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

[MockingBird]

Lore, check, world check. view of the forgotten realms, check. Paladin...fun but WTF regardless of intent the only purpose he served was to illustrate the incompetence of our two male wanna be heroes. yuck. and the Laurel and Hardie act that they had going definitely sucked all that OMG I get to see Forgotten realms on the screen fun right out of the movie. If they had taken that naughty word out of the movie I believe it would have sold more views.

The paladin was originally suppose to be Drizzt but they changed the character.

 

[Vaalingrade]

The writers were given too big of a budget.

The Paladin character was not needed. The whole underdark sequence was not needed. The Barbarian/Halfling subplot didn't need to be there.

They could also have saved a lot of cash by toning down the gonzo nature of the Forgotten realms. Cut the dragon, Cat and Bird people from the film. Tons of money saved. We don't need little CGI raptor herds, sheep are more practical and less expensive.

Just too damn much CGI...

There were some very clever aspects and sequences in the film. There was a good adventure story there.

Lots of fat just needed to be trimmed to get there.

All things writers are famously in charge of allocating money for.

 

[CommodoreKong]

The paladin was originally suppose to be Drizzt but they changed the character.

I think having the Paladin worked better than Drizzt ever would have. He was clearly meant to be an overpowered DM PC and he was perfect in that type of role.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Today the filmations are stopped by the strikes. And we can't bet if all cinema studios are going to "survive" the end of this year. We could be in the next months mergers or acquistions we couldn't guess one year ago.

If the miniserie worked well in the future, then maybe there is a possibilities of a sequel.

I don't know if the franchise is being enoughly popular among the children and they were interested into buying toys and merch. I would bet Hasbro is dreaming D&D monsters to become so popular as Pokemon.

A cartoon adaptation is possible. I don't know if it is easier to be produced.

 

[Jaeger]

All things writers are famously in charge of allocating money for.

Goldstein and Daley were the Writer/Directors for the film. The film went into production based on the new draft of the script that they wrote.

In my opinion; The movie didn't need to be as long, nor as expensive as the released film, if some fat and lots of unnecessary CGI was cut from the script.

Studio's usually have a fairly good ballpark idea what a film's runtime and cost will be just from the script.

But the studio check writers greenlit it without going over their new draft with a critical eye to see if the length and expense was really necessary to tell the actual story.

So yeah:

In my opinion - the movie was about 20 minutes too long.

The writers were given too big of a budget.

 

[Myrdin Potter]

The Paladin scene was the one I liked the most in the whole movie. He was obviously the DM’s character dropped into the adventure to make getting the quest object possible and he was a great representation of the better than you and holier than though old school Paladin.

 

[bedir than]

But the studio check writers greenlit it without going over their new draft with a critical eye to see if the length and expense was really necessary to tell the actual story.

They also greenlit the movie before the pandemic caused massive costly delays to every movie in the world. Filming in at least four different during the pandemic added costs that couldn't be anticipated.

In the current environment they probably spend 20% less on travel and reshoots.

 

[Jaeger]

They also greenlit the movie before the pandemic caused massive costly delays to every movie in the world. Filming in at least four different during the pandemic added costs that couldn't be anticipated.

In the current environment they probably spend 20% less on travel and reshoots.

In Paramounts defense: That was out of their control.

In my opinion; they could have still saved themselves truckloads of cash by going through the script with a fine toothed comb and cutting out needless expenditures...

 

[Zardnaar]

150 million is reasonable for a Hollywood movie.

For a D&D movie not sure. Needing to hit close to 400 million was always going to be a hail Mary.

 

[CommodoreKong]

Yeah many superhero movies and other big budget films are now over $200 million so "only" $150 million was pretty reasonable all things considered. And honestly I thought in general the film looked great and you could really see the budget on screen (aside from the halflings looking really badly composited into scenes. Not sure what happened there). I'm guessing Chris Pine was the single biggest expense for the movie and I have no idea if he would be willing to lower his salary.