worked with guys like Spielberg , Lucas and Ford when they made Indiana Jones 4.
2) Your point about making a massive blockbuster for less then 175 million. Again you are right in saying that it is possible. However along with the reasons Crook has listed ( shooting stuff for real , shooting on real locations etc) one of the factors that also plays a big role in the budget increase is the fact that studios are trying to get a movie done in shorter timeframes.
I guess that's due to the fact that the actors are getting older.
However in order to get the VFX shots done in( a shorter) time , the studio has to pay million in over time. That certainly was the case with the POTC sequels .
I know , it's a pretty ******ed idea to actually set a release date but meanwhile your behind with your post.prod work.
I guess that with franchises it's more to do with the fact that the actors are getting older . Making the movies faster means that the actors can play the roles for a longer period of time . But you need to seriously pay loads more to get everything done.
Heck i could see what everyone's is saying about Star Trek's budget actually being bigger then what is reported.
Movies like LOTR and the matrix movies have shown the the budgets can be lowered substantially and still be able to deliver high end VFX shots. But your talking about a longer period of time to develop everything.
Are studios and actors willing to wait for such a long period ?
Compare Minority Report and War Of The Worlds. Both movies directed by Spielberg , both movies star Tom Cruise. I'm sure he asked for his usual 20 million pay day on both flicks. In terms is VFX , Minority Report is bigger . Yet is costs less then War Of The Worlds. Aside from the fact that War Of The Worlds was shot on more real locations then Minority Report , SPielberg reallly took his time to make Minority Report .
War Of the Worlds was made in 9 months , from start to finish. Minority Report had a post. prod period of a whole year.
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