'TRON' Passes $100 Million While 'Tangled' Crosses $150 Million

Two movies that spent an exorbitant amount of money to produce and market crossed major milestones today.  Although crossing the nine figure mark isn't what it used to be, it still shows a clear separation between the haves and the have-nots in this hit or miss film business.

You might say, "of course they made over $100 million, they spent more than $200 million making the film!"  You'd think so, but in reality big budget films are no longer a lock especially when most of the funds go to the actors and actresses, such as How Do You Know ($120 million production budget).

It is reported that Disney spent over $300 million in marketing and producing TRON so while $100 million is an important milestone (+$75 million overseas), they are still far off from par and may need to dive into DVD/streaming sales just to break-even.  What's worse is that 25% of the revenues came from IMAX which sometimes means that the movie had a strong hardcore audience appeal but failed to capture the mass market.  

Tangled on the other hand just crossed $150 million domestically surpassing most expectations.  Analysts estimate when it's all said and done, the film will gross $175 million domestically which means despite their $250 million + $50-$75 million or so in marketing, they should still generate healthy profits. 

This is why when you have a film like Paranormal Activity which costs less than $5 million to produce and $10 million to market, every single film studio in Hollywood wants to jump on it.  The lesson here?  Big budgets don't always equal big ticket sales.