Once Again, If You're Trying To Save The $200 Million Movie, Perhaps You're Asking The Wrong Questions
from the why-$200-million dept
Many years back, when discussing new business models that don't need to rely on copyright at a Cato event, an NBC Universal executive demanded to know how he could keep making $200 million movies. As we said at the time, that's asking the wrong question. It's makes no sense at all to start from a cost, and then derive back how to make that profitable. I could just as easily ask how can we possibly make $1 trillion movies in the future? The only thing that should concern Hollywood is how it can make profitable movies in the future. That could mean figuring out ways to make a profit on a movie that costs $200 million (and, certainly big blockbuster movies like Avatar sure seem to still be able to make plenty of money, despite being widely downloaded via unauthorized means). However, it might also mean making really good movies for a lot less money. Of course, we've suggested that in the past, and got mocked by Hollywood folks who seem to insist that any good movie has to cost a lot of money. That seems pretty presumptuous.I'm a bit behind on this (the SOPA/PIPA stuff took up a lot of time), but filmmaker/actor/director/writer Ed Burns, who came to fame a couple decades ago with the massively successful indie film The Brothers McMullen, likely had every opportunity to follow the path of plenty of successful indie moviemakers: go mainstream. He could have hooked up with a big studio and been filming the latest of those $200 million bubble-gum flicks. And while Burns has appeared in a few big studio films (Saving Private Ryan), over the last few years, he's really focused on staying close to his indie roots. In fact, he's stayed so close to them, that you could argue his latest efforts are even more indie than his first film.
He filmed his latest movie, Newlyweds for a grand total of $9,000 ($2K for insurance, $2k for actors, $5k for food, transportation, and other costs) and was done in just 12 days -- but spread out over 5 months. He used a three-man crew, natural lighting, found locations that didn't require paying, and filmed with a Canon 5D camera.
Of course, no one is saying that all movies should be made for $9,000 (though, I'm sure some of our regular critics will pretend that's what I'm saying). But there is an argument that lots of really great movies that would never have been made before, now have the ability to get made, distributed, watched (and be profitable!) in a way that simply wasn't possible just a few years ago. Frankly, I'd rather focus on ways to help more filmmakers be able to make movies like this, than worry about how some exec at NBC Universal defends his decision to waste $200 million on the next "reboot" of some franchise no one cares about.
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Filed Under: $200 million movie, cost, ed burns, movies, production
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Oh wait, he's been gone for a while now...my bad!
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Avatar was not profitable
I beg to diff. Everyone knows Avatar was not profitable.
Just Google for "avatar hollywood accounting".
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Re: MIA
:-P
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http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?236983-ROSA-Short-Film
Anybody can do great special effects today.
Blender Siggraph 2011 reel (Revised) by BlenderFoundation on Aug 24, 2011
There is a growing number of people doing story telling just because they want too, that may be a big problem to Hollywood than piracy, those little guys will canibalize their market share all over the world.
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Re:
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Indie
Maybe he needs to find Indie post-production.
I say this because the first Paranormal Activity movie was made for about $20,000 complete. So Newlyweds even beat their harsh filming budget but then lost it by 6x on post-production.
Indie movie making is sure to improve in time and they could even be funded through Kickstarter.
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If the customer wanted what Ed Burns does more than what Hollywood does, that would show itself via normal market conditions.
The finished work is all the consumer cares about. Profit margin has nothing to with how they'll feel about it.
You're bringing up a cheaply made film in a discussion about profit while completely ignoring the aesthetic considerations and what audiences want from films.
Do everyone a favor and stay away from the film business.
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"an NBC Universal executive demanded to know how he could keep making $200 million movies"
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Re: Re:
SOPA/PIPA had nothing to with anything but foreign pirate sites like demonoid, what.cd, waffles, etc.
Stop lying.
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just doesn't seem to have the same 'ring' to it if they say they only spent $100,000 in the first place
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_non-English-language_films
Look here and you'll see hardly anything over $100 million, and these are the most expensive foreign films, not the average cost.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_films
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It is showing. Indie films are exploding all over the place. He's just pointing out a trend in the market.
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meh..
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No there there
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Re: Re: Re:
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What about Star Wreck?
Metal Gear Solid: Philanthropy (a fan movie based on the popular MGS video games) cost a mere 10,000 € to produce, and is distributed for free, to great success.
If Hollywood chooses to ignore these successes, then they're surely in the wrong business: They don't know how to make movies.
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When it's done, time and time and time again......now you whine about that.
