A24, I think, hit upon something that had been nagging at me for years in that Hollywood films are massive productions, several million dollars get poured into them. Not every film is a Marvel $250 million undertaking, but the recent Puss in Boots sequel costs about $90+ million, Dungeons and Dragons cost $150 million, heck even Halloween Ends cost $33 million (add a grain of salt for each of these figures). What's missing? $1 million, $5 million, $10 million.
This space between low budget and medium budget was, for a little while, nearly non-existent. With these budgets, you don't have to be that successful to get your investment in the black. It allows you to make riskier films, and there is clearly a market for films of depth and creativity. It boggles the mind that Halloween Ends required more budget (I assume it's mostly marketing) than Everything Everywhere All at Once, it's just about a guy killing people, in fairness one of those people was Jamie Lee Curtis.
Martin Scorsese and others have complained about this, but tend to get shouted down by Marvel enthusiasts, but yes: the mid-range films from studios have largely evaporated; as they run more like any other business, the focus is entirely on ROI and not at all on art, whereas studios (for most of their history) tended to balance out ruthless financials around their money-makers with a desire to set aside some of the profit for low-return, mid-budget works that skew more to the art side of things.
Blumhouse is the only big name actively doing 5-10 million movies.
Their trick is that they give a percentage to the actors and director and just a flat basic fee. Even "big" stars like Jennifer Lopez didn't get a million up front - she actually even used her own clothes for her Blumhouse horror movie.
They make a few flops, but their hits offset those easily. Paranormal Activity (their first one I think?) had a budget of $15k and made over $190 million in the box office.
$10 million hasn't been "medium" budget for Hollywood since the 1990s. In 1995, the average cost of a Hollywood film was approximately $34million. By 2003, that number had ballooned to $59 million. (https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-03-08-fi-40252-...)
Today, the threshold for "medium budget" is somewhere around $30 million, with the threshold for "high budget" somewhere around $90-100 million.
Also, A24 is as Hollywood as you can get. Their offices are located in WeHo. All of their films are the kinds of films that Fox Searchlight and New Line Cinema specialized in.
(With respect to the films you mentioned, Puss in Boots and Halloween Ends both achieved profitability during their theatrical runs. D&DHAT did not make its budget back in theaters and is not expected to achieve profitability for several years if ever; it is very likely that it will not get a sequel, or if it does the sequel will have a much smaller budget.)
Their guerilla marketing techniques, such as paying botfarms to submit fake 5 star reviews to imdb or letterboxd is not really appreciated.
This was going on for years. I have to catch those cheaters manually, and block them for my cannes ratings overview.
But just recently the Robert Rodriguez, Wes Anderson and Martin Scorsese marketing campaigns just did the very same, taking over the dirty tricks from A24. Ingenious Media I assume. Also someone is paying several real people money to submit fake 5 start reviews. All blocked.
The traditional Hollywood-way is extortion. Just as in the Johnny Depp premiere from yesterday in Cannes, the director wanted to cut his 12 minutes to 2 minutes, or better off completely. But then the Hollywood sales agents came close to the director whispering, "when you cut off Johnny Depp, you'll get no distribution in the US. Your choice." And they even made sure that she will stand next to him on the red carpet, which she never planned to do in her wildest dreams.
Very happy that they did. They offer a diverse array of movies (some great, some terrible) that are a breath of fresh air when compared to the typical Hollywood blockbusters. (Different audience, sure, but definitely less formulaic).
A24 is such a great studio. Seeing their logo is almost like the "Nintendo Seal of Quality" from back in the day - if it's at the front of a trailer, I know I'll probably be interested.
[+] [-] bexsella|2 years ago|reply
This space between low budget and medium budget was, for a little while, nearly non-existent. With these budgets, you don't have to be that successful to get your investment in the black. It allows you to make riskier films, and there is clearly a market for films of depth and creativity. It boggles the mind that Halloween Ends required more budget (I assume it's mostly marketing) than Everything Everywhere All at Once, it's just about a guy killing people, in fairness one of those people was Jamie Lee Curtis.
[+] [-] rodgerd|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] maclockard|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] theshrike79|2 years ago|reply
Their trick is that they give a percentage to the actors and director and just a flat basic fee. Even "big" stars like Jennifer Lopez didn't get a million up front - she actually even used her own clothes for her Blumhouse horror movie.
They make a few flops, but their hits offset those easily. Paranormal Activity (their first one I think?) had a budget of $15k and made over $190 million in the box office.
[+] [-] gamblor956|2 years ago|reply
Today, the threshold for "medium budget" is somewhere around $30 million, with the threshold for "high budget" somewhere around $90-100 million.
Also, A24 is as Hollywood as you can get. Their offices are located in WeHo. All of their films are the kinds of films that Fox Searchlight and New Line Cinema specialized in.
(With respect to the films you mentioned, Puss in Boots and Halloween Ends both achieved profitability during their theatrical runs. D&DHAT did not make its budget back in theaters and is not expected to achieve profitability for several years if ever; it is very likely that it will not get a sequel, or if it does the sequel will have a much smaller budget.)
[+] [-] unknown|2 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] rurban|2 years ago|reply
But just recently the Robert Rodriguez, Wes Anderson and Martin Scorsese marketing campaigns just did the very same, taking over the dirty tricks from A24. Ingenious Media I assume. Also someone is paying several real people money to submit fake 5 start reviews. All blocked.
https://letterboxd.com/film/hypnotic-2023/members/rated/.5-5... https://letterboxd.com/film/killers-of-the-flower-moon/membe... https://letterboxd.com/film/asteroid-city/members/rated/.5-5...
Hate it
The traditional Hollywood-way is extortion. Just as in the Johnny Depp premiere from yesterday in Cannes, the director wanted to cut his 12 minutes to 2 minutes, or better off completely. But then the Hollywood sales agents came close to the director whispering, "when you cut off Johnny Depp, you'll get no distribution in the US. Your choice." And they even made sure that she will stand next to him on the red carpet, which she never planned to do in her wildest dreams.
[+] [-] rospaya|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] byproxy|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|2 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] quickthrower2|2 years ago|reply
Anyway nice to have a new way to filter on stuff I might enjoy watching.
[+] [-] schemathings|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jwilber|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ed25519FUUU|2 years ago|reply
Our culture is STUCK.
[+] [-] echelon|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aaron695|2 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] darknavi|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] quickthrower2|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dang|2 years ago|reply