Who Watches the Watchmen?

[DSJ™]

Eventually all movies make money. It's how long you have to wait to regain your investment.

Really? Tell that to these movies to name a few:

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.
Around the World in 80 Days (2004).
Babylon AD.
The Avengers.
Barb Wire.
Basic Instinct 2.
Battlefield Earth.
Canadian Bacon.
Catwoman.
The Core.
Escape from L.A..
Event Horizon.
Hart's War.
Howard the Duck.
Ishtar.
Last Action Hero.
The Love Guru.
Mighty Joe Young.
Punisher: War Zone.
Rollerball (2002).
Speed 2: Cruise Control.
Speed Racer.
Thunderbirds.
Waterworld.

None have ever regained their investment.

    

[iFett]

Howard the Duck was a classic.   

[Jayson]

Howard the Duck was a classic.   

You're in luck then 

[iFett]

You're in luck then 

Weird...That was just released yesterday.  I didn't even see it on my Tuesday morning DVD run to Target.  Anywhooo...Thanks Jay.  That's a piece of the 80's that I want back.   

[Nathan]

I'm surprised to see Escape from LA and Last Action Hero on there. Most of the rest are what you'd expect though.

[DSJ™]

Howard the Duck was a classic.   

More like a cult classic. 

I'm surprised to see Escape from LA and Last Action Hero on there. Most of the rest are what you'd expect though.

Escape from L.A. Budget: $50,000,000. US Gross: $25,426,861. Net Loss: 50.9%. Worldwide: $137,298,489.

Last Action Hero. Budget: $85,000,000. US Gross: $50,016,394. Net Loss: 58.8%. Worldwide: $42,277,365. 

[Darth_Anton]

Eventually all movies make money. It's how long you have to wait to regain your investment.

Really? Tell that to these movies to name a few:

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.
Around the World in 80 Days (2004).
Babylon AD.
The Avengers.
Barb Wire.
Basic Instinct 2.
Battlefield Earth.
Canadian Bacon.
Catwoman.
The Core.
Escape from L.A..
Event Horizon.
Hart's War.
Howard the Duck.
Ishtar.
Last Action Hero.
The Love Guru.
Mighty Joe Young.
Punisher: War Zone.
Rollerball (2002).
Speed 2: Cruise Control.
Speed Racer.
Thunderbirds.
Waterworld.

None have ever regained their investment.

    

Yes they did. Every one of them. Paul's right, every movie makes money. It's just a question of how much. Once you add merchandizing, International, TV rights, rental and DVD sales, they, at very minimum, re-grain their production and advertising cost. Speed racer earned a nice chunk of change from toy sales. Another thing that's deceptive about the production cost of every movie made is product placement savings which can account for anywhere between 5 and 25% of the budget.

Then again, no movie ever makes money, on the books. Even Forrest Gump, the Matrix and the Lord of the Ring movies because deceptive account practices are used to avoid paying bonuses, percentages and taxes.

[DSJ™]

So your saying that a movie like Zyzzyx Road that had a budget of $2,000,000 & a gross of the worst in history of a pathetic $30.00 & by 2006 only made about $368,000, made it's money back on merchandizing, International, TV rights, rental & DVD sales!!!!

   

[Sprry75]

Not to put a bee in anyone's bonnet, but I paid $2,000,000 for an officially licensed, 1:1 Marissa action figure from Zzyzzyx Road.

[DSJ™]

Zzyzzyx Road.

Zzyzzyx Road, is that a sequel to Zyzzyx Road? 

[Sprry75]

No wonder my extravagant purchase didn't make it into the official tally.

Goddamn knock offs 

[ruiner]

I know, personally, two people who bought Delgo figures.

[Darth_Anton]

So your saying that a movie like Zyzzyx Road that had a budget of $2,000,000 & a gross of the worst in history of a pathetic $30.00 & by 2006 only made about $368,000, made it's money back on merchandizing, International, TV rights, rental & DVD sales!!!!

   

That was a direct to DVD movie that was released theatrically just to qualify it for foreign release to earn it some extra cash. I can't find the DVD numbers on that movie specifically, especially since it's an independent deal, but it was released on dvd, and there is a certain fee for the rights and certain percentage the producing company earns for sales. In addition, with planned direct to DVD releases, there is usually a deal already in place, so no one in their right mind would exceed a budget that would infringe on profitability.

One of my best friends, who produced an independent feature that cost $125K and had no name talent, nearly got a dvd distribution deal. Just the DVD rights was half a million plus sales, or $2 million for a buy-out without sales. If they had just one name star, the initial fee would have been $2 million plus sales or a $5 million buy-out. Zyzzyx road earned it's money for it's investors no problem on it's dvd deal.

In my best Robert Shaw from Jaws "Don't you tell me my business again."

[Artoo]

I saw it this weekend & loved it. Now I need to get my hands on the novel. I saw it at Target but had no money, I hope it's still there.

[Brian]

I saw it this weekend & loved it. Now I need to get my hands on the novel. I saw it at Target but had no money, I hope it's still there.

I'm one of those who hadn't read the entire novel yet either (just portions online), and I'm in the process of checking it out right now (really enjoying it).  I don't know if I'll be able to get out to see the movie until the DVD release, but I'm definitely looking forward to it.  Just as a side note, I don't know about your Target, but ours is selling it as well for around $16 if I remember right.  I got my copy via Amazon for about $10-$11.  So, if you're ordering something else there anyways, it might be a more inexpensive option.