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File-sharing is a part of the new market but then so is Indie film making which can use file-sharing for distribution.
So the point is even if there was no old market then movies can still be made, and quite successfully, on the new market.
In fact one thing I would have loved to have seen, had they not sold old, would be to make Paranormal Activity 5 on the Indie market. This would be to use Kickstarter to amass the budget, make and edit the movie, offer it for sale like $5 download and $7 DVD, then to welcome file-sharing. Old market distribution could be employed to fill the shops as well.
Then millions be made.
Instead we wait for someone else to have a genius idea and Indie movie making desire.
I will also be glad to get your Hollywood fame freaks off their millions (and drink and drugs) and to pay them a normal working wage. Them like every other person working on the movie can then take a fair cut of the profits.
Still the old market lives on and quite successfully. So pomp up your anorexic movie stars and fund them into royalty status to be worshipped by the dweebs.
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Re: Re: Re:
And how much have they cost the industry, pray tell? It's amazing how people continue to push for more punishments against these "pirate sites" when all evidence continues to say they aren't costing the industry as much as you seem to think.
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Re:
No, what Mike is arguing for is that you don't NEED to. If you want to piss away that much money, go right ahead. However, you should have the opportunity to create movies for a pittance. Problem here is, that option is getting harder, distribution wise, what with the shutdown of Megaupload and the frightened reactions of the other cyberlockers. So, it actually looks like Hollywood limited the options of film makers
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Re: meh..
Forgive me if you were actually ranting about the guys stealing all dem DVDs from your local Walmart. Screw those guys.
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Re:
Of all the movies on the list, many of them are unwatchable, and only 3 or 4 (aside from the Pixar flicks) would ever be worth watching a 2nd time or actually purchasing for a home collection. If this is what 200 million buys you, then clearly they are doinitwrong!
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Middle Squeeze
Low(-ish) budget films using cheap (but good) technology could theoretically dominate many genre (e.g. slasher), and high(-ish) budget films could survive in genre that reward expensive cutting-edge technology and techniques (e.g. SF). The middle-cost, middle-tech might have to fight for a niche or get squeezed out. Perhaps star-driven, (cf Tyler Perry).
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Re: meh..
Now that is not reason to throw out democracy and instate an authoritarian regime so you can try and criminalize every single thing you don't like.
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Did the crew get paid?
Let me be clear: I am unequivocally opposed to SOPA/PIPA and agitated vigorously against them. I support reform of copyright laws, with scaling back terms and opening up fair use being key points. And I decry the rampant abuse of DMCA takedown, ICE actions and civil awards we are seeing. But I also support the basic concept of the copyright system: granting a temporary monopoly on a work so investors are incentivized to keep funding such works.
I respect you a lot Mike. You are a hero to me got your leadership role in these issues. But I think it's unrealistic to think the mainstream movie business could operate on this kind of business model. Sure, a small fringe of the ecosystem, and there's an important place for that, but to support the 300 or 400 thousand of us who do this for a living takes a more robust profit model. I think you tend to alienate mainstream union film workers by seriously espousing stuff like this as applicable to the industry as a whole.
It takes money to make quality, and you see that in the finished product, but I will also say Hollywood wastes a lot of money. Lots of $200mil films could be made for $100mil, $80mil for $30mil, etc. But we would still need a quasi status quo business model to support even that.
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Re: Middle Squeeze
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What does the fact that one can make a good movie for cheap have to do with the demand for big-budget movies?
The fact that someone can produce, and people will buy, a $2000 moped, doesn't mean nobody should care about the ability to produce a $20,000 4x4.
Now, if you could produce the *type* of movie that costs $200 million for less, that might be interesting.
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Was "The finished work is all the consumer cares about. Profit margin has nothing to with how they'll feel about it." hard to understand?
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Re: Did the crew get paid?
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But what about Batman?
Admittedly there are ways to cut the number down. Take Red State, Kevin Smith's recent Action/Thriller movie. Anyone who was listening to his podcasts or following his tweets know how on the cheap and indie he made it (mostly due to minimal advertising and very selective theatre run. Having a director/editor working for free probably helped to). It just 4 million, which is admittedly chump change compared to the magic 200 million.
The problem is it only grossed a little over 1 million, which probably won't sell many Hollywood executives on the idea of the Kev Smith style of action movies.
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Re: Did the crew get paid?
You may want to look at the open source scene to see what they are doing, their business model has zero dependencies on a granted monopoly.
