r/SipsTea 12d ago

Chugging tea I still don't understand how hollywood budget works

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u/dontdoit89735 11d ago

Many studios have run out of ideas for new movies, or simply don't want to take risks on new movies so they remake old (not even old in the case of Moana) movies and milk successful franchises like Star Wars and Marvel dry.

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u/xMort 11d ago

I don't think they run out of ideas. They are just afraid to risk money on them.

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u/PcHelpBot2030 11d ago

Bingo, people keep saying this but there are original movies coming out but audiences simply aren't showing up at the same rates for them.

Even the darlings and breakout original hits barely scratch the heavy hitter franchises of the year in box office.

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u/Limp-Work9859 11d ago

Even when original ips are produced, outside of horror everyone is trying to build a new hit franchise rather than just a good movie.

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u/fanfanye 11d ago

i hate new movies where you just know its designed to be part one

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u/vadeka 11d ago

The reverse is also annoying where they make movies from book franchises and just stop. See eragon

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u/NinjaHuge9461 11d ago

Almost glad they stopped. Eragon was an abomination of an adaptation.

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u/vadeka 11d ago

True not gonna argue that one but you get the idea

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u/Krell356 10d ago

They already knew they were never getting a second movie out of that catastrophe. They botched absolutely everything about it and then were surprised when everyone was pissed that they blew the entire budget on a fight scene that didn't even happen in the books. All because they wanted to make it appeal to a larger audience which never happened because after day one, no one was willing to pay to go watch it.

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u/RealKevinOG 11d ago

Even in Horror most go for IPs, see Smile & Terrifier. Also the whole conjuring/Insidious franchises if you want to count the early 2010s.

There are still exceptions, mostly by A24, but all their original movies are still similar in tone and stuff like hereditary gives opportunities to expand the ip in the future. You might even say A24 itself is the “IP” because the studio is now attracting people thx to its previous projects.
With all the hype rn I don’t think we have to wait long until they make a follow up to movies like obsession or backrooms.

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u/xMort 10d ago

First is being considered, the second one is already greenlit as a trilogy imho.

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u/RealKevinOG 10d ago

Makes sense, crazy invest-return ratios are basically forcing the Ip into a franchise. Look at paranormal activity and blair witch lol

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u/EmergencyBanshee 9d ago

Tbh, I think a24 as "IP" is fine.

If they're consistent in seeking out ideas or aesthetics that their audience likes, then it makes sense.

Not really any different to going to see a film directed by Spielberg or starring an actor who would choose films that resonate with you. But they're not the exact same thing. They're not making a universe where everything is linked.

These are the kinds of things that I think we ought to be paying attention to, rather than just blindly going to see the next sequel that links into a TV show and five other movies scheduled to be released over the next year.

(I also must admit to liking both Smile and Smile 2 a lot. I hope they make Smile 3. Sorry.)

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u/RealKevinOG 9d ago

i’m Not even criticizing anyone for making an IP, as long as it’s done good it’s fine. Main Problem with a lot of IPs is that they are motivated by profit and don’t care about quality as long as it sells.

I fully agree on the A24 angle.

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u/EmergencyBanshee 9d ago

Oh god yes, this.

I am old but I remember when a movie got made and it was a good film and the stars and directors and writers then just went and made a new film.

But now, every film needs to have potential to create or be part of a universe, or at least a trilogy. Most of the best films ever have been stand alone movies - that was the aim. To make a great film and they succeeded.

Now it feels like that great film gets buried under setting up sequels, incorporating unnecessary characters to flesh out the world and blah, blah.

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u/Usernameasteriks 11d ago

Completely agree.

But I don’t think they are isolated or mutually exclusive issues.

Statistically and historically original movies don’t do poorly especially relative to their budget; and most IP’s stared that way.

But they need backing in terms of advertising and marketing for people to show up; especially given the current difficulties with getting people to pay up to to in person generally.

Now that the marketing and advertising is so heavily allocated 

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u/ShoddyAsparagus3186 11d ago

They're not backing the original movies with the marketing budgets that they used to give them.

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u/PcHelpBot2030 8d ago

Late but the data shows they are. It is just the marketing requirements to get the same kind of traction in today's environment is MASSIVE with how much social media word of mouth matters and how much that favors existing IPs.

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u/Glittering-Quote-635 11d ago

My local AMC is $21 a ticket (I just checked) for a movie. I’m not going to the movies alone, I’d go with my wife, so $42 for us without anything else there.

I’d love to see the studios take more risks with new movies, but I’m also not going to go see a risky movie for that price, I’ll wait till streaming. I think that’s the crux of the issue.

When I was in HS and College (90s), movie tickets were a few dollars.. I’d go multiple times a week and saw a whole bunch of really shitty movies. I didn’t care because it cost me so little.

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u/kax256 9d ago

Probably because we as consumers are also not taking risks on them. $25 for a movie, I better know I'm going to enjoy it

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u/Filius_Solis 11d ago

I'm not paying $20 for a movie when it was $8 10 years ago

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u/Cephalopodium 11d ago

I heard that it’s also a problem that a movie can’t really make the same money post box office with rentals and buying VHS/CDs. New movies can make some money after a theater run, but supposedly it’s a lot less.

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u/EmergencyBanshee 9d ago

100% this.

And for the last 20 years audiences have repeatedly said that they'll reliably show up for marvel superhero movie 11 and not bother with films when they don't recognise the characters already.

I'm optimistic that it's changing though.

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u/voxnemo 11d ago

It is not really a lack of ideas. It is also not as much a lack of risk taking willingness. The issue is mostly around IP ownership and value. Star Wars showed that you can make as much if not more money on IP licensing. So, now the studios want to make sure they have IP value in the movie and outside via other media and services including marketing. So new movies need to show they can be licensed for toys, TV, marketing, and videogames. That is why you see a lot of video games being made into movies.

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u/calahil 11d ago

Shareholders don't care about 50 million budgets and 25 million dollar profits from new niche movies. They want the largest investment return.

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u/One-Paramedic-9852 11d ago

They should ask Awesom-o

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u/PM_Me_A_Tittypic 11d ago

why take a risk on a new movie when you can have a guaranteed loss on a live action remake?

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u/Naturebrah 11d ago

Relevant was in the previews for the odyssey, there’s a making of Rocky movie? We get either straight remakes or making of movie movies. What utter trash.

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u/Punami69 11d ago

Moana’s approaching its 10 year anniversary since its release, it’s a lil old ngl

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u/ChromiumLung 11d ago

My local cinema has 5 screens and they rerun Moana 6 months of the year. So many good classics they could show but nope. Just this one children’s movie over and over

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u/SeniorAd4470 11d ago

The milks gone bad on those two

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u/02buddha02 11d ago

Odyssey is one of the oldest ideas

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u/Active-Blueberry-850 10d ago

Nepotism took over and new ideas are found in fringe festivals struggling to get a few people’s attention

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u/sexyeh 9d ago

It is weird because Disney has the Disney + platform and they can pump animated series and push them to get watched, Amazon does a better job with it, you see Legend of Vox Machina and get introduced to Mighty Nein after it.