• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Deadline: Analysts project that movie studio profits are in for a rough 2017

Status
Not open for further replies.

shintoki

sparkle this bitch
Other than Disney, Blumhouse is the new leader; studios will catch on eventually.

Two films don't make them a leader.

This is there 2016 with Budget/Gross

Visions N/A $1 million
Curve N/A N/A
The Veil $4 million N/A
Martyrs $1 million N/A
Hush N/A
The Darkness $4 million $10.9 million
The Purge: Election Year $10 million $118.6 million
Viral N/A $551,760
In a Valley of Violence N/A $61,797
Ouija: Origin of Evil $9 million $81.7 million
Incarnate $5 million $6.3 million


Two films did bank, the rest were either VoD, Bombed, etc. They had a much more solid year in 2015, but it's a company whose high limit is 10million budget, then probably 10-20 in marketing for their full on releases. It's sustainable for a small company, but no large studio can make a living on it.

I'd also argue, there is only so much room for low budget horror films
 

Ridley327

Member
Other than Disney, Blumhouse is the new leader; studios will catch on eventually.

Lionsgate actually stands to successfully transition back to their stricter low-to-mid budget diet prior to the YA boom, as they're still a fairly major player on the awards circuit. AFAIK, Power Rangers is the last of their blockbuster films that they announced way back to release, so unless they're having second thoughts about Divergent going to TV, I think it's a choice that's already being made for them.
 

aBarreras

Member
Sony in there with more shitty remakes. Who gives a shit about Flatliners to want a remake from it?! I like the original but it has aged fairly well overall and I really can't see that anyone wants a remake.

Also: Insidious 4 (four!), Diary of a Wimpy Kid 3 and Smurfs 3. Nobody asked for these.

i asked for insidious 4 tho
 

kswiston

Member
I guess I completely somehow missed the theatrical release of the first one. I thought it was straight-to-DVD because I never saw or heard anything about it until it popped up on Redbox. Turns out the original make like 90 million dollars -- god knows how, it was such trash.

Annabelle actually ended up over $250M worldwide, making it one of the highest grossing supernatural horror films of all time. For example, the highest grossing of the Paranormal Activities was PA3 at $207M.
 
I guess I completely somehow missed the theatrical release of the first one. I thought it was straight-to-DVD because I never saw or heard anything about it until it popped up on Redbox. Turns out the original make like 90 million dollars -- god knows how, it was such trash.
Second one might be better, it's directed by the guy behind "Lights Out".
 
Hate to be 'that guy', but these movies are garbage. American cinema, even in the indies, is on a downward trajectory. The A24 studio has revived things a bit, but the overall situation is bad. You watch the previews in the theater, and every goddamn movie looks like a videogame.
You're not being that guy but I'd simply respond that it's always been this way and always will be, there's just a higher proportion of empty calories at the moment than usual. We can't all have 2007s :( And at least it's not musicals and kitchen sink dramas like some golden era years.

Basically, big names in the industry I'm interested are on their outs after releasing films in the past two to three years. Maybe the Coens will feel mean again, who knows!?
 
Outside of star wars and gotg 2 it is a really weak year for Disney... But everyone else is also having a bad year it seems

Thor is going to make $$$, it's got The Hulk and Doctor Strange.

Cars 3 is going to make $$$

Plus (like you already said) Guardians of the Galaxy and Star Wars.

Beauty and the Beast is tracking massively well.

They have way more hits than misses.

Some People are anticipating Pirates of the Carribean to bomb, but I really don't see that happening either. I see it as at least a modest success, worst case scenario being a BvS type underperformance.

Also, Coco is Pixar and we haven't seen anything from it yet. Expect it to do well... it's Pixar.
 
Hate to be 'that guy', but these movies are garbage. American cinema, even in the indies, is on a downward trajectory. The A24 studio has revived things a bit, but the overall situation is bad. You watch the previews in the theater, and every goddamn movie looks like a videogame.

A24 is awesome.

I just started noticing how many movies I really enjoyed (or at least stood out as truly different) had their logo up front.

They haven't been around long, but they're definitely making the indie scene pop and getting away from the Little Miss Sunshine era of Indies.

Thor is going to make $$$, it's got The Hulk and Doctor Strange.

The B-listers of the MCU. Strange didn't do great, and Hulk's never carried a film. And it's not like Thor 2 left people wanting more Thor movies.
 
