'King Kong' Bombing Big Time at Box Office

[adam]

Supreme2k, I sort of agree but think the average person wants to see their favorite leading man/woman as the star in the big blockbuster films. What pisses me off is when big movies cast big names in EVERY role as if that makes it better. Smaller roles should be played by relative unknowns otherwise their character isn't developed enough and you just associate the character with all the others they've played. Its built in typecasting.

Prime example is War of the Worlds. I actually really like the film but Tim Robbins was a horrible choice to play the crazy guy. He's too big, he arguably could have played the main character. When I see him I can't help but ask why Andy Dufrain (Shawshank Redemption) is acting so weird. And like I said, the scene is too short for him to make me believe his performance. They should have gotten some actual country bumpkin to play him and they could have paid him minimum wage. The performance would have been better.

Gotta admit though, however much they paid Morgan Freeman to do the intro/ending voiceover, it was worth it.

[MackemX]

I saw a thread over at IMDB which contained some interesting information . Don't know how much of it is true though but here's a couple of quotes

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0360717/board/flat/33140881

1) The budget is 207 Million. (boxofficemojo.com)
2) The Marketing Costs are 50 Million (businessweek.com)
3) The original budget was 175 Million and Jackson split the rest with universal making universal's budget 191 Million.
4) So Universal's breakeven cost is 241 Million.
5) Jackson get's 20% of the gross. At 415 Million that is 83 Million.
6) The theaters take up to this point is around 15%. At 415 Million that is 62 Million.
7) So Jackson's and the theater's cuts equal around 145 million.
8) If you add that to the films budget of 241 you get 386 Million.
9) 415 million minus 386 equals a 29 Million dollar profit.

most studio's take is 40% of theater gross, meaning $510 in WWBO to cover production cost (includes PJ's fee) which looks likely

according to BW mag a year or 2 ago most movies make only 25-35% of their movie income from BO,the rest comes from:

Promotional licensing fees - read Burger King (some nitwit thought uuniversal paid them??? sorry no)
Royalties on sale of items using film - read video games, t-hirts etc
DVD sales/rental
PPV/Ondemand
Premium Cable
Commercial TV

So after the marketing cost they'll be making plenty

I think some also get misled thinking that just because a movie pulls in say $400 million that it's a bigger BO success (attendance wise) than one that pulled in $300 million 10 years ago. I bet quite a few would think Titanic was the #1 crowd puller due it it dwarfing all others regarding BO takings

http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm

[adam]

An interesting point is that Kong has ridiculously low promotional costs for a film with such a large budget. They could get away with it because everyone is already very familiar with the story.

$50 mil is nothing. I think the total average is around $60 and that's with all the smaller flicks included.

[Doramius]

Prime example is War of the Worlds. I actually really like the film but Tim Robbins was a horrible choice to play the crazy guy. He's too big, he arguably could have played the main character.

Have you seen Tim Robbins lately? I don't think they paid him that much. He's been doing more cameos than anything else. He's probably desperate for work now and has Jerry Mathers syndrome.

[adam]

Well I'm looking at his bio and I think he's doing ok. He's doing about 2 films a year, usually one mainstream and one or 2 low budget films but he's had a starring role in most cases. WOTW, Mystic River, Antitrust, Mission to Mars...those are pretty big movies and were all made in just the last 5 years.

I like Tim Robbins I just think he is kinda hit or miss and I think he was horribly miscast in WOTW.

[Doramius]

They kill him off in Mission to Mars too. What's next? A main Character in a Star Trek movie, Only they give him a red suit? I agree he's kinda hit or miss, and he was horribly cast in WOTW, but he's had a lot of bit parts lately. Austin Powers, Anchorman, Code 46, and a movie that went straight to video (for good reason) Embedded. They were all less than lead characters that good editing could have removed without anyone knowing it.

I think he's a good actor, but I don't think they are casting him to his potential. And to put him for that role in WOTW, that was just overkill. They should've used Sean Penn. At least people would be happy about something in the movie.

I also read up a bit about the ticket sales. The dollars they count are only the monies that the studios receive. I may pay $9.50, but the cost per ticket the studio receives is only $5-6 on a new release. However, the theater isn't pulling in the rest. Some areas have an entertainment tax. Then there's regular local and state taxes on top of that. it's all included in the ticket price. Taxes all together average to about $2 per ticket. Yeah, I was surprised too, and thought the numbers were kinda of odd, but they came up right. So if a Studio gets $6, taxes average $2, Then only $1.50 of my ticket went to the theater. Considering that a megaplex theater has maybe 8 seating rooms that hold about 80 people each and show a movie about 10 times a day. They only make about $6400 a day. Doesn't sound bad, but when you add the labor costs each day, that's a poor profitably number. I mean a single seating room theater would only pull in about $800-$1000 a day. If only 3-5 people run it, it might not be so bad. I can see why so many single seating room theaters are family run these days. And again, this is on the cost of a $9.50 ticket. How do the dollar theaters bring a profit? There has to be a major reduction of cost after a film falls out of "New Release" status.

Finally, what keeps a movie in "New Release" status. I've been to Video rental stores and there are New Releases that have been on the shelves for ages, but movies that came out on DVD later, were taken out of New Release status long before.

[adam]

I'm telling you man, the theatres are in the food industry not the motion picture industry. They make 10x as much money off concession sales as they do ticket sales.

They spend $0.10 on corn chips and $0.15 on cheese whiz and sell you $6.00 nachos.

[Doramius]

If they dropped the price I might consider buying their food. I ALWAYS eat before I go to a movie. I hate being stuck as a captivated audience and paying $8 for a bucket of popcorn when I just spent $9.50 for a ticket. I get a better meal at Tony Roma's for $50 and then rent the damn movie for another $5.

Anyway, the Money they say is grossed for a movie, IS exactly what they've received for it. So if a movie cost $250 Mill. and they raked in $140 Mil at box offices, that's all money to the movie. All the other costs have been removed. Again, they will make a profit regardless. It's just not the big lump amount they expected. If I charge $9 for a donut and sell day-olds for $.50, when the cost to me is only $.25, most of my sales will be the day olds, though most of my money may come off fresh donuts. If I don't make money off the fresh donuts due to low sales, my costs will still be made up regardless. Movie theaters know the economics which is why they are still making high budget movies.

I still find no reason to charge $7 for a tub of popcorn, when I can buy a box of packages that give 10x more popcorn for only $6.

[Supreme2k]

Yo D, I think you getting jacked at your theaters!

Around here, Centuries, AMC and Camera charge $4-$5 for the large popcorn with free refills (only 1 refill on the $4, Cinelux) and $3-$4 for a large soda with free refills. If you're a snack fiend (like us), you can get it down to 75 cents a soda and 1-2 dollars a bucket of popcorn

as an added bonus, mot of the theaters carry the popcorn seasonings (white cheddar, barbecue, nacho and lots more).

[Doramius]

The theaters back in Upstate NY were like that. But here in Vegas, the theaters rape you like they would a Vegas whore. It's unbelievable. My next choice is drive for 55 min. to Henderson to watch a movie for $7. I waste the extra $2.50 in gas alone, and the theaters know it.

[Supreme2k]

mmmm. Vegas whore