MovieChat Forums > Veronica Mars (2014) Discussion > Official worldwide final gross: 3.6 m. B...

Official worldwide final gross: 3.6 m. Budget: 6 million. Why VM tanked.

posted 11 years ago by tomasfigueroagaray
48 replies | jump to latest

Badly conceived and executed film based on a TV property that had already tanked on TV. Bad actors (come on, Bell comes from the Jessica Alba school of thespians) with no charisma (no matter how hard Hollywood tried to make Bell a film star in a string of bad romcoms, audiences never found her appealing), and a horrible script that nobody who wasn't a fan of the TV show could understand.
That's why VM tankes at the box office. Audiences completely ignored it, even though VM fans hoped for a breakout (that never happened).

[–] sitesucksballsnow 11 years ago

Fixed the title for you

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"Into the fire, she swallowed their hate." -- Dahlia

[–] tomaselliot 11 years ago

nicely done

[–] mark-hansen11 11 years ago

You got the title wrong too.
Fixed it for you.

Think about it.

[–] elandyll 10 years ago

NB: You can't have it both ways and count the backing both in the budget -and- the gross :)

The Budget is indeed around $6M (per Boxofficemojo), but the backing (which were kinda like "pre-orders"), made that the movie had grossed $5M even before getting made. And that's complete income, not the boxoffice kind where theatres give back only 50-60% to the studio.
So the final tally (outside of digital day one orders on itunes and the like) was more like $8.5+m within the "release window" ($5m backing + $3.5m box office), and then the on demand and DVD/Blu - Ray releases added to that total.
If we count that around 60% of the $3.5m was actually returned to the studio, Veronica Mars made $7.1m on a budget of $6m, thus a $1.1m benefit -before counting day 1 digital sales-. That's all with pretty much 0 Marketing cost and just word of mouth.

Given that Veronica Mars is (in spite of being a terrific show) sort of niche and not that well known internationally, I'm pretty sure that Warner Bros and the producers are pretty happy with the results, even if it didn't set the box office charts on fire.

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[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Styopa 10 years ago

I'm not a VM fan, but it seems to me that essentially $5 mill in KS support (ie preorders) and $3.5 mil box office means that a whole crew & actors got to work full time making a movie they wanted to make, get paid, and in the end produce a film that made some extra $ on top for the studio.

Essentially the studio made some $ for a tiny investment on their part.

I'd expect people would be happy, that seems like a win/win result all around.

[–] OccamsBarber 10 years ago

Not to mention made a whole lot of fans happy too.

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- I'm not sure if I should.
- Then you're not sure if you shouldn't.

[–] gdejong3190 10 years ago

Yeah, if it had made *too* much money, people would say that Kickstarter should have never have been used.

This way, people can say that crowd funding was used appropriately.

[–] HonoluluHicks 10 years ago

the movie had grossed $5M even before getting made. And that's complete income, not the boxoffice kind where theatres give back only 50-60% to the studio.

The gross numbers is exactly what they say = gross, and that means before the theatres take their part. Otherwise it would be net.

You can read about the box office numbers here: http://io9.com/5747305/how-much-money-does-a-movie-need-to-make-to-be- profitable

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But that's just my opinion. 💀

[–] blm91 11 years ago

And what about everyone who downloaded it digitally? That'll add to the takings too! Plus, there's the upcoming DVD & BR release.

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[–] littlesis1774 11 years ago

That probably added in it.

[–] evil_henchman 11 years ago

It's probably NOT. It's the same with games. They list PC Retail sales and exclude Steam digital only sales (those sales are usually kept secret). And then people say no one bought it. Right.

[–] zaphod08 11 years ago

Why do you care, tomas? Whatever the movie makes is profit for the studio. The fans who backed it are happy. Only slugs like you seem bothered.

In the kingdom of the blind, you're the village idiot.

[–] julielb67 11 years ago

even though VM fans hoped for a breakout (that never happened).

I don't think anyone expected some huge breakout hit at the box office. The fans were presented an opportunity to help finance the film and did so because that was the point, a film was going to be made plain and simple. The fact too that it was simultaneously released on VOD, etc should factor in.

The fan base got their movie. And it's your right to not like the material, acting, etc but I think the fans for the most part are satisfied and that's truly who the movie was made for.

[–] jasmey84 11 years ago

I was going to see it but didn't play anywhere around me.

[–] stimpy25 11 years ago

same here. i think the OP is an ass cause the film got limited release and was only in very few theaters. plus they did OD as well. at the time.and since you were also able to download it for i think free as well that didn't help.

that's why it wasn't a huge hit. the film i dunno if it was a hit or not. but i don't think it did too badly. i'm curious if they are going to do another to be honest. maybe that one will get a bigger release lord knows the dvd blu-ray release will also help them decide as well.

i'm buying it 1st chance i get on blu-ray. like i said that's why it didn't make loads of money. and made so little theatricaly. so there was not only money from there but every else i already stated. you are leaving that money out as well.

[–] userrrrr 10 years ago

What are you even trying to say? Please reiterate, this time in English.

[–] evil_henchman 11 years ago

Exactly. Movies with such a limited release and basically no advertisement never make a lot of money. They obviously can't compete with major launches that have ads for months. There are probably still a lot of people who would have watched the movie but don't know it even exists.

[–] susan-317 11 years ago

Not sure why this writer is such a whiny-baby. As a long-time fan of the show, I thought the movie was awesome. The TV show was always clever, funny, well-scripted and the movie follows suit. Kristin Bell is the best. It's not a "Hollywood" film, really, since it was paid for by the fans. Not sure why this guy is so old-man-grumpy about the movie or its gross takings. Perhaps he deposited too much in Kickstarter for it and now feels the fool.

[–] pfarnell 11 years ago

very few teen tv shows or any TV shows brought to the cinema and film are going to reap epic blockbuster SPR ,Titanic,and fking Harry Potter numbers, and the fans knew that b4 they made this happen.

[–] anna_soeuriste 11 years ago

It wasn't released in my country, I suppose it's the same for many other coutries: our only opportunity is the DVD or blu-ray... Which has now been released & seems to be selling OK right now (currently #20 in the general top 100 on Amazon in my country, and it has been in the top 100 for 11 days -starting a couple of days before the actual release). I have no idea how many copies have been sold here, in the US or worldwide... but as long as the fans are happy to buy the DVD, isn't it what it is about when it comes to a relatively old TV show which ratings were never that high to begin with?