They haven't included the impending China-US trade war. I bet 2 dollar Beijing will shut down Hollywood movie during first wave of exchange.
 

jmdajr

Member
As was the Alice in Wonderland sequel. No one is bomb-proof, but Disney is better equipped to handle them because of how aggressive their output has been with franchises and studio brands that have always been dominant.

The John Carters and Lone Rangers of this world aren't enough to bury them.
 
No one is going to see that movie. It would have had a much higher chance of success as a tv show, instead of the movie/tv clusterfuck they're planning.

Like, besides the fact that the books are, well, weird; where is any marketing for this thing? The length of more or less all subsequent books after the first means any sequels would either have to be long-ass films or entirely TV-based makes it a weird proposition already. If they know in advance that it's all contingent on the success of this first film, why isn't it called The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger"?

I'd love for it to do well, but BOY does it not seem likely right now.

tl;dr make a Wizard and Glass adaptation.
 

shintoki

sparkle this bitch
The John Carters and Lone Rangers of this world aren't enough to bury them.

Disney doesn't need them anymore with Marvel and Star Wars backing them. When they didn't have Marvel or Star Wars, they were trying to find more franchises like Pirates. Now, they don't even need Pirates with Star Wars and Marvel taking up 3 slots year. No need for Tron or PoP or other live action flops. Double it down with their live action takes on classics cleaning house, Disney Animation back on top. I don't think they have a single major release that isn't a Live Action Fairy Tale, Pixar/WGA, Star Wars, or Marvel in the next 3 to 4 years. They'll still dribble out their nature specials twice a year and the occasional true story live action film every year. But they have no need to develop anything new.
 

kswiston

Member
They haven't included the impending China-US trade war. I bet 2 dollar Beijing will shut down Hollywood movie during first wave of exchange.

Na. They will pick something that has more financial punch without annoying their citizens as much. Plus, Chinese companies are investing heavily in Hollywood. They would be shooting themselves in the foot.
 

kswiston

Member
Disney doesn't need them anymore with Marvel and Star Wars backing them. When they didn't have Marvel or Star Wars, they were trying to find more franchises like Pirates. Now, they don't even need Pirates with Star Wars and Marvel taking up 3 slots year. No need for Tron or PoP or other live action flops. Double it down with their live action takes on classics cleaning house, Disney Animation back on top. I don't think they have a single major release that isn't a Live Action Fairy Tale, Pixar/WGA, Star Wars, or Marvel in the next 3 to 4 years. They'll still dribble out their nature specials twice a year and the occasional true story live action film every year. But they have no need to develop anything new.


Disney can handle a big flop or two a year because those films are their B-slate these days, despite the $125-200M price tags. When Sony has a big flop, they lose one of their 2-3 tentpole films that were supposed to drive their overall business for the year.
 
Everytime I watch one of their movies I get angry at how much time I wasted watching it. But they also have some of my recent favorites. So it's pretty much 50/50 when I watch their films.

Under the Skin pissed me off, but the more I thought about it the more I liked it. Ex Machina, Lobster, and especially Moonlight were all awesome. On Swiss Army Man was a waste of time for me.
 
So Disney is basically gobbling up everything. Well at least Pirates will bomb.
And even still, if Pirates managed to bomb as hard as Alice 2, The Last Jedi alone would still be more than enough to more than pay for the losses, (and then they have double Marvel, double Pixar, AND double live action fairy tales, with a pocket change family doc) whereas for any other studio (except maybe Warner) a movie with that budget failing would be an outright disaster.

And honestly, it's not impossible Pirates makes good overseas money so Disney might not even have that blight.

Disney's dominance is just completely ridiculous. I wonder if they can ever be toppled or if they've managed to buy and nostalgia mine themselves into permanent dominance.
 
There are barely more movies from non-Disney studios I want to see than Disney movies I want to see.

This isn't an issue of financial collapse in the industry, it's an issue of creative collapse in the industry.
 
BFG broke even

Sequal made money
Neither of these are true. BFG's $183m on a $140m budget is a loss, as studios share the revenue with theatres. In the US the studio gets a little over half, less elsewhere, and only $55m of the revenue was domestic. Which saddens me because I liked the movie.

The story is similar for Alice 2, just with a larger budget and a larger gross.

Long term both may turn a profit, but theatrically they absolutely did not.
 
God those awful remakes. Chips? Who asked for that? Why do all remakes have to be spoof comedies? Why? Answer me!

