It took Warner Bros $300 Million to Produce and Market 'Jack the Giant Slayer'?!

[He Who Posts Well]

Hollywood’s latest foray into fairy tales, Jack The Giant Slayer, opens in more than 3,500 theaters this weekend. The film reportedly cost Warner Bros. $300 million to produce and market. It’s the kind of CGI-heavy film that studios hope will draw kids, teens and adults and inspire repeat viewings and massive toy sales.

But the film is expected to earn only $35 million at the box office this weekend, according to Exhibitor Relations. That should be enough to put it on top of the pile but to put the number in some perspective, $35 million is about what 21 Jump Street opened to last year. That was a great opening for a mid-budget comedy, but it’s bad news for a blockbuster.
Stan Lee on Spider-Man, His Creative Process, Social Media and Future Characters Dan Schawbel Dan Schawbel Contributor
By Mixing 'Twilight' With Zombies And Humor, 'Warm Bodies' Could Be A Hit Dorothy Pomerantz Dorothy Pomerantz Forbes Staff
Why Hollywood Is Falling For Fairy Tales Again Dorothy Pomerantz Dorothy Pomerantz Forbes Staff

The film could, of course, make enough at the international box office to help it break even. But Jack is a perfect example of what’s wrong with the way the studios are making movies today.

Jack went into production at a time when fairy tale movies seemed to be the next big thing. Studios hoped that films like Red Riding Hood and Snow White and the Huntsman would fill the hole being left by the ending of Twilight and Harry Potter.

But few of those films turned out to be blockbusters on the scale that studios were looking for. Red Riding Hood earned $90 million. Mirror Mirror (a light-hearted take on Snow White) earned $166 million and more recently Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters earned $163 million. In most cases the films earned more overseas than in the U.S. The only bona fide hit from the fairy tale trend has been Snow White and the Huntsman which earned $400 million at the global box office.

But here’s the thing, once a studio gets a film into production, and has committed a ton of money, it’s very hard to turn that big ship around even if you see all of the little ships around you sinking.

A recent story in The Hollywood Reporter outlines some of the difficulties Warner Bros. had with the film. The studio and director Bryan Singer, best known for X-Men, struggled to find the right tone for the film to keep it edgy but not so dark that it scared off younger children. The film was supposed to hit in summer of 2012 but got pushed out to March because work was continuing on the visual effects.

Singer (X-Men) is said to be unhappy with the March release date because he does not want to be anywhere near Disney’s strongly tracking Oz the Great and Powerful, which opens March 8 and is more family-friendly with its PG rating. But with spring and summer chockablock with movies, Warners decided its best shot was now.

A source with knowledge of the situation acknowledges, “Nobody’s excited about this date,” and anticipates plenty of second-guessing. Another option would have been to open the movie March 22, but Warners thought the earlier date might work better internationally and also was worried about losing the family audience to DreamWorks Animation‘s The Croods if it went head-to-head with that movie.

As the studios produce fewer and fewer movies and budgets get bigger and bigger, there is just that much more riding on each film. Luckily for Warner Bros., the international market currently seems to have an unending appetite for these kind of big movies. But as the studios ceded the smaller budget films to independent production companies (who can be much more nimble), the movies that are left at the studios will need to be huge at the box office in order to produce profits.

'Jack The Giant Slayer' And Hollywood's Blockbuster Problem - Forbes

 

[He Who Posts Well]

I'm still going to see it. It's crazy the amount of money goes into some of these films and most of the time, they aren't even recouping their investment.

 

[Ayo]

Brian Singer's lucky he has the XMen movie coming up.

Hollywood will only tolerate your bullshyt (in this case flop after flop after flop) for a little.

A nikka can eat off of XMen 1&2 and Usual Suspects for only so long.

 

[ExodusNirvana]

I'm so glad it's gonna flop.

Keep pouring money into projects no one gives a fukk about you clueless fukks

 

[Ayo]

I'm so glad it's gonna flop.

Keep pouring money into projects no one gives a fukk about you clueless fukks

Want to know why they continue to do that?

I'm still going to see it. It's crazy the amount of money goes into some of these films and most of the time, they aren't even recouping their investment.

To each their own.

Personally, I wouldn't even waste my unlimited fiber bandwidth on this .

 

[calh45]

This movie was so fukking stupid. The story was ridiculous. The actors were pretty bad. The effects were horrible.

I was bored after work last Friday and wanted a chill night so I went to the local theatre that lets you order beer and actual food to eat during the movie. I started texting people during the middle of the movie telling them not to watch it. I wasted 8 dollars on that movie.

 

[ExodusNirvana]

Want to know why they continue to do that?

No.

 

[Ayo]

Hollywood's a funny place. Studios will often purchase similar scripts or develop something in house. Screenwriters will write spec scripts based on what's sold or what's doing well.

So the market gets flooded with similar scripts. The flavor of the month. So what ends up happening is that we get a bunch of fukking fairy tale movies, a bunch of vampire bullshyt, found footage shyt, and very recently a few "Die Hard in the Whitehouse" type movies.

It would be one thing if the studios actually took time to get things right...but most of the time they don't. They are all trying to produce what's hot at the moment. So they rush it.

Jack the Giant Slayer had 3 writers from what I understand. The original writer (not sure if it was spec or studio assignment), someone who did a studio re-write, and then Bryan Singer's go to writer cleaned it up for him.

 

[Piff Perkins]

What's up with these dark retellings of fairy tales being in vogue? Just because the Snow White film made a bunch of money, and "fantasy" films are having a good time at the box office? I don't see how any exec could look at this pos and agree to 300m wtf...

 

[Ayo]

See things haven't changed much from The Rec Room.

 

[Spaceman Piff]

this is an example of a movie trying to be too much.

appealing to "kids, teens and adults"



300 mil could get you 3 movies that appeal to kids, teens and adults separately.

 

[Mr. Somebody]

Singer is a homosexual so i dont think a lot of parents want to take their children to see his films.

 

[HookersandIceCream]

Who green lighted that shyt? I mean how many movies make 300mm, and no somehow they expected this garbage too?

I mean atleast John Carter was based off a popular novel and an avatar clone

 

[ExodusNirvana]

See things haven't changed much from The Rec Room.

I mean...no one cares though. Look at the posts in the thread.

No one cares why they keep making them. What do you want

 

[Ayo]

I mean...no one cares though. Look at the posts in the thread.

No one cares why they keep making them. What do you want

You got a point.