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Production, Consumption, Reproduction
- Some Numbers
-
- The average cost of a Hollywood film today is over
$60 Million. $39.5 million in production and $19.8 million in marketing.
-
- Batman (Cost-$30 Million Total gross- $560 Million)
opened on 1000 screens in 1989. Today the average film opens on 2000.
-
- The largest of the films recoup their production costs
at the box-office, the rest must resort to the other (very lucrative) means
of making money on a cultural product.
-
- Video rentals and Pay TV account for 2/3rds of the
average $200 million revenue of an average film. A producer may not see
profit for two years. Most of this is now from markets outside of the US.
Even films that totally bomb in US box offices ("Daylight"
for instance), pull in more than enough revenue globally to make a profit.
- Last Year's combined cost on the 4th of July for two
movies that opened:
- Independence Day and Phenomenon = $103 Million
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- This year the combined cost is $260 Million
- Men in Black = $80 Million
- Titanic = $180 Million
- (not including the full scale replica of the HMS Titanic
built in Mexico, theme park anyone?).
8 may 1997