Why would the Rock agree to do Baywatch? Whoa asked for that? What kind of legs will it have past day one?
 

kswiston

Member
The real surprising news is the drop in international box office. Tapped out at last?

Strong US dollar = lower international returns relative to local currency. Russia and Latin America have taken huge hits, but Europe and Asia are down as well. On top of that, 2015 foreign currency was already much weaker than 2014. But yes, the international market expansion has started to slow down.

Swiss, what is "untitled fairytale"? Getting scrapped or will they actually have something in that slot?

They announced that date last April

http://collider.com/disney-release-date/

Disney has taken the success of The Jungle Book, Maleficent, and Alice in Wonderland to heart if their new release date schedule is any indication. Though none of the following dates have hard titles attached to them, this will certainly change before long. Basically, Disney is marking its territory well before it has any final decisions about which movies will occupy which slots, daring any other studio's film to try and compete with it.

Here's a look at the new release dates revealed by Disney today:

UNTITLED DISNEY FAIRY TALE (Live Action) previously dated on 12/22/17 moves up to 7/28/17
UNTITLED DISNEY FAIRY TALE (Live Action) now dated on 4/6/18
UNTITLED DISNEY LIVE ACTION now dated on 8/3/18
UNTITLED DISNEY LIVE ACTION now dated on 12/25/18
UNTITLED DISNEY FAIRY TALE (Live Action) now dated on 12/20/19
 

Ridley327

Member
God those awful remakes. Chips? Who asked for that? Why do all remakes have to be spoof comedies? Why? Answer me!

Why would the Rock agree to do Baywatch? Whoa asked for that? What kind of legs will it have past day one?

To be fair, Baywatch is going right down the same lane as 21 Jump Street with how self-knowing and zany it looks, which I think is about the best thing you could do for a feature film reboot of a TV series that no one took seriously in the first place. CHiPS seems more like a regular R-rated buddy comedy in comparison, which I don't think has nearly the same kind of appeal, especially with the leads being known more for their supporting roles than being bankable stars.
 

gimmmick

Member
If tickets were fucking 12.50, I'd go to the theater more often. Other then that, i'll wait till it's on blu-ray.
 

kswiston

Member
It definitely will be #2. Easily.

Edit: Well, Fate could beat it actually.

Ya, it depends on whether we are talking about worldwide or domestic box office. Beauty and the Beast will almost certainly make more money though. The Furious films do a lot of their gross in countries with lower revenue participation and ancillary market sales for studios.
 
If tickets were fucking 12.50, I'd go to the theater more often. Other then that, i'll wait till it's on blu-ray.

My exact stance, although our local theater does tickets for around $5.50 all day on Tuesdays, so we've been taking advantage of that more lately.

But yep, buying tickets full price is a bit much. Outside of Star Wars, there isn't much I'm dying to go see on opening weekend.
 
woah a new Saw and new Cloverfield movie coming this year, didnt know that
I couldn't care less for Saw, but I'm surprised and excited over Cloverfield. Can't believe I didn't know about it given that I've been a huge Cloverfield fan since 01-18-08/Slusho!, lol.

If tickets were fucking 12.50, I'd go to the theater more often. Other then that, i'll wait till it's on blu-ray.
Thank god for student pricing. I pay $7 at Alamo and $8 Harkins (local chain that dominates the market here in AZ).
 

vinnygambini

Why are strippers at the U.N. bad when they're great at strip clubs???
Not surprising given Disney's strong foothold at the domestic box-office with their Disney Classics, Marvel, Pixar, Lucasfilm and Disney Animation film output - try and beat that.

Side note, Universal is having a fantastic year to date with their horror film slate, we'll see if the trend continues for them.

Paramount is going to do fine this year. Domestically, there's not much they can do, but internationally, they're already doing good business with xXx, and more to come with Ghost in the Shell, Transformers and possibly Baywatch (domestic should be good for Baywatch though). So not bad.

Sony... I don't even know what to say.
 
It's an interesting question: Do studios try to copy Disney's home-run derby model of distribution (less films on a slate, slate specifically designed so that each entry holds super-blockbuster potential), or do they go the other way and maybe try to resurrect the mid-budget tier of motion picture that's been slowly asphyxiating the past couple decades?

It looks like they're going to try and join the home run derby, which will be hard considering Disney owns most of the sluggers outright already. And for whatever reason, releasing a lot of 30-50mil movies that could make 80-100 mil if successful doesn't seem to be an avenue any of these studios really wants to pursue strongly.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom