Jack Reacher:
$60m budget
$15m opening weekend
Lone Ranger:
$250m budget
$29m opening weekend
Lone Ranger made a little over twice Jack Reacher's opening on a budget 3.6x larger.
That means that a movie of Lone Ranger's scale could've grossed the entire budget of the major star-driven Jack Reacher in one single weekend and still been a colossal disaster, particularly in the face of films like The Avengers which made $207m in its opening weekend - that's 80% of Lone Ranger's entire budget recouped in three days.
And at a budget of about $11,000 dollars, one would have to make 22,727 Paranormal Activities to add to one Lone Ranger.
The magnitude of tentpole action films is simply staggering, isn't it?
You've got to think about how Marvel was incredibly frugal though - I don't think the Avengers cost more than 200 million. It may show in the movies (and even damage the quality) but their business plan has always been based less on spectacle and more on character/fanbase. I'm really interested in knowing how a studio can even drop so much money on a project like this (or John Carter for that matter).
ReplyDeleteOh for sure, the Marvel stuff is an amazing financial machine - they know how to invest just enough.
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