King Kong And Movie Profitability

POSTED BY: MtnScott
UPDATED: Tuesday, January 10, 2006 23:26
VIEWED: 4084
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MTNSCOTT

Thursday, January 5, 2006 10:26 PM

The Wall Street Journal had an excellent article about King Kong’s struggle for profitability. I would love to post a link but, WSJ Online is a pay site and I have a print copy in front of me. What I found interesting and that pertains to Serenity is some of the numbers. In Brief: Kong Cost $207 million to make. Due to “marketing budgets and a variety of revenue-sharing arrangements” the movie will not be in the black until it hits the worldwide $500 million mark.

This may provide some insight into Serenity’s Profitability… but not from me… I do not like being called a troll…

Ohhhh, go ahead… On a percentage basis it looks like a movie breaks even at around 200% of its Box office totals. (I am Being generous)…

Hopefully the DVD will save us…

Only the half mad are wholly alive!
E.A.

PHOEBE

Thursday, January 5, 2006 10:42 PM

To be honest I don't think it's the best of comparisons. King Kong had the most expensive, obnoxious, in-your-face advertising I've ever had the misfortune to witness in my nineteen years of life, so this has to be a fairly unique case.

MTNSCOTT

Thursday, January 5, 2006 10:54 PM

I left $86 Million off for the "in-your-face advertising"

Only the half mad are wholly alive!
E.A.

HERA7

Thursday, January 5, 2006 11:03 PM

Generally, a movie has to get revenue equal to twice it's budget to see a profit. There are some other factors, like how the film was funded and which studio/distributor releases the film. Paramount and New Line Cinema are known for 'creative accounting' when it comes to releasing profits, while Universal is fairly honest on their accounts.

So for Serenity to make a profit, we need about $80 million in receipts from all sources.

I used to be involved movie making, working with several producers in budgeting and production for feature films and television.

OCT0GEN

Tuesday, January 10, 2006 10:36 PM

anyone know what the current serenity sales figures for movie/dvd sales/dvd rentals are?

STORYMARK

Tuesday, January 10, 2006 11:26 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Phoebe:
To be honest I don't think it's the best of comparisons. King Kong had the most expensive, obnoxious, in-your-face advertising I've ever had the misfortune to witness in my nineteen years of life, so this has to be a fairly unique case.

Then you must not see too many ad campaigns.

For my money, the most annoyingly over-advertised movie of 2005 was Fantastic 4.

"Well, my days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle."