The Insane Cost of Movies

In the continuing series by the Critical Drinker of "Why Modern Movies Suck." This one covers costs, and what stuidos do when they paint themselves in a corner on a film because of the out-of-control budget.

There seems to be a real mentality in Hollywood now that bigger and louder somehow equals better, and the result is an endless competition to produce the most visually stunning pieces of cinema possible, but the problem is that the more you focus on the visuals of your film, the more you tend to neglect everything else around it. These days there's an over reliance on spectacle and scale to draw audiences in, and it ends up becoming a crutch for bad writing and lack of creativity. [SNIP]

What you end up with instead are a series of beautiful but ultimately empty and meaningless tech demos, that keep you momentarily distracted, but offer no long-term impact or emotional payoff.

Consider a movie from the '80s. Raiders of the Lost Ark had a production budget of $20 million. That is about $67 million today, if you calculate the impact of inflation. Box office was 18 times the production budget. The latest installment in that franchise, Indiana Jones and the Insufferable Feminist cost $300 million and the box office is currently at 1.2 times that budget. Neither budget includes marketing, and the $300 million probably only includes what they spent up to the end of 2022. Which movie do you think will be remembered longer? Which is more beloved? Did Lucasfilm get anything for that additional $200+ million dollars? The film from 1981 was wildly successful. The film from 2023 won't cover its production budget, let alone its marketing.

This is The Critical Drinker's video Why Modern Movies Suck - They're Too Expensive.