There is also a matter of booking agents that can be thrown into the mix and can alter everything. I know the closest theater to me has an agent that works a deal where studios get 65% of the first two weeks. If a distributor will not go for this then they will not show the film. The booking agent of course gets paid a fee for negotiating this but it's well worth it. This theater doesn't show any movie for more than four weeks (it's a matter of number of screens) and for weeks three and four the studios receive 30%. I have been involved with the financial side of this theater and that's the way it operates. This was true for Kong, DaVinci, Lion the Witch and Wardrobe, Cars, as well as Descent and John Tucker Must Die, big films and small films alike.
Will this be different for other theaters and other distributors? Yes. But at that theater if they won't do that deal they won't show the movie. A resource to find out more about
that end of the business is here.
Some distributors actually demand an up front advance on what the box office is likely to be. But that's generally for event films and theaters don't mind paying it, they'll get it back in the end if not through tickets then through popcorn. Of course, with the declining health of event films some are starting to drag their feet on this, and for good reason.
This is all thrown out the window when it comes to foreign distribution. They operate in their own world. Even someone as big as Paramount doesn't distribute in most countries and they use foreign distributors that are going to take about 15-25% in addition to what the theater takes. And this isn't just for a country like Chad, this is for countries like the UK.
MI3 had a $40 million marketing budget and a $150 million production budget. A studio is going to walk away with about 40% of foreign distribution and about 55% of domestic.
So rounding to $104 million from foreign and $73 million domestic. About $177 million. Of course, the film is profitable. Cable, DVD, pay-per-view, all of that will push it over the edge. Far over the edge. Of course, Cruise/Wagner Productions receives 10% of that profit when it happens, J.J. Abrams gets a small cut, and several others will at least get a taste.
But studios don't want that much money tied up in a production for such a long time without huge and quick returns. Who can blame them? I'm sure they thought it was a no brainer that this would out perform MI:2. Perhaps they should use their brains a little more. Ron
JR <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Ron (and others),Thanks for your take on this. In continuing my research, I did find this article:Which echoes what you said, but has somewhat different numbers... specifically:"During the film's opening week, the studio might take 70 to 80 percent of gross box office sales. By the fifth or sixth week, the percentage the studio takes will likely shrink to about 35 percent, said Steven Krams, president of International Cinema Equipment Co. "I also found several references to how George Lucas managed to get a full 100% (!) of the box office take for the first two weeks of the last two STAR WARS films. So, apparently there is nothing like a "standard" deal and each film gets negotiate for how much the studio will get and how much the theater will get.For working purposes, it seems we would be safe enough to say that, on average, the studio gets 75% of the box-office take for the first two weeks, then 60% for the third, 50% for the fourth, on down to the where the studio is only getting about 35% if the film lasts 6 weeks. That gives us something to go on when trying to gauge "how much money a film made" in comparison to its reported "production budget" (which is, of course, often vastly over-inflated by Hollywood accounting practices).I don't think there's going to be anyway for regular folk to be able to figure out with much accuracy how much a studio spends for publicity for a given film... the best we could do would be to come up with a guess.Still, I think it is reasonable to assume that if a film does twice it's production budget that it has at least broken even for the studio, particularly if it does that in the first 2 to 3 weeks, when the studio is getting the lion's share of the box-office take.On that basis, MI III made money:Production Budget = $150 millionTotal Box Office (11 weeks) = $393,162,011... looks like even figuring in $30 million for Promotion and cutting the studio's take of the remaining $63 million in half, that the film made AT LEAST 30 million in profit for Paramount (and that's *before* any DVD sales, pay-per-view, rentals and TV sales... which could easily bring in another $100 to $200 million). Seems like claims that MI III "didn't make money" are grossly exaggerated.OK, not as much as MI 2, but that film was 6 years ago and even though not as good as the original, was apparently far better than MI III (which I have not seen).But let's take a look at the other Tom Cruise film that came out within the past year, WAR OF THE WORLDS:Production Budget = $132 millionTotal Box Office (21 weeks) = $591 million....that had a bigger Promotion budget than MI III, let's call it $50 million. That leaves $277 million of which we'll figure the studio got 50%...for about $138 million in profit.So, it seems Tom Cruise's last two films... just within the past year... "only" made for Paramount something like $170 - $200 million in theater profits