Money Talks: 'Monsters vs. Aliens 2' May Not Happen

We talk about how much money movies make versus how much they need to make pretty often. Just because a $50 million flick earns $60 million in the U.S., that doesn't make it profitable. There are loads of costs after the fact and then the expectations about what the film should conceivably take in before you start counting the money from cable and broadcast rights, DVDs, and all the rest. It really came into a clearer focus last summer when Warner Bros. chief Jeff Rubinov wrung his hands over Get Smart, which damn near tripled its budget. But he was disappointed. So if an $80 million movie makes over $200 million worldwide and it isn't good enough, then what does that mean for a Terminator Salvation that cost a reported $200 million and only brought back $325 million globally? DreamWorks' Jeffrey Katzenberg recently sat down with The Los Angeles Times to discuss the business end of the business. The animation wing is licking its wounds over a 7% drop in revenue and net income (Universal and Viacom could only dream of single-digit losses in the second quarter). The culprit: The number six movie of the year. Monsters vs. Aliens made almost $200 million in the United States, did about 90% of that overseas, and yet the $375 million the film brought in has left Katzenberg on the fence about making a sequel. Now, by DreamWorks Animation standards, $375 million isn't anything to get too excited about, since it's the House the Shrek Built. But it's still roughly $200 million more than the film cost to make. Tack on advertising, including a $10 million Super Bowl ad campaign that probably didn't work very well, and you can see how that $200 million gets smaller and smaller. In fact, as The Times writes, "Box office revenue for Monsters vs. Aliens was not enough to cover the distribution fee and marketing expenditures of the film's distributor, Paramount Pictures." The film won't be in the black until the DVD money starts rolling in. Still, because of its lackluster performance in some European countries, Katzenberg will go on an extensive 25-country tour this fall meeting with his distribution teams throughout the world to find out what went wrong. On a movie that doubled its budget.

Comments

[Cry me a river of cash]

These dumb-a@@ bean-counters who spend too much money and expect unrealistic profit margins are the real problem with Hollywood, well, that and Eddie Muprhy still getting work...

[mdamien13]

Thanks for breaking down the numbers for us, Colin.

It goes to show you how much money studios put into every aspect of a film's release... you just wish that they'd spend more on good scripts (that's not a comment on Monsters vs. Aliens - I missed it in theaters but look forward to checking it out on DVD)

[SEAN]

WOW I completely agree with mdamien13 & cry me a river of cash...

These expectations are fucking ridiculous I mean given the state of the economy and the world...how to these execs expect to make SOOO much money ....

It just goes to show the politics, and buisness side of Hollywood is not very fucked up, uninteresting, and very greedy possessed people....

And they should spend time and money on better WRITERS on BETTER SCRIPTS about humanity, race, infidelity, family issues, pregnancy, etc etc etc...

It just goes to show it really dissapointing...

Im gonna go read HONEST TRUTHFUL ART, like plays...
-(go and reads Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller for the 1000th time)
-the play puts me in tears every time

[wedding]

very good film