D&D Movie/TV D&D Movie Hit or Flop?

[Zardnaar]

The most relevant takeaway from that list should be that unless you have real data, you have absolutely no idea what a movie's expenses are besides the published budget. In their list of successful movies, marketing costs are anywhere from 40% to 3x the budget. Anyone going by an estimate or "rule of thumb" to say how much DADHAT needs to make to be a hit or flop is just making stuff up.

Even 0.4 puts the break even point around 420 million.

 

[delericho]

Yup they probably spend around 75-100 million promoting it.

There was a thread recently about their Superbowl spot, that suggested they'd spent quite a bit.

Of course, if they haven't put in the money on promotion, that would go some way to explaining the box office results.

 

[M_Natas]

There was a thread recently about their Superbowl spot, that suggested they'd spent quite a bit.

Of course, if they haven't put in the money on promotion, that would go some way to explaining the box office results.

I think in hindsight it is safe to say that they promoted the movie wrongly. Not the amount of money but what they put in the trailers and stuff.
Like ... I read the prequel novels and wondered if the daughter of Edgin, who is elemental to the onenprequel novel, will play any part in the film. Because she is absent on all the promotional material. But that is the heart of the story! It elevates the movie from generic fantasy action to something with a heart, something to relate to.
A father, a widower who tries to do what he thinks is best for his daughter and fails miserably.
They put monsters, actions and jokes in the trailer, but no emotional connection, no reason to root for the characters.
I mean, I only got really excited to see the movie after reading the Prequel novels, because they were good and emotional and D&Dish.

 

[mamba]

There was a thread recently about their Superbowl spot, that suggested they'd spent quite a bit.

I assume they did

Of course, if they haven't put in the money on promotion, that would go some way to explaining the box office results.

I am pretty sure the effectiveness of marketing is drastically overrated, see the initial Star Wars for a great example

 

[delericho]

I am pretty sure the effectiveness of marketing is drastically overrated, see the initial Star Wars for a great example

In fairness, Star Wars was a long time ago. One would hope they've learned a thing or two since then.

 

[mamba]

In fairness, Star Wars was a long time ago. One would hope they've learned a thing or two since then.

I doubt it, if anything it is the consumer who learned to ignore marketing much more so than marketing got better over the last 40 years to counteract this.

Also, the point was Star Wars had very little marketing, and yet was a huge success, so whatever tricks marketing learned since would not have mattered in this case.

 

[Zardnaar]

In fairness, Star Wars was a long time ago. One would hope they've learned a thing or two since then.

Phantom Menace apparently was marketed for 20 million iirc.

I dont think marketing was the major problem. Brand awareness is still fairly niche and there no story there unlike say LotR, GoT or Harry Potter

That and maybe the tone.

 

[Velderan]

The most relevant takeaway from that list should be that unless you have real data, you have absolutely no idea what a movie's expenses are besides the published budget. In their list of successful movies, marketing costs are anywhere from 40% to 3x the budget. Anyone going by an estimate or "rule of thumb" to say how much DADHAT needs to make to be a hit or flop is just making stuff up.

"Just making stuff up" basically summarizes the majority of the posts in this thread on either side of this argument.

 

[delericho]

Phantom Menace apparently was marketed for 20 million iirc.

Yes, but Phantom Menace was the most anticipated movie of all time. There really aren't any lessons to learn about marketing (for or against) there, since it's the biggest outlier possible.

I would hope that marketing teams generally know what they're doing, and they don't just thrown $X,000,000 at the wall and hope something sticks. But given the way everything else in Hollywood works, I accept that that's by no means guaranteed.

 

[Zardnaar]

Yes, but Phantom Menace was the most anticipated movie of all time. There really aren't any lessons to learn about marketing (for or against) there, since it's the biggest outlier possible.

I would hope that marketing teams generally know what they're doing, and they don't just thrown $X,000,000 at the wall and hope something sticks. But given the way everything else in Hollywood works, I accept that that's by no means guaranteed.

Yeah TPM got lots of free press.