alone (and what, twice that in DVD and other sales)? Maybe $300 to $400 million TOTAL in the past year or so alone? Well, heck... No wonder Paramount dumped him. I mean, somebody who can only bring in $300 to $400 million a year in profits just isn't pulling his weight...Only in Hollywood.But the truth of the matter seems that if one digs below the talk show jive, the politically-correct knee-jerk outrage over "women troubles" and other such Entertainment Tonight chatter, that Tom Cruise's "star" still has quite a bit of luster left, even if he is aging a bit (which didn't hurt the careers of Sean Connery or Harrison Ford or many others)I'm sure there are other people who can run even tighter, more accurate numbers than mine and come to the same conclusion, so it's no wonder that Cruise/Wagner productions was able to announce that they have already lined up a $100 million dollar revolving line of credit for their independent production company's future operations.I sure hope for the sake of Viacom's shareholders that Sumner Redstone has a couple of mega-star rabbits hidden in his desk drawer somewhere to replace those "weak" profits Cruise has been making for him.-- JR
----- Original Message -----From: Ron WisbergSent: Wednesday, August 23, 2006 4:59Subject: Re: [MOPO] Behind the BlowBox office take isn't that hard to find out but box office profit is much harder.It's basically done by number of weeks in box-office. The first two weeks a theater generally only receives 35%. There may be the rare 30% or 40% but it is rare. 35% for the first two weeks is a rule (unless wei're talking independents, and we aren't.) After those first two weeks theaters can take 70-80% depending on the week. Of course, theaters live off of concessions, but studios don't make as much as people often think. MI3 is a great example. The Studio lost out big on theatrical. Out of the $150 million it says it spent it is only really recouping about 80 of the 150 domestically. The special editiion DVD for MI2 sold close to three million copies - each of those came with a ticket to MI3. Perhaps a fourth touch advantage, now most theaters don't accept those in the first two weeks, but after that point, the studio (yes the studio) is stuck paying the theater their 70% share. And they report it as box office. That's right that $8 ticket in that $15 DVD is actually reported as a full ticket purchase. HMMMBasically, on a film that scores roughly $150 million, with free tickets on the loose in droves, the studio is likely to receive back domestically about $70-80 million. If this were a film with great legs, that could could easily grow (ie. Meet the Fockers and Pirates of the Carribean). Of course there's overseas too but trust me, that's an even bigger cluster often.Plus add this in. If anyone has managed to watch a film within the last 5 years without seeing more than one production company involved I would be completely amazed. Most seem to have 6 or 7. They all get a cut. SOME even on the gross. If a film make $150 and the Cruise Production company (only used for example) get's 5% gross, well, that snatches 7.5 million from the primary financing studios.BUT wait, there is a democracy involved. Wouldn't the Cruise facility have had to put in 5% of the cost in order to get 5% of the gross? YES. You hit it on the head. Except Paramount footed the bill up to 10 million dollars. So Paramount under the guise of Tom Cruise productions (not his companies name) puts it's money in, and Tom Cruise takes his net or gross, take your pick out.It's this fun difference between net or gross profits within poduction companies that Hollywood has often relied upon for their confusing bookkeeping.Tonight I watched Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. Give me that film and it's poster over this bollocks every day of the week. RonPS. Seriously, would love to have that poster. Leaving the PC now to watch Them, love that posters, it's in the main room right behind me while I watch the tele.
JR <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:A question:
Does anyone have any idea how much of the "box-office take" the studio which puts out the film gets? We are always tossing around box-office numbers as if the studio gets all of that money, but obviously this can't be so. I can't recall seeing any information on how much of the cost of a ticket gets back to the studio? I know that classic "Hollywood accounting" make it impossible to tell how much a film eventually makes, but surely there must be some relatively straight-forward way or formula for getting the money from the box-office back to the studio?
-- JR
Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com
____________________________________________________________________
How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List
Send a message addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L
The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
How low will we go? Check out Yahoo! Messengers low PC-to-Phone call rates.Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
Get your own web address for just $1.99/1st yr. We'll help. Yahoo! Small Business.Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
- Re: [MOPO] Behind the Blow Ron Wisberg
- Re: [MOPO] Behind the Blow JR
- Re: [MOPO] Behind the Blow Ron Wisberg
- Re: [MOPO] Behind the Blow Phil Edwards Cinema Arts
- Re: [MOPO] Behind the Blow Joseph Bonelli
Reply via email to
