It’s the Pitt’s…

Updated on May 31, 2005 By Ken Begg 4 Comments

Referencing the prior item, director Limen might be engaging in some butt covering in case the film bombs. Certainly Brad Pitt doesn’t have the impressive career numbers that you might expect from someone widely considered a major star:

One thing to remember about grosses is that the studio receives only about half of them back. The theaters showing the films generally keep the rest. So a $100,000,000 gross means the studio got back (very roughly) $50,000,000.

Also, advertising and prints for major films now costs tens of millions of dollars each. So just listing the production budget is understating the cost of making and releasing a film. When no marketing figure is mentioned, keep that in mind. As well, production budgets are routinely underestimated to exaggerate how well a film did, or to officially reduce how much they lost.

Hits

Ocean’s 11 ($85 million production budget; $30 million marketing / $450 million grossed worldwide; $183 million domestically)

Se7en ($33 production budget / grossed $327 million worldwide [$100 million domestic])

Interview With the Vampire ($60 million production budget / $224 million grossed worldwide [$105 million domestic]

Made a goodly amount

Twelve Monkeys ($29 million production budget / $169 million grossed worldwide [$57 million domestic])

Legends of the Fall ($30 million production budget / grossed $160 million worldwide [$67 million domestic])

Troy ($175 million production budget; $50 million marketing / grossed $500 million worldwide [$133 million domestic])

Snatch ($10 million budget / grossed $83 million worldwide [$30 million domestic])

Made Some Money / Broke Even but considered disappointments

Fight Club ($63 million production budget / grossed 100,000,000 worldwide [$37 million domestic]; popular on home video)

Sleepers ($44 million production budget / $167 million grossed worldwide [$53 million domestic])

Ocean’s Twelve ($110 million production budget / grossed $362 million worldwide [$125 million domestic])]

Didn’t Do Well

The Mexican ($57 million production budget / grossed $147 million worldwide [$67 million domestic])

Bombs

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas [Provided voice of Sinbad] ($60 production budget; $30 million marketing / grossed $74 million worldwide [$26 million domestic])

Meet Joe Black ($90 million production budget / grossed $143 million worldwide [$47 million domestic])

Seven Years in Tibet ($70 million production budget / grossed $131 worldwide [$34 million domestic])

Spy Game ($135 million production budget / grossed $143 million worldwide [$62 million domestic])

The Devil’s Own ($90 million production budget / grossed $141 million worldwide [$43 million domestic])

Kalifornia ($9 million production budget / ONLY DOMESTIC GROSS AVAILABLE: $2.4 million)

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  • One thing to remember about grosses is that the studio receives only about half of them back. The theaters showing the films generally keep the rest.

    Wait a minute, I’ve been told for years that theatres only make money on concessions (popcorn, etc), and that the studios get almost all the box office.

    Talk about creative accounting…let’s have a sob story for everyone!

  • No, the idea is that theaters don’t *make* money (i.e., profits) on their share of the box office. They basically make their nute–or close to it–on their portion of tickets sales, but only generate profits from concessions, etc.

    Moreover, the current system is cutting against them even more. Traditionally, theaters kept a smaller percentage of the ticket price during the first week or two, and more as the weeks went on. The first week, for instance, the theater might get 40-50% of the ticket price, up to maybe 60% during the fourth week on. That’s a crude approximation, but roughly correct.

    However, with blockbusters playing on 10 screens at a time, even huge hits are generally out of the theaters in four or five weeks. Therefore, theaters are even worse off.

  • KurtVon

    Actually I was just talking with a guy in the industry a few months ago and he said opening weekend is now set at 20-30% depending on the expectations of the studio.

    And yes, on total bombs a studio will raise that to as much as 90% just to keep the film in theaters another week.

  • That’s because being in theater acts as advertising for when most movies now make most of their money: On DVD and home video.