And to be very honest what is needed for quality is not money, but work, that is the important part, work done, not the amount of money you have otherwise other countries would never be able to out spend the US and beat it to gain manufacturing supremacy over it, those people over there work for little to nothing and still survive and produce things that you want and buy everyday, America did it to Europe, Japan did it to America and South Korea and China are doing it to Japan now.
You don't need a monopoly to produce anything, what you need is hard work, if that was not true you wouldn't have Arduino or Red Hat as multi million dollar companies, you wouldn't have McDonalds, you wouldn't have Coca-Cola or any of the other companies that don't have monopolies on anything.
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I won't miss them.
For multiple generations, they've been asking us to buy their intentionally fragile products, promoting overly-lavish lifestyles and excesses... if any sports league had as many key players overdose, we would be asking more serious questions...
We no longer need them. Slipknot proved that you can even be successful without fame, if you desire.
How can we bring these corrupting companies to their eventual deaths more quickly?
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Re: But what about Batman?
Honestly, I liked Red State. The thing is, the average movie going public WOULD NOT have liked that movie at all. Especially if advertised by Hollywood. Were it done on the scale of the average movie.
I can see it now. It would be advertised as a pure action/thriller flick. It would be advertised as "the newest thing from Kevin Smith".
Audiences would flock in droves on opening weekend to see it. They'd walk out confused as f*ck and wondering if perhaps "Kevin Smith" is the name of another director, who shares a name with the "guy who makes those Clerks and Jay and Silent Bob movies".
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Re: Re: Did the crew get paid?
And that support would be ... what? Creating even more absurd and draconian IP laws with something like SOPA? Let's use the OPs original figures to look at this, and be generous by using the higher "400 thousand of us who do this for a living" figure.
That equates to 0.013% of the US population.
You want to set up a system that "helps" and "protects" less than 1 in 10,000 people, while screwing over everyone else ... oh, and stifling free speech and breaking the internet while you're at it? Really?
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Re:
They've also shown a rather keen appetite for downloading those same movies online without directly paying. Selective attention much?
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Re: What about Star Wreck?
But don't download it, because nobody is entitled to free movies.
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Re:
I'm a gamer geek. I'm just playing the game by the rules they've established.
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Re: Re:
"Bit-Torrent" does not always equal "piracy". It's just a tool like any other. I just wish Hollywood and the Major Labels knew what they were missing...
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Re: Re: Re: Re:
The thing I found when I really started to look at the arguments was that the industry arguments tended to be largely emotional pleas interspersed between collections of data point that were mostly either difficult to substantiate or easily debunked. While the arguments from Techdirt and similar sites tended to be more balanced, their facts more easily verified.
I do think Techdirt has become a bit more skewered/biased from what I remember years ago, but then I find it hard to fault them. When one side in a debate is so clearly unbalanced, it is hard to maintain the middle ground and keep sliding down their side.
If nothing else, some of the critics here remind me when I'm starting to feel reasonable why I "switched sides".
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Re: Indie
Paranormal Activity 2 was made for $3 million and made $177 million worldwide.
Paranormal Activity 3 was made for $5 million and made $203 million (so far).
Then there are "lesser successes" like Clerks that was made for $26,000 and made $3 million.
The big problem is not in making the movies, it is that Hollywood keeps cockblocking all the distribution channels that would actually allow those films to find widespread audience.
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Re: Did the crew get paid?
That being said, keep in mind that Mike Masnick said this:
Think of the music industry. It seemed that it was in the gutter because of file sharing and it seemed to go in the direction of iTunes and *blech* Spotify. But as it turns out, look at what Bandcamp has done: it created a template for independent musicians to host their music that was so good that it even lured would-be pirates away from piracy and into actual customers. What's to stop someone from doing the same for independent movies? The great thing about the internet is that new business models are always being developed. There may even be a bandcamp for independent movies in the future!
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Money is the problem
If your passion and skill are up to the challenge you may make money. If you start with wanting money, you'll never make art.
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Re: Re: Re: Did the crew get paid?
[Ed: bold mine]
He is not calling for "absurd and draconian IP laws" ŕ la SOPA in the least. I am assuming he wants an actual legal model of a copyright system that actually "promote[s] the progress of useful arts and sciences" and not just the publishers themselves. I would also assume that he's looking for a similar business model as well. I suggested that there be a bandcamp for indie films, but someone has to do something like that. Then again, on the internet, you never know! New business models are always being developed!
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Did the crew get paid?
Clearing rights can cost millions of dollars the risks are tremendous, the legal minefield that copyright is actually is a barrier for the promotion of anything.
