According to a recent documentary about the making of the film, 20th Century Fox was about to go bust and Cleopatra was a last throw of the dice to put the studio back in profit, yet it took ten years for the film to break even.
My question. How did 20th Century Fox survive this debacle? The documentary didn't explain that.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0282417/
Although it didn't recoup its costs immediately, CLEOPATRA still made top box-office.
And during those ten years, 20th Century Fox dished out box-office hits like THE SOUND OF MUSIC, VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, PLANET OF THE APES, MASH, and BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID.
Yes thanks those other films were mentioned. I don't quite understand though how with the burgeoning costs of making this epic and then not recuperating the $44m for ten years, leaving the studio back at square one - this supposedly was the film that was going to prevent the studio from going bust - they managed to find the finance for those successful films you mentioned. Perhaps the studio wasn't really in the last ditch as the documentary claimed and that they could always get investment.
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The Longest Day made them a fortune just before Cleopatra came out.
shareTo raise money, they sold off their 260-acre backlot for about $50 million; it's where Century City is now.
shareGet your hands on the documentary "the making of Cleopatra" very fascinating. David Zanuck came to the rescue of 20th Century Fox after Cleopatra DID bankrupt it.
shareI recently watched "Cleopatra: The Film That..." and they clearly stated that distributing Zanuck's independent production of The Longest Day helped Fox out a lot in addition to selling some of their land.
I'm here, Mr. Man, I cannot tell no lie and I'll be right here till the day I die
You are correct. I just left that part out.
shareFrom what I have heard, Darryl Zanuck was afraid that The Longest Day, which was a real labor of love for him, would not haven't of gotten the kind of distribution that he wanted. He was afraid that 20th Century Fox would use it to make some easy money to offset the money that was being wasted by Cleopatra.
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