However, both directors acknowledge that due to the first films poor box office performance (as of April 29th, the $53 million dollar double feature had only raked in about $23 million in North American ticket sales), they know they have to wait to see how the rest of the world responds to the movies as individual releases and for the release of the DVD to see how financially viable this venture could potentially be.
But I have to say, a lot of movies have become hits on DVD, and Grindhouse seems like one of those movies. It will catch on as a double DVD set, so I guess it is a matter of patience to see if the project could get off the ground.
At the same time, I also realize that Eli Roth and Edgar Wright don't have the same kind of drawing power that QT and Rodriguez do, despite the per theatre averages that Hot Fuzz was generating and the ticket sales of Hostel but a mitigating factor in all this is the budgets that both directors have worked with in the recent past to make their breakthrough films. Shaun of the Dead cost $4 million and Cabin Fever/Hostel around $1.5/4.5 million, and given the format, I think that even if both directors doubled their last budgets, they would still be able to bring the double feature in at a much more reasonable figure than $53 million dollars. And that lower price tag would make profitability that much easier to attain and a decent business decision, because when it comes down to it, money is truly the thing that talks in the film industry.
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6 comments:
Sad that I have seen painfully few of the movies noted here -- which coincidently aligns with the birth of my son -- but your bottom line about the industry bottom line is timeless. If you can make a feature for a million and make 5, you're gonna get a few shots to do it over and over and on a more grand scale.
And the other truism about Hollywood remains in effect. Quoth Goldman, no one knows anything. So producers will hang their hat on any bit of performance data they can get. Potential profit + any kind of commercially viable track record = green light.
Kevin Smith told a tale in his most recent Q and A about how even with his marginal bombs, his movies eventually make a profit(especially because of the DVDs), so that's how he keeps making movies. That's why I think this could be viable.
Personally, I'm psyched about Edgar Wright's Ant-Man film scheduled for 2008. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he'll sign Simon Pegg in the lead. :)
was grindhouse even a success the first time?
I think it's kind of interesting that Wright and Roth want to make full-length versions of their trailers, but why bother, really? I mean, since they were created as trailers, we've already seen all of the highlights.
Jess: With every success Wright has, it makes me hopeful that Spaced will finally come out for the North American market.
Mayren: The actual movie(which was disappointing) or the genre(which as a whole was profitable).
SF: I think Don't has more promise than Thanksgiving on that front, but I see your point.
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