2x cost is the basic 'ok break even' accepted number, cause whatever the budget of the film is, they spent on advertising too, as a general rule
Exceptions:
But the theatres take a cut of ticket sales too. So it's actually a bit more than that. But this changes based on dates, and it can be 0 in the first weeks if the movie is a guarenteed hit, and they just want people in the door to sell popcorn to. Star wars I for example, if you own a theatre you needed that film to be showing, even if you were to earn nothing from sales. Easier to just ignore the varying theatre's cut as a result, just round down to 2x.
Speaking of star wars, you also then have knock-on effects when it comes to specific franchises and series and merchendise. Look at how VIII affected future projects, even if it technically met the 2x threshold, how did it then affect future projects and merchandising? So you sometimes need to look at the next film to consider it a success.
Other exceptions are expected flops and unexpected hits. When your 60k blairewitch project starts going viral, you pump a few million into marketing, or if you've got an absolute stinker finished, just dump it to recoup something, market budget gets cut in these cases sometimes.
So there are a few ways to look at it. But the rule of thumb is '2x budget', because you need to consider the marketing budget also, that's the basic number, if you ignore franchises and merchandise and films that defy expectations.
2x cost is the basic 'ok break even' accepted number, cause whatever the budget of the film is, they spent on advertising too, as a general rule
Exceptions:
But the theatres take a cut of ticket sales too. So it's actually a bit more than that. But this changes based on dates, and it can be 0 in the first weeks if the movie is a guarenteed hit, and they just want people in the door to sell popcorn to. Star wars I for example, if you own a theatre you needed that film to be showing, even if you were to earn nothing from sales. Easier to just ignore this as a result, round down.
Speaking of star wars, you also then have knock-on effects when it comes to specific franchises and series and merchendise. Look at how VIII affected future projects, even if it technically met the 2x threshold, how did it then affect future projects and merchandising? So you sometimes need to look at the next film to consider it a success.
Other exceptions are expected flops and unexpected hits. When your 60k blairewitch project starts going viral, you pump a few million into marketing, or if you've got an absolute stinker finished, just dump it to recoup something, market budget gets cut in these cases sometimes.
So there are a few ways to look at it. But the rule of thumb is '2x budget', because you need to consider the marketing budget also, that's the basic number, if you ignore franchises and merchandise and films that defy expectations.
2x cost is the basic 'ok break even' accepted number, cause whatever the budget of the film is, they spent on advertising too, as a general rule
Exceptions:
But the theatres take a cut of ticket sales too. So it's actually a bit more than that. But this changes based on dates, and it can be 0 in the first weeks if the movie is a guarenteed hit, and they just want people in the door to sell popcorn to. Star wars I for example, if you own a theatre you needed that film to be showing, even if you were to earn nothing from sales. Easier to just ignore this as a result, round down.
Speaking of star wars, you also then have knock-on effects when it comes to specific franchises and series and merchendise. Look at how VIII affected future projects, even if it technically met the 2x threshold, how did it then affect future projects and merchandising? So you sometimes need to look at the next film to consider it a success.
Other exceptions are expected flops and unexpected hits. When your 60k blairewitch project starts going viral, you pump a few million into marketing, or if you've got an absolute stinker finished, just dump it to recoup something, market budget gets cut.
So there are a few ways to look at it. But the rule of thumb is '2x budget', because you need to consider the marketing budget also, that's the basic number, if you ignore franchises and merchandise and films that defy expectations.
2x cost is the basic 'ok break even' accepted number, cause whatever the budget of the film is, they spent on advertising too, as a general rule
Exceptions:
But the theatres take a cut of ticket sales too. So it's actually a bit more than that. But this changes based on dates, and it can be 0 in the first weeks if the movie is a guarenteed hit, and they just want people in the door to sell popcorn to. Star wars I for example, if you own a theatre you needed that film to be showing, even if you were to earn nothing from sales. Easier to just ignore this as a result, round down.
Speaking of star wars, you also then have knock-on effects when it comes to specific franchises and series and merchendise. Look at how VIII affected future projects, even if it technically met the 2x threshold, how did it then affect future projects and merchandising? So you sometimes need to look at the next film to consider it a success.
Other exceptions are expected flops and unexpected hits. When your 60k blairewitch project starts going viral, you pump a few million into marketing, or if you've got an absolute stinker finished, just dump it to recoup something, forget marketing.
So there are a few ways to look at it. But the rule of thumb is '2x budget', because you need to consider the marketing budget also, that's the basic number, if you ignore franchises and merchandise and films that defy expectations.