Thus why people don't go near movie production for anything, because it could cost people their own business for doing so, and that is why there is so little experimentation in finding new ways to do business and that in turn is why there are no other alternatives that succeeded yet, not that is not going to happen it will, but it will take longer for it to happen.
When you don't have nobody to forbid anything people copy one another, reinvent the copying and end up with something different, now look at the US and see if that happens.
That is exactly what monopolies do they end competition, reduce innovation and economic activity and they are not stable the keep growing and growing until they die and the cycle restarts, now it is time to end it again.
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Re:
Since you missed point entirely, Hollywood says you need 9-figure sums to make movies, the indies prove them wrong.
"Are you so twisted and jaded that you can't leave "the industry" alone for even a single post?"
You sound like you need to go make a "Leave Hollywood Alone!" YouTube video. Remember to wear plenty of mascara...
"Oh I forgot that's what this site is all about now, it isn't about technology, it's about slamming the MPAA and the RIAA - my bad."
You mean the MPAA and RIAA who represent the companies that've been aggressively fighting against every new form of content-delivery technology for a century?
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Re:
No, they haven't. They've shown an appetite for superhero and disaster movies in recent years, which are special effects-driven and can be expensive (although there's a good debate to be had that they really don't need to be). These are trends which have been and gone before, at the whims of fashion - not a good thing to claim needs to be legally protected.
But, look at the actual trends elsewhere. There's a lot of successful movies that don't fit in these genres and thus have much lower budgets - comedies, horror, drama, even sci-fi. The most successful movie so far this year in terms of box office has been The Devil Inside, which has managed to make back over 51x its production budget to date. Many of the most successful movies of last year cost less than $50 million, while some movies that cost $100+ million didn't make back their production budget theatrically, let alone their equally bloated marketing budgets.
Sure, The Devil Inside won't be the most successful movie for very long (and certainly not the best received critically), and even the flops will have made back their production budget on DVD at some point. But, to pretend that $200+ million movies are all that matters is at best disingenuous, and at worst an outright lie.
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Re: Did the crew get paid?
Citation most certainly needed.
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Re:
They are relentless in pressuring Governments around the world. A site dedicated to their activities to keep the light shining on them and their corruption.
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Re:
It also doesn't mean that the 4x4 makers should get protectionist laws that kill the freedom of everybody else when they find they don't make enough profit.
"Now, if you could produce the *type* of movie that costs $200 million for less, that might be interesting."
Define "type of movie that costs $200 million", and I'll show you any number of examples.
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Re: Re: Middle Squeeze
My SO and I can do that now. But I doubt if most here want to see that much of me.
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Re: Re: Re: Middle Squeeze
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Re: Did the crew get paid?
What is their incentive now with all the pirating that has decimated the industry in the last decade?
Or are you being lied to about the need for copyright?
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Re: But what about Batman?
Guess what happens when people just try throwing money at the screen without a good script? Green Lantern also cost $200 million ($116m domestic). It flopped. The Green Hornet cost $120 million. It flopped ($98m domestic). Cowboys & Aliens cost $163 million. It flopped ($100m domestic).
Spending a ridiculous amount of money to make a film is no guarantee of a return, just as the fact that, say, Super 8 and Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes both cost significantly less means nothing in terms of their success - they were both highly profitable (especially internationally).
"The problem is it only grossed a little over 1 million"
Citation?
Perhaps you're talking about the domestic theatrical gross. What about DVD sales, VoD, international, the money he made from tours where he did Q&As that aren't included in those figures? IIRC, he reported the film was in the black *before* the theatrical release. Smith's entire point was to make a movie outside the standard model so why use the standard model to judge its success?
The obsession with opening weekend theatrical grosses at the expense of all else is one of the fundamental problems with Hollywood. Red State isn't successful under those metrics? No surprise, it was never going to be. That doesn't mean it didn't make money...
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Re: Re:
See next article.
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Re: Re: Re:
SOPA/PIPA will do nothing to reduce foreign pirate sites like demonoid, what.cd, waffles, etc.
Stop shilling for laws that will screw the public.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Did the crew get paid?
You're right, though: I should have made it more clear that I wasn't attacking the OP's comments, which I think are reasonable and fair. I just thought it worthwhile to point out to those who think we need SOPA what a miniscule percentage of the population they're pretending to protect (anyone with any reason knows that these types of laws are really just intended to keep the fat cats fat).
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Did the crew get paid?
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Re: Re: MIA
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The RIGHT question
If your waiter/barista is ugly, remember that one time you torrented Real Steel and know you have yourself to blame.
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Re: Did the crew get paid?
> Union jobs pay $15.00-22.00/hr (and up) with medical benefits
I think we have our answer. Look at any industry with costs going out of control, and you'll find a union.
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Re: Re: Did the crew get paid?
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Filming on a shoestring
One need not be limited to extremes and you can be budget minded if you are making a "spectacular".
Although most films simply don't need to be "spectaculars". THAT is the real message for Hollywood here. Creating art requires talent and a willingness to take risks. Being a timid bean counter and (paradoxically) throwing money around is not the best approach.
Hollywood needs to start making movies again, or someone else should fill the gap.
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God forbid people be exposed to contrasting viewpoints.
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Re: Re: Did the crew get paid?
Not so. Most open source license rely on copyright as a foundation. Otherwise, people could do whatever they want (e.g., make modifications and sell them commercially without disclosing source).
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Re: Re:
Ok, so we're in agreement that the existence of $9000 movies has no bearing whatsoever on the desirability of the status quo or modifications to copyright law, right?
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Re: Re: Re:
12:00
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That day, I started questioning the need for million dollar budget for albums and videos.
THe more technology got better and cheaper, the more it became affordable to make your own albums, to film and edit your own movies (and as someone who has been using Blender for the past 2yrs: your own animations.
The ceiling to produce your own content has been dropped to where its affordable for all and the internet is a fabulous content delivery mechanism and more and more artists (who might get here 1$ per 20$ cd sold) are figuring out where the money goes and how they can cut costs without cutting quality.
There is no lack of talented artists in the world and the more the Burn's of the world show how movies can be done, the more they will be willing to do it themselves instead of an model from a century ago.
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Re: Re: But what about Batman?
Are you saying that Batman could be made for a lot cheaper? Yes good writing is always important, but if the Batmobile was just a black musclecar and all the explosions in the car chase scene are 20 dollar firecrackers, it's just not going to work. Yes, you can make a bad $200 million movie. You can also make great ones too. You can even make bad $120k movies. and if you're answere to the Exec who says 'I can't make a $200 million movie anymore is 'Then don't make that movie.' Then you better be ready to live with alot fewer Batmans and alot more Gnomieo and Juliets and New Years Eves
My figures for Red State come from imdb, which shows a total of 1,065,000 dollars as of August 2011. Admittedly, it only shows domestic, but since he sold the rights to his movie overseas it might be awhile before the world wide numbers (plus, since you choose to declare those other movies flops based on their domestic numbers, I don't think you'll object too much). He got into the black by selling the rights to his movies overseas and through good merchandising, not through ticket sales or VoDs (that would quite a feat indeed to pull off before actually releasing the movie).
I'm not bashing Red State, and I like what Kevin Smith did with it, but it's very difficult to mass produce that model, since it rellies on having a very loyal fanbase. I'm not sure you could have taken, say, Rise of the Planet of the Apes on the road and packed hundreads of loyal Wyattites into theatres accross the country at 98 bucks a ticket. Probably could have worked for JJ Abrams and Super 8 though. You could definately get people out to hear Christopher Nolan talk about how awesome Batman is, but then you get into the question of if the directors and casts of these movies are willing to tour like Rockstars.
Actually, that sounds really cool...dibs on Anne Hathaway and Liam Neeson for the Toronto showing!
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Re: Re: Re: But what about Batman?
That said, Hollywood makes the most expensive movies on earth, many of them just in the last five years. Hell yes they can make them cheaper, and they'll probably be forced to soon. It's bloated with corporate bureaucracy. If people start losing jobs, it will only be so that CEOs can maintain their salaries, and shareholders can get a return on their investment, not because of piracy.
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If you read other TechDirt articles about MU, many song artists distribute their music via MU. Premium users download the music, MU pays the artists because they pay the content providers who result in the most downloads. Everyone wins except the MPAA, which is why MU got shut down.
I read the articles about the movie. What I find interesting is how it takes advantage of the "killer app" that's killing movie theatres -- home entertainment systems. Another interesting comment was that the movie would film a scene only once every few weeks when people were available and that friends were happy to let the filmakers borrow "stuff" for the movie. If *that's* not crowdsourcing, I don't know what it. And what it *isn't* is about money. It's people putting together a movie because they *want* to, not because of $$$.
As for Kevin Smith's movie, what's wrong with making a movie? Isn't that the whole point of "indie" films? That you can *express yourself* and whoever likes it is there for the ride? Okay, fine, you don't like his movie. Plenty of other movies to watch.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
So, again, why do all the complaints whine about the $200 million cost? If a similar movie can be made for $70 million then they should do so, not whine about how they can possibly make a profit on $200 million.
Plus, the "type" of movie that is often made for $200 million is often made for less - and often more profitable at the lower price points. I'm yet to see a movie that was successful purely because of the money thrown at the screen unless there's technological development underlying the higher price (such as with Avatar).
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Idiot trolling? Not so much.
You will note that the original post being criticised is free of fact, taking the article out of context and attacking the author for imagined slights. If that's all he's got, his "opposing viewpoint" is worthless, and he's welcome to go elsewhere.
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Not directly. But, when the argument for new draconian, counter-productive and destructive new laws is that the MPAA's model is the only way that's possible, the fact that profitable movies can be made much more cheaply is a valid counterpoint.
The existence of profitable competitors points to a flaw in their business model, not something that requires legal protectionism.
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Re: Re: Re: But what about Batman?
No, you seem to be deliberately missing my point and going back to obsessing over money as if it's the be all and end all of the equation.
I'm saying that everything that was in the script was needed to tell the story, and that a talented director who didn't ego trip and waste money put all the money up on screen to tell the story. Nolan is a talented director who is skilled at telling stories without wasting money on the unnecessary. He succeeds, even when he requires larger budgets, because he uses only what is needed to tell his story.
Compare that to the Transformers movies, which are almost uniformly overlong, overblown, badly written, flabby with excessively over-produced scenes that should have been cut from the final shooting script by a competent writer before filming began. From anecdotal reports, many of the most offensive things about Transformers 2 (e.g. the racist comic relief robots) were not only inserted by Michael Bay himself, but would have cost thousands or even millions to realise on screen (e.g. the offending robots required extensive CGI work).
There's no problem with a $100+ million movie where the money needs to be spent. there is a problem when the film could have been made much better for less money had the greed, ego and waste not been prevalent. Such waste is not a compelling argument for the movies "needing" to cost that amount of money.
"My figures for Red State come from imdb, which shows a total of 1,065,000 dollars as of August 2011."
So, domestic theatrical gross before the movie was officially released theatrically (Sept 25th according reports I saw), and not showing the bulk of avenues where he would have made his money. Not the best thing to base your assessment of his success upon.
"He got into the black by selling the rights to his movies overseas and through good merchandising"
As do many other movies, although citation needed for the breakdown of how he earned his money. Do you have that data? Forgive me for not taking your assertions at face value.
"I'm not sure you could have taken, say, Rise of the Planet of the Apes on the road and packed hundreads of loyal Wyattites into theatres accross the country at 98 bucks a ticket."
No, but it did gross over $450 million worldwide on a budget of $90 million. It's an excellent film with almost universal acclaim from critics and audiences and didn't waste money on a bunch of crap that didn't need to be there, or ego trips from spoiled brats. That's kind of my point.
There's room for the Nolans of this world and the Smiths to work side by side. There's no reason to shut down the internet to protect Bay's ability to spray his ego on screen to create sub par entertainment for $200 million a pop.
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If all such commentary were banished from Techdirt, I think content would be cut by at least 50%.
But feel free to focus only on such commentary you disagree with.
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If you want to argue with an imaginary bad guy in your head, you can do so without me.
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Comparing a $200 million movie to a $200 thousand movie makes about as much sense as comparing candy bars to bread.
That is not a defense of big budget movie business model, just a criticism of this particular way of attacking that model (which is really irrelevant).
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So you have nothing other than the aforementioned imagined slights, and offer no facts to refute me.
Like I said...
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Yes. Otherwise, why are we arguing about "saving" $200 million movies when there's so many movies being made for significantly less?
"If you want to argue with an imaginary bad guy in your head, you can do so without me."
Feel free to offer facts and/or reality next time we talk, it will help.
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I forget, when was the last time dangerous and draconian laws were being threatened to protect the candy bar?
"That is not a defense of big budget movie business model, just a criticism of this particular way of attacking that model (which is really irrelevant)."
That model is being defended in ways that restrict lower budget independent movies, and in ways that would destroy the internet and our freedom of speech because the industry can't compete in the modern world. It's completely relevant.
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Unpredictable
home theatre brisbane
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SMSF Brisbane
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The scope and scale is going up for sure
http://www.indiegogo.com/project103
And I think this only a start and we are about to witness some incredible cinema that is funded and presented through this upcoming channel.
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