Big Budget Movies

[Carborendum]

I was just reading that Vin Diesel is looking for funding for his next Fast & Furious movie (#11).  He's having trouble with that.  I got curious about the budget of these films.

Fast 10 went over budget to a final $340 Million.  It grossed $714 Million worldwide.  This meant that the investors/studios who put up the money didn't make a profit.  They barely broke even.  And with promotional costs, they probably netted a loss of at least $100 Million.

With such big budgets, how on earth are they supposed to make money?  Do they really expect to have a $1 Billion movie?

How is Hollywood even surviving with returns like this?

[mikbone]

1 hour ago, Carborendum said:

With such big budgets, how on earth are they supposed to make money?  Do they really expect to have a $1 Billion movie?

Cuz Fast and Furious 7 made 1.5B

But it wasn’t Vin Diesel that made the movie successful.  It was the story, the music, and the fact that it was Paul Walker’s last movie…

[Ironhold]

Speaking as an entertainment writer?

Production Budget x 2.5 = the approximate break-even point for a movie after all costs are factored in and the theaters & distributors take their cut. 

The expectation is that if a movie is a big enough spectacle people the world over will automatically turn out to see it. Certain countries, like China, have audiences that are especially receptive to big-budget Hollywood numbers. 

The problem is that the budgets are getting to be unsustainable, especially with China no longer a sure market and Covid having caused large numbers of people to get used to pay-per-view and streaming.