Anyone notice how now they felt it'd be a good idea to change the release date to December? That should be a bit of a red flag, don't you think?
Someone - Somehow
I liked the trailer, and I know I will be seeing the movie.
shareVery few of these horror movies actually flop because there budgets are so low.
shareIt's definitely going to flop now. Not only did it get re-rated to PG-13, it's been moved to January. A month where all horror movies go to die.
shareOK. I'll play along.
As a general rule of thumb, films have to make somewhere from 2.5 to 3 times their production cost to begin to show a profit.
On a $6 million budget, that would be between $15 million and $18 million. Presuming this gets broad national release, it should gross $18 million the opening weekend just based on the scene in the previews where the worm crawls out of the girl's eye.
The PG-13 rating opens it up to a huge potential audience, then the R rated "director's cut" can rack in more money in DVD's.
By comparison, the pathetic GHOSTBUSTERS "remake" cost $144 million and has only pulled in $193.8 million, so it will have to make another $166 million and some change to break even.
And of course, there's talk of a sequel. Since Ed Wood Jr. died decades ago, goodness knows who they'll get to direct it.
But, on the same coin, the pathetic Ghostbusters "remake" also pulled in a large crowd from people who wanted to prove others wrong or people who just wanted to laugh at a bad movie. So regardless of which way you spin it, it still made money. 'The Bye Bye from Popularity Man' practically guaranteed it's failure with a re-rating and a release date push back. Just like February's RINGS, it's going to follow the formula of being pushed back and barely getting any theatrical love with maybe some hope for a Blu-ray release of an extended cut 2 minutes longer. (Speculation on time limit)
shareGhostbusters didn't make money. There were multiple articles about how much money it would potentially lose. The low estimate was $50-70 million.
Who says violence is not the answer?
I'd blame the schools for our failure to communicate here. People don't know the difference between gross and net.
Let's say you go to see GHOSTBUSTERS and pay $8 for a ticket. Sony Pictures doesn't get the whole $8. They get a per cent of that, and the theater and theater chain and distributor each get a cut. So while it did numbers that look amazing to the untrained eye, the studio doesn't get anywhere near that number.
Interestingly enough, this is why so many small businesses fail. Say someone opens a clothing store. The first day they are open they sell four pair of expensive jeans at $125 per pair.
"My first day open, and I've made $500! We'll rent a limo and go somewhere really great for supper!"
But they forgot that they have to pay a big chunk to the manufacturer. Then there's rent, salaries, utilities, taxes, advertising, insurance, etc. A small business doing miraculously well might make 8% profit. So their cut of the action goes from that lovely $500, the gross, to a way more humble $40, the net.
In Economics they taught us the way to remember net is that you cast a net into the ocean, then pull it in. What you are actually get into the boat